Birch & Argan

The rum and gentle spice smell just like a pillow that has been sun dried. Not just any pillow, either. It's your homemade childhood pillow (chou chou), the one your grandmother made, the one you hugged to sleep every night and smells just like you. You've returned home from school to find that your parents have washed it behind your back and hung it out to dry in the sun. You think your hard work of "seasoning" your pillow for peak comforting scent has been destroyed, the understuffed thing showing a signature dent of where it was hung on the laundry pole. You're about to yell at whoever washed your pillow when you take a sniff. You're wrong. The sun has taken your work and elevated it. Three things from this story don't exist anymore: the perfume, that pillow (I lost it on holiday), and the woman who made it for me. After this thing was discontinued I have been on a mission to have it again. I am convinced it is my life mission. Nothing compares to this cheap-ass perfume I bought with my first paycheck working at a factory in 2017. This was my first foray into perfumes and the sole reason why I'm into perfumes now. It started small. I knew sometimes scents get rebranded and thrown into the rotation for Bath and Body Works, so I kept going back every season hoping it would return. Then I went to a custom perfumer, and the results were nice but not THIS. And then I started talking to every single perfume counter staff about this thing. Next year will mark a decade of me trying to find this again or to find an exact replica to absolutely no avail. The bottle in my drawer has macerated into a nutty brown already and I have not dared spray it. The memory of the scent is fading, too, but I'll save it for my wedding night, or when things are dire and I need to remember that better things have come before and will come again. I might send a fucking email to Bath and Body Works begging them to bring this back soon. They probably don't give a shit. I don't care. This scent is possibly responsible for at least hundreds of dollars in me buying warm spicy vanillas trying to see which one has been closest (none of them have come close). Please. Let this love letter be proof that this spray existed and that I would do anything for it to return.

Honestly, I still pine for this fragrance to be rebranded and put back on the shelves at BBW. This, to date, has been one of BBW's brightest stars. I loved this so much when it launched that I bought multiple bottles. Unfortunately, I only have one left due to what I believe was casual theft. I spray my remaining bottle as if it were a high end, niche scent encrusted with diamonds- very sparingly and only for special occasions. The birch & sweet rum notes are the ones that standout for me. The vanilla note is present and (in my opinion) is used to soften the birch, the same way the vanilla & powder notes in Zara's 005 Feels Like Winter soften its violet note. BBW's Birch & Argan frag is a very gorgeous skin scent. You almost want to designate this for intimate occasions. To my mind, the individual that wears this would be sensual, mystic but a bit coy.

I'm glad this was finally added to the database 😊 Frankly, I like this, but it needs help in the longevity department. I realize it's just a body spray, but sometimes B&BW stuff fares better if they're laden with heavy basenotes. This really fades quickly though, and although it feels like late November (end of autumn, cusp of winter) to me, it's difficult to wear it when the weather is too chilly, and it gets silenced by the air outside. But...the initial 20 minutes is glorious. I smell neither true birch, nor argan (in the case of argan, content with it, it isn't pleasing to my nose). But I do indeed get yummy rum, and a delicious vanilla, with a soft, almost burnt marshmallow smokiness. This vanilla is really, really good. I don't know what to say about it beside, it's a bit of a coumarin bomb, but it's mouthwatering. This isn't overly *adult* smelling despite the note pyramid, the rum isn't that boozy or heady. My husband truly loves B&A, and this little number is responsible for some emphatic responses. Go figure...it's often the cheapies 😂😊