The Body Shop

I popped in to the Body Shop the other day to see if the new home fragrance oils for autumn were out yet. They were. Not much new in their offerings for this year, nothing terribly exciting. Here's what they had:

Pumpkin Nectarine: This is what they've had for a number of years now. It's nice, pumpkiny with that ubersweet orangey zing. I think I've got a bottle every year since I discovered them, which was probably the first year I got into NYC. It's autumny but very sweet; it blends well with Realm for Women, by the way. I like it, and it's clearly their big seller for the fall, cux they keep bringing it back every year. I would like them to also offer a just-pumpkin scent, or a pumpkin pie/pumpkin muffin/pumpkin coffee/pumpkin spice scent, but they don't. They did one year--they had a pumpkin scent with a couple other scents, but it was only available in a 3-oil set; I didn't buy it then cux I was PO, but I would this year, even though I'm still pretty po.

Spicy Berry: I bought this one once thinking I might start liking it, but I never did. It's quite terrible, neither 'spicy' nor 'berry,' but coming close enough to one or the other for them to name it that. It's also far too sweet, but I find that it can be useful in creating blends, if used very, very sparingly. On the other hand, it's extremely powerful (all the Body Shop oils are strong, but this one especially so), so if you like that kind of thing (and generally I do, but mostly when it's a pleasant fragrance) then this might work for you.

Mulled Cider: This oil is actually an excellent apple-spice scent. I recommend it. Although their apple offerings were more interesting last year, this is a fine scent.

Pear: I didn't smell this yesterday, cux I've smelled it before and it's excellent. It's hard to go wrong with pear, but I've smelled oils that did. This one is nice, however, and I recommend it. I'm not even sure if it's for autumn per se - it might be a year-round fragrance. If you can't find a cheap $3 pear oil at Target (and you might be able to), then pick this one up.

Autumn Morning: This is hideous, just abysmal. It smells like nothing. It just smells, I dunno, aldehydic or something. It just smells like weird synthetics. It certainly didn't evoke anything of autumn to my mind. Two years ago they put out this oil called Autumn Leaves, which was wonderful. It had a dry, sorta woody, similar to frankincense odor, and did smell autumny. I like to say that it "smelled like regret." Then last year they came out with Autumn Breeze, which smelled a little like the original Autumn Leaves but worse; they finnucked it up a bit. Now there's this Autumn Morning, which is nothing like Autumn Leaves and is absolutely horrid. I can't imagine what the perfumer was thinking. Someone from a tropical nation that doesn't have autumn must have created it. It doesn't smell woody or haylike or earthy or any of that -- it just smells like some cheap old drugstore perfume I smelled too many years ago.

Needless to say, I wrote them an email at the Body Shop, as this has lately become my wont. Someone actually responded to me, and it's not a form letter! Of course that doesn't mean the email I received actually says anything, though. It's formulaic enough to be a form letter, but it gives the impression that a real person actually wrote it (part of that is perhaps due to the clumsy language of some of it. Here's a the meat of it:

We are sorry you feel that some of our fragrances are not to the quality level you would wish. Also, it is a personal preference as to which scent is more inviting to each separate individual. What may smell nice to one person may smell the complete opposite to another.

Again, thank you for taking the time to express to us your opinions and suggestions for the Autumn fragrances we currently carry. Also, please know that your request for our discontinued lines have also been documented for future reference! Feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions or concerns about the products or customer service at The Body Shop.

Anyway, that's the beep on the Body Shop's fall home fragrance oil line.