Christmas Clearancing

So, have you had a chance to... you know...

Well, have you?  'Cuz I have! I love this time of year at Bath & Body Works. The post-Christmas and June "Hello, Yellow!" sales are awesome because the savings is bananas and shelves are stocked with the Signature Collection Classic fragrances.  I believe the sales associate gals at my local store keep all of the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin for themselves, but there's always plenty of Exotic Coconut and Brown Sugar & Fig on display!

This time around, I had our move to New York and a new home in mind as I stocked up on my favorites.  I'm happy to say I've added a tremendous amount of Twilight Woods self-foaming hand soap, Brown Sugar & Fig shower gel, and loofah sponges to my BBW stockpile.  I want to make sure I have my favorites on hand the very first night I spend in my NY home! It's comforting to have 6 bottles of your favorite hand soap on hand when you're living in a brand new place, you know...  Anyway, the best part of my BBW shopping spree is that I purchased all of my goods with a gift card courtesy of my husband's grandma! 3 bottles of Classics shower gel, 1 bottle of I Need a Margarita shower gel, 1 large candle, 3 loofah sponges, and 6 bottles of hand soap for less than $50 - I saved nearly 60% off the original price! I'm one happy (soapy) girl.



Crate & Barrel "Joy" Coffee Mugs
$2.95

  There's another sale this time of year... and it's my absolute #1 favorite sale ever. The Crate & Barrel Winter Clearance totally rocks my socks, and I scoop up all of the cutest Christmas decor and entertaining items at 50-75% off the day after Christmas.  GOOD TIMES! It kind of feels weird, buying a bunch of new Christmas pretties the day after Christmas, but I love it when it's time to put the tree up each year! Especially next year - once again, I shopped my new NY home in mind.  Snowmen pot holders, snowflake-shaped soap and handtowels for the guest bathroom, Glittery red and green mixing bowls, and a red glass "kissing ball" to hang from the ceiling - I think I'm all ready for Christmas 2011!

I know I missed out on a ton of other great sales, but I had my priorities set long before this week - this girl knew long ago that she wanted a surplus of Twilight Woods foaming hand soap in her bathroom and Cute Coffee Cups to sip from next Christmas!  

Did you find any great deals this week? What are your favorite items to stock up on?

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It's Beginning to Look a lot Like...

I finally made it to Bath & Body Works this weekend to check out the Holiday Shop!

(I know, I know... it's the week of Halloween, WTH am I doing shopping for Christmas goodies already?  Go ahead and shoot me.)

It was beautiful, sparkly, and delicious.  I want it all. 

Holiday Traditions body care - new formulas, new packaging, same great scents!

{My favorite is Vanilla Bean Noel.}

These are included in the Signature Collection buy 3 get 2 free this season, don't let 'em tell you otherwise!

Slatkin & Co Candles

Call me crazy, but I tend to choose these over Yankee Candles - they don't last as long, but there's minimal black smoke, they're a little less expensive, and the classy glass jars are perfect for pretty gift giving.

{My favorite scents are Winter and Twisted Peppermint.}

Don't knock this display over! Yikes!

So cute!  The wallflower mix-n-match gets me every time!  I honestly believe that the home fragrance oils and oil burners are the best way to achieve a quick, long-lasting and stronger home fragrance - but wallflowers are powerful if plugged into several rooms.  Forget powerful fragrance, though - these are just too cute for words! (And great for dorms, too :) 

And finally, my personal favorite... HAND SOAP.  When in doubt, just give me B&BW Hand soap! I love all formulas, but my husband (who pretends like he doesn't care what he washes his hands with) prefers the self-foaming soap. Seriously.  One time, I made the mistake of placing a new bottle of the Deep-cleaning soap at the bathroom sink after emptying the self-foaming kind, and my husband hated it.  I had to switch.  He would never, ever admit to this kind of behavior. 

{My favorite hand soap scent from the holiday collection: twisted peppermint.}

Some other notable favorites include the 5 for $5 anti-bac pocket-bac gels (I love Cocoa-Mint!), the 3 for $15 holiday figural hand soaps, and the 2 for $5 moisturizing anti-bac hand lotion.

Breaking out the B&BW Holiday products is one of my very favorite things about the holiday season - the smells are fabulous, and the packaging is so bright and fun!  All products are super giftable and can easily be wrapped in the clear cellophane bags for giving; be sure to grab a few of the complimentary cellophane gift bags as you piece together hand-picked gift sets for your gal friends and fam!

That's enough B&BW plugging for now! I do not get compensated for this, and totally should. Who knows somebody who knows somebody who could help this girl out?!?

Have a terrific week - and you've gotta shop the B&BW Holiday Shop early, before everything is picked over on Black Friday!  

Bath & Body Works Addicts Anonymous (meeting #4)

The lucky duck who won the sack of summery Bath & Body Works products is Kendra!
Thanks to all of my awesome readers and fellow B&B Works fanatics for participating!

Some fun Bath & Body Works related notes:
-Twilight Woods for Men comes out September 27th! I can't wait to pick this up for my husband.
-October 12th is the release date for everyone's favorite Holiday Traditions Scents! My personal favorite of the collection, Vanilla Bean Noel, along with the old faithfuls Winter Candy Apple and Twisted Peppermint are making their annual return, and Snow Kissed Berry is making its debut! 

{Which is your favorite?}

I thought the release date sounded a little earlier than usual, but the B&BW sales associate simply said "you know we're always a season ahead!"  Ain't that the truth!  And it's perfectly fine with me - I love walking around, smelling like a container full of fresh baked vanilla cupcakes and warm sugar cookies!

-Harry Slatkin of Slatkin & Co. will be showcasing new fall and holiday home fragrance products on Saturday, September 25th, 8am-9amET, and Tuesday, September 28th, 6-7am ET on QVC.  Tune in to see new stuff before it hits the B&BW shelves!  Just a note - most of the time, you can get way better deals in the B&BW stores than on QVC - but I like to tune in and see sneak peaks!

Totally unrelated, but my lady friends will appreciate this:

I had a guy leave a comment on my blog yesterday afternoon. He wrote, "This looks like one of those girly type of blogs."  I replied to his comment via email and congratulated him on his groundbreaking rhetorical analysis! "I am a girl, after all", I typed.  I thought his comment was almost ... well... cute.  Cute that he stopped by a blog entitled "A Day in the Life of a Grad Student's Wife" and really cute that he actually still left a comment.  Was he being negative? nah. Was he just making a simple observation? yes - out of disappointment, I'm thinking. Will he ever come back?  He's not following, so my guess is a no.  I'm assuming he googled something that brought up my little home in the blogosphere, and I'm hoping that he eventually finds what he was looking for.  You all should stop by and say hello to him!

Have a great Monday! 

Bath & Body Works Addicts Anonymous

I have enough Bath & Body Works products stockpiled to last me through the next 4 or 5 decades - maybe even the apocolypse, since I fully intend to survive as long as I have plenty of "I need a Margarita" body wash on hand. 

I. am. an. addict.

The scents are wonderful, and the products are good quality, but that's only a little bit of the reason why I love the stuff so much.  The packaging, the in-store displays, the super attractive and user-friendly online store, the "sales" that often trick buyers into big time overspending, and the cute, sweet, helpful little sales associates all suck me in.  Every single item in the store looks good - good as in I want to eat it, drink it, or sleep with it under my pillow good.  I've tried to cut back on my B&B Works shopping sprees, but when I'm motivated to do so, that freaking "Hello Yellow" semi-annual sale starts - then lasts - for a whole month.  I can't possibly stay away from those great deals!

So, I've fully admitted - I am a "BBWA" - Bath & Body Works Addict.  Are you?

Today, I'm reviewing B&BW's latest Summer signature collection release, Forever Sunshine.

Earlier this week, I walked into the store, where FOrever Sunshine was the feature display.  The scent hit me like a ton of bricks - in a good way.  It smelled familiar. The sales associate squirted a golfball size glob of the Forever Sunshine body lotion into the palm of the my hand, and described the product as "A summer version of Twilight Woods".  Ahhh... that's IT, I thought, Twilight Woods being my favorite B&BW scent.  I grabbed a couple of Forever Sunshine products, along with the 6 for $24 mix & match Wallflower plug ins and fragrance bulbs, used a coupon to get some free stuff, and headed out. I continued to ponder what else was familiar about the new scent all evening, and after processing the fragrance notes for a few more hours, I came to a conclusion.  "Forever Sunshine" is Twilight Woods meets Britney Spears' "Fantasy"! Deeelicious. 

Whenever I decide to put together a giveaway, you can bet that a Forever Sunshine product will be included.  It is now my #1 favorite B&BW scent - sweet, spicy, floral, and fruity - I LOVE it!

Please, feel free to share your B&BW addiction - I need to know that I am not alone! 

    

One of my favorite blog hops, hosted by Take It From Me - Click on the button above to find great new blogs to follow!

 

Thanks for stopping by - have a smelly good, sunshiny Wednesday!

We're headed over the HUMP!