by Julia, added 12/15/09 

Brand: Bath and Body Works

Products: Temptations 3-1 Body Wash
Bubble Bath and Shampoo

Fragrances: Nutcracker Sweet, Spiced Gingersnap

Cost: $10 - $12

Introduction to my review:

The holidays are here... Christmas cheer is in the air. It's time to bring out the decorations, and wrap special gifts for the people we love. It's also time to check out Bath and Body Works to see what new treats they've got to tempt us this season.

I always look forward to Bath and Body Works well known holiday fragrances like Vanilla Bean Noel, and Winter Candy Apple, and let's not forget Twisted Peppermint or Festive Vanilla Fig. This year, some cheerful 3in1 Temptations caught my eye.

As soon as I spotted the Nutcracker Sweet, and Spiced Gingersnap 3-1 Temptations bottles, I wanted them. The colorful bottles with the simple cartoon-like graphics drew me in. The bottles were a big handful weighing in at 16 ounces each.

The Nutcracker Sweet's label is as green as green can be. The label covers the entire bottle top to bottom so I couldn't see the soap inside. It's got a simple nutcracker man's face with a big red hat. The colors stand out and the design looks fun. The soap, itself, is a creamy, swirly, pearl white.

Spiced Gingersnap looks just as cool, with the same label coverage. It's label is deep blue with an orange top. There is a picture of a gingerbread house with only Santa's feet sticking out of the chimney. It's a really cute design. The Spiced Gingersnap soap is a pearl, swirly light tan.

Bath and Body Works describes Nutcracker Sweet as:

"A fresh, nutty blend that captures the festive scents of the holidays."

Awe, yeah... this is good! I smelled cracked nuts, like almonds and chestnuts, but not a straight up nut scent. It's sweet... and I mean sweet!...and has a buttery smell going on too.

Nutcracker Sweet smells like a delicious almond brittle... it's yummy squared. It smelled strong right out of the bottle, but I do wish the scent would have stayed around longer. I found myself squeezing more and more out of the bottle just to get that initial zing of buttery, nutty sweetness again and again.

Here is Bath and Body Works description of Spiced Gingersnap:

"A delicious blend of warm ginger, white icing and rich spices."

With that description, this scent was a must-have too, because I do so like gingerbread and gingersnaps. This scent was very heavy on the ginger. I like ginger but I was hoping for more of a cookie scent with some strong molasses and vanilla and lots of bittersweet tanginess.

As it was, Spiced Gingersnap smelled mostly tepid with the strongest part of the scent being the ginger. There was a mild spice note and after the first slap of ginger, the scent would mellow to a pleasant, somewhat bland sniff. My family did not notice any of these subtleties and just thought it smelled good.

It was an enjoyable scent for the most part, but it just wasn't as great as I thought it could have been.

as a Body Wash?

As body washes, these products performed well. They had a slippery, slick feel, and the soaps bubbled up with soft scented bubbles. The soaps were mild on my skin and rinsed cleanly with no residue. This was my favorite use for these products because they smelled the strongest when I used them as a body wash. They were a perfect treat for a quick shower.

as a Bubble Bath?

These 3-1 Temptations made terrific bubbles! The bubbles were thick and firm, and they lasted a good long time. Many Santa beards were made with these bubbles, along with bubble snowmen and even a bubble blizzard.

Both scents dissipated pretty quickly in the bathtub. It was as if I could either have bubbles, or scent, but not both at the same time.

as a Shampoo?

I used each of these products once as a shampoo. They were effective in that they did clean my hair. They weren't spectacular as a shampoo, but weren't the worst things either. These would work in a pinch, but for daily use, I would choose a more specialized, nourishing shampoo.

The shampoo aspect of this product was very useful for my children's short hair. The less bottles in the kids bathroom, the better, and these products were ideal for them to use.

Both of the 3-in-1 Temptations products left my hair and skin lightly scented, but not for long. The scent faded rather quickly, but that was just fine with me. I was happy to leave these festive scents in the bath and choose something else to scent myself with for the day.

I found these products to be slightly drying both on my skin and hair. However, it is Winter and my skin tends to be drier anyway, so I definitely wanted to moisturize after using these.

I enjoyed these festive Winter holiday scents. Nutcracker was my clear favorite in that regard. I wanted to keep that one all to myself. I liked to use these 3in1s as body washes, but my kids preferred the bath bubbles. The scents and the bubbles were just plain old fun in the tub. Even though these bottles were large, they didn't last long this month. These 3in1's got pulled out and used more often than any other soaps in the bath caddy, so I know we all enjoyed them.

The 3in1 Temptations from Bath and Body Works were a great way to bring some festive fun to the shower or tub during the Christmas season. They smelled good and worked well, and overall, I was quite pleased with these products.


Merry Christmas!

~ Julia

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