Bath and Body Works Velvet Sugar

The holidays are less than three weeks away and I am done with my Christmas shopping and am trying my hardest to stay away from the mall.  I did have to run over the other day and was able to try out the new fragrance that Bath and Body Works has just brought out to finish the holiday season up and I know that I will not need it for either myself or anyone on my shopping list.  Bath and Body Works fragrances aren't really doing much for me lately, the only one that has worked for me since the beginning of last fall was Forever Midnight and I haven't even been using this one on a regular basis.  I have been loving all the candles and other Home Fragrance items that have come out this holiday season but the fragrances just aren't winners for me.  Maybe next spring will bring some new ones for me...

Velvet Sugar is the Bath and Body Works version of Pink Sugar, a fragrance that I wore in college and got over as soon as I finished up my bottles of the perfume and the matching body products.  I wanted to like this fragrance for the same reason that I love the Vanilla Bean Noel fragrance, I love sweet cupcake fragrances around the holidays and then will use them all the way through Valentine's Day.  It's a good thing that I buy Vanilla Bean Noel body products every single year and have a good stock pile of them to use once the stores are sold out of the fragrance.  I wanted to like this fragrance and add the body products to my line up but this one just isn't for me.

Velvet Sugar is said to be modeled after a Red Velvet Cupcake, one of my favorite desserts and one of the best holiday candles that Bath and Body Works has come out with this season.  "Savor every moment of this sweetly sumptuous blend of red velvet créme and golden plum laced with a swirl of sugared musk, pink jasmine and wild strawberries. Too much is never enough."  The top notes are: Wild Strawberries, White Nectarine, Pear Blossom, Apple Nectar.  The middle notes of the fragrance are:  Pink Jasmine, Golden Plum, Red Velvet Créme, Dewy Honeysuckle, Freesia.  The base notes are: Golden Amber, Vanilla , Tolu Balsam, Caramel, Baileys Créme, Sugared Musk. 

What is Tolu Balsam and what is it doing in this fragrance?!  I tried this fragrance in the EDP and the matching Body Lotion and didn't fall in love with either.  I loved the perfume bottle and actually wanted to love this fragrance just to have it sitting on my bureau but I couldn't bring myself to buy the perfume just to set the bottle out.  This fragrance is all strawberries, sugar, sweet musk, and more sugar.  I think I got a tooth ache from just trying this fragrance on...

The perfume is a mixture of the berry and sugar on me and then it settles down into the musk note, I got several compliments on the fragrance when I was wearing it but I still didn't like the way that it smelled.  The lotion was more sugar and the shower gel was more strawberry, I considered buying the body products but I didn't love the fragrance enough to add more products to my already overloaded bureau and shower caddy.  Maybe I will revisit this fragrance around Valentine's Day and see if my views on it change.

I put up a picture of the EDP in this fragrance because I love the packaging so much.  The rest of the packaging and products are more in line with the traditional Signature Collection products.  You can purchase the following products in this fragrance: Fine Fragrance Mist, Shower Gel, Body Lotion, Triple Moisture Body Cream, Luxury Bubble Bath, and Shimmer Mist.  I am only considering the body products to be worthy of retrying next Valentine's Day, I cannot wear any of the fragrances in Velvet Sugar and doubt that my mind will change any time soon.

This hasn't been the best fall season for fragrances for me from this company but the candles and matching Wallflower Bulbs have been spot on and are one of the best holiday collections that I have seen in several years from this company.

photo courtesy of Bath and Body Works