Bath and Body Works: Non-Bigelow Colognes

Lovely wife went to Bath and Body Works last weekend and, I suppose as a peace offering for having spent a small fortune, brought me back a bottle of "Noir" cologne she says was on sale there. Bottle is a big clunky atomizer type of deal, holds about a quart it looks like. Hoo boy, thought I.

Wow, I like the smell of it. Lovely Wife does too. Musky, manly, and long lasting. Have no idea how much this juice costs (I probably don't want to know) but it is quite nice.

Now I see they have a few other flavors listed on their website. I really like the Noir, will have to check out the others. I had no idea they even had these.

It's actually a pretty good scent. The last time I went to buy Bigelow products, they sold me a sample bottle of the Noir bodywash for a $1. Very nice, but not neccesarily memorable.

I think they're either $12 or $15 for those body sprays.

I picked op the "Oak" cologne, online at auction and the wife quite enjoys it. It's not complex or anything to knock your socks off, but it's nice.

I have the Oak. Almost bought some Noir.


As with the Bigelow, I find it doesn't have a lot of hang time. The top note disappears after about 3 minutes and the middle/basenotes are quite low key.

But you can't argue with the price. 4+ oz for $15-$20.

It's funny, in that I find the Oak cologne lasts quite awhile (4-6 hours) but after about twenty minutes or so it's very close to the skin, if that makes any sense.

It's an aspect of it that I like.

Topgumby said:

It's funny, in that I find the Oak cologne lasts quite awhile (4-6 hours) but after about twenty minutes or so it's very close to the skin, if that makes any sense.

It's an aspect of it that I like.

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My test os "hang time" and "strength" is this:

I put 2 squirts on my chest. One on each side.

If I pull back my collar and sniff, what I smell is my definition of strength and hang time/lifespan. And there is a huge difference between colognes. Some disappear after a very short period. Others are still there the next morning and I can still smell it before I jump in the shower.

I was actually in B&BW this weekend as well looking to buy C.O. Bigelow Elixir Black body spray and it seems that this line of products is being phased out (I am very disappointed). They now only offer this new line that you mention and I am even more disappointed. The packaging looks like cheap, teen-aged stuff that you can buy at K-Mart or something. I also took a whiff of the Oak cologne and I was disappointed as well. It smells not only artificial, but also like every other mainstream cologne out there. Not at all happy with the direction that C.O. Bigelow has taken. They will not be having my business.

I sampled the oak - I liked it. I am, however, no cologne connoisseur

I tried this new Men's line. I sprayed a bit of a few of the scents on the skin and before I left out the store it was gone. Of course, for the price, what do you expect? Not long lasting on me at all. I did get a sampler body wash for a buck. Haven't tried it yet. I like the small bottles for traveling.

ru06 said:

I was actually in B&BW this weekend as well looking to buy C.O. Bigelow Elixir Black body spray and it seems that this line of products is being phased out (I am very disappointed). They now only offer this new line that you mention and I am even more disappointed. The packaging looks like cheap, teen-aged stuff that you can buy at K-Mart or something. I also took a whiff of the Oak cologne and I was disappointed as well. It smells not only artificial, but also like every other mainstream cologne out there. Not at all happy with the direction that C.O. Bigelow has taken. They will not be having my business.

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Man, and I thought for my fifteen bucks I was going to get a package, bottle and scent that would blow the socks off of every high end juice out there!

BTW, it's not Bigelow that has offended you...it's B&BW.

Ah yes, this is true. I do stand corrected. For some reason it seems that BBW is phasing out the C.O. Bigelow scents and replacing them with their own line of stuff. IMO, it is not a substitute. These new products are bottom of the barrel. But, I think for the $15 that some folks here were able to get it at, it's worth it. For $30, I think they are off the wall. I mean, the old C.O. Bigelow ones where better and they were $22 each at full price!!!

ru06 said:

Ah yes, this is true. I do stand corrected. For some reason it seems that BBW is phasing out the C.O. Bigelow scents and replacing them with their own line of stuff. IMO, it is not a substitute. These new products are bottom of the barrel. But, I think for the $15 that some folks here were able to get it at, it's worth it. For $30, I think they are off the wall. I mean, the old C.O. Bigelow ones where better and they were $22 each at full price!!!

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I don't think this is a replacement at all.

B&BW has over a dozen scents. Each of these scents is offered in a home fragrance, a frarance oil, cologne/EDT, moisturizer, shower gel, hand soap, etc etc etc.

Oak, Noir, Citron and the blue one (Ocean?) are simply the more masuline fragrances versus Japanese cherry, Lavender, etc.


The Bigolow stuff doesn't impact that at all. It just happens to be a line they carry over and above their own. If it is being phased out, it is more likely due to poor sales than using their own to replace it.

If you guys are seeing Bigelow stuff on sale (clearance) it was likely the old body spray cans as they are going to a new package which is the same style of bottle that axe has.

But I don't really see a sign of Bigelow going anywhere @ B&BW but that's just me.

auk1124 said:

Lovely wife went to Bath and Body Works last weekend and, I suppose as a peace offering for having spent a small fortune, brought me back a bottle of "Noir" cologne she says was on sale there. Bottle is a big clunky atomizer type of deal, holds about a quart it looks like. Hoo boy, thought I.

Wow, I like the smell of it. Lovely Wife does too. Musky, manly, and long lasting. Have no idea how much this juice costs (I probably don't want to know) but it is quite nice.

Now I see they have a few other flavors listed on their website. I really like the Noir, will have to check out the others. I had no idea they even had these.

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I like the noir shower gel and the noir cologne, but stay away from the deodorant spray... it smells cheap, sweet, almost exactly like Tag for men.

Bought me and the wife some stuff on the buy 3 get 3 free deal. They also gave us a $10 coupon. I went home with Noir, Citron, and Ocean colognes.

Tried Woods in the store, but it's not my type of scent. Me and SWMBO both agree that the drydown was pretty similiar to Obsession. That's not a bad thing, but for a little more you could have the real thing, if that floats your boat.

Noir has a similar bottom as Woods, but the top notes are a little different. This may end up in my fall/winter rotation, because that side of my scents is lacking. On a side note, I've had the trial sample of Noir bodywash for almost a month now. It smells mostly like the top notes of the cologne. A little misleading if you try to judge the cologne based on the body wash.


Haven't given Citron or Ocean a full run yet. First impressions are, Citron is fairly lemony, but the drydown left a fairly pleasant masculine scent. Nothing memorable, but pleasant. Ocean seemed like a fairly standard oceanic, Nautica family type scent. It may be my nose, but I detected a hint of 'fresh cut grass' when I first sprayed it. That level of detail was a little unexpected from a cologne of this stature, but that note faaded quickly.

I bought these to have as 'daily drivers' for work, etc. I'm kind of stingy with my T&H and other quality fragrances. I work in a room by myself, so I always feel a little wasteful using the 'good stuff' at work.

I'll give a more detailed review as I try them out. Sometimes my first impression deceives me.

auk1124 said:

Lovely wife went to Bath and Body Works last weekend and, I suppose as a peace offering for having spent a small fortune, brought me back a bottle of "Noir" cologne she says was on sale there. Bottle is a big clunky atomizer type of deal, holds about a quart it looks like. Hoo boy, thought I.

Wow, I like the smell of it. Lovely Wife does too. Musky, manly, and long lasting. Have no idea how much this juice costs (I probably don't want to know) but it is quite nice.

Now I see they have a few other flavors listed on their website. I really like the Noir, will have to check out the others. I had no idea they even had these.

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B&BW info here.

Wearing Citron today. Not bad at all. Heavy lemon note to start, but dries down nicely. I do believe whatever lemon note they used is a modified version of something they may have used in their women's line. It's a little more metro than I expected, and I'm ok with most metro scents.

Staying power is a little less than the Noir, but that is to be expected out of a citrused based scent.I've also noiced that regardless of the list of notes they claim are in these, the dry down/base smells similar in all 3 that i've tried (woods, noir, citron). They're not exactly the same but you can definitely tell they are related.

I'll give Ocean a whirl tommorrow and that will complete the quartet for me.

So far, nothing to scream in ecstacy about, but definitely good daily wearers if you are going to be around people and want to smell good without offending those with sensitive nostrils.

last update on this.... Wearing 'Ocean' today. Got the grass smell again (good thing) but that fades quickly into a pretty standard aquatic/blue/oceanic scent. Staying power seems pretty good. It's been ~3 hours and I still can smell it on me, but it's not overpowering. If you like Nautica type colognes, I think you would like this one.

If I had to rate in order of my enjoyment it would be:

1- Ocean
2- Citron
3- Noir
4- Woods

Keep in mind, I prefer lighter scents and musks usally don't agree with me. I think Citron may become my everyday fall scent as it has light citrus but still has a slight musky/vanilla type base. Noir will enter my winter collection. I left Woods at the store.

I just picked up a bottle of Oak today, and so far I really like it. On me, the drydown has a sweet note to it. The combination of the sweet and the woods can pretty much be summed up in one word:
Autumn

It reminds me of coming into Mom's kitchen from the backyard around Thanksgiving.