By: Kiera Kofkin-Hansen

It’s that time of year again when the stores stock their shelves with all things holly and jolly, and there are peppermints mochas brewing at every coffee shop. One of the biggest culprits of creating festive knick knacks for all of our five senses is the infamous Bath & Body Works. In order to ease what I’m sure is a huge stress in your life, I’m rating five of their holiday scents on a scale from 0 to 10! 

1. The first scent is one of this franchise’s more well-known ones: Vanilla Bean Noel. Awfully similar to the year-long Warm Vanilla Sugar, it possesses a classically sweet smell. Vanilla Bean Noel, or VBN for short, is rather bland compared to some other scents but smells exactly how you’d expect it to taste, igniting two of the more commonly sharp senses. Overall, VBN gets a 7/10.

2. Next up we have another classic christmas scent, Crushed Candy Cane. Crushed Candy Cane is a particularly effective scent for those who don’t like overly strong ones but still crave a little bit of holiday flare. It has a relatively strong peppermint smell to it, though it’s not overbearingly sweet (or that sweet at all), which makes it perfect for a subtle holiday aroma. Overall, I rate Crushed Candy Cane 7.95/10. 

3. An unorthodox holiday scent is Frosted Coconut Snowball. If you’re a coconut fanatic like myself, this will be one of your favorites. This scent somehow manages to combine the summery feel of coconut with the shivering of winter and make it smell good. The coconut component isn’t as prevalent as it would be in a sole-coconut scent, and it has a sense of cold that only a snowball could give a person. For its originality and combinative structure, I rate Frosted Coconut Snowball a 9/10. 

4. Spiced Gingerbread is another classic. This Bath & Body Works scent manages to smell somewhat how you would imagine it to taste: sweetness that would give Willy Wonka a run for his money. Yet, disappointingly, no spice, figuratively or literally. It does smell uncanningly like a kitchen after gingerbread cookies have been baked, but I feel the name is too misleading given the lack of a spicy fragrance. Spiced Gingerbread gets a 4/10 from me. 

5. The final scent under my scrutiny is Fresh Sparkling Snow. The most basic of basic winter holiday scents, although it’s an uncommon one. Fresh Sparkling Snow doesn’t smell like snow (does snow have a smell?) but I also can’t pinpoint anything else which it could smell like; a very original scent indeed. It’s sweet to an extent which is pleasant and not at all nauseating, which can sometimes be difficult to find, yet is extremely unexciting for a holiday scent under the nose. Overall, I rate Fresh Sparkling Snow a 5/10. 

I hope this quick guide to what scents are hot and not at Bath & Body Works this holiday season has calmed all your fragrance generated nerves. Happy smelling!