First off, a word about L'Occitane. I went to their SoHo store a few weeks ago and inquired whether they had an autumn fragrance. You know, how Crabtree & Eveyln came out with Harvest a few years ago and how the Body Shop comes out with autumn oils? That's what I meant. But the salesperson said something like, "We don't have seasonal lines. You have to be a little more creative here." So then of course I was at a different L'Occitane last week or so and saw their Pumpkin Chestnut, Gingerbread and I think Caramel fragrances. So much for being 'creative' with scents. But on to the scents: They're terrible. But I wasn't surprised when I smelled them, because they've put out crap before. Some of their stuff is good, but a lot is bad. The Pumpkin Chestnut should have been called just 'Chestnut.' The Gingerbread and Caramel ones should have just been called "Poor Synthetic Reproductions of Gingerbread and Caramel." The gingerbread doesn't even small culinary. It doesn't even smell like ginger. I can't recommend any autumn fragrances from L'Occitane, except for their Pear, which is passable.
Crabtree & Eveyln: I liked their autumn line of oils, which included Warm Evergreen, Vanilla Truffle, an apple one and Moroccan Spice. The Warm Evergreen was the best: It smelled like the frankincense accord in Noel; The Vanilla Truffle was pretty much a regular culinary vanilla-type; The apple one was a nice apple; Moroccan Spice I didn't care for all that much--I think it was spicy (duh). Here's one thing to know about Warm Evergreen and Noel (I'm not sure if it holds with their other scents: Don't store the oil with the dropper top in it. Store it with the regular cap on and then switch to the dropper when you need to. If you store it with the dropper, the oil will eat through it. This has happened to me with both Warm Evergreen and Noel. In fact, my whole bag smells like Warm Evergreen, and even though I tried ionizing the bag, it still smells like that, and it's strong. Alas!
And that's all I've got for now.
Beep!
Ed Shepp
