Bath and Body Works Black Tie Candle

I have an obscene amount of candles, more than any normal person could ever require and it has been that way for as long as I can recall. As a young teen, I used to stock up on cheap Italian scented candles using the money I earned while working at the weekends - I worked next door to an Italian deli that oddly stocked home fragrance and the best lemon squares you ever did taste. Then when I went to college, each month I'd treat myself to a large Yankee Jar and feel like I was ballin' - £20 is a lot when you are a broke student. Now when I'm feeling flush I call into Diptyque, Jo Malone and Tom Daxon (the latter you may not be familiar with but trust me when I say you will be come the end of 2016), but one candle I will always have a special place in my heart for is Bath and Body Works Black Tie.

Bath and Body Works are a bizarre brand, they don't really have a true core collection as such, and will often launch identical scents under the different guises. Don't get me wrong, I adore BB&W but it is not a company I would blind buy from even if I had the means to here in the UK, through fear of purchasing the same candle in different packaging ten times over. When I visited the States in October BB&W Black Tie was being sold in NYC packaging, the year before that it was decked out to compliment New Years Eve and currently it is not available online or in-store - sods law.

However if you do find yourself in Bath and Body Works any time soon, seek out Black Tie. It is not a scent you will see or hear the employees rave about, nor is it a candle that has received YouTube acclaim but trust me when I say it is an unsung hero. A beautiful, almost masculine, aftershave-esque (in a Tom Ford sense no less) tinged scent that is gentle, clean and hold on your hats - sexy. Yes really, have you ever experienced a home fragrance that is just so good that you would wear it if you could? Well for me that very scent is Bath and Body Works Black Tie - the sophisticated notes of Green Sage, Sandalwood and Tonka Bean, come together to create a grown up yet never stuffy fragrance that I promise you will never tire of.

The real test of my dedication is just how many Bath and Body Works Black Tie candles have I depleted in the last few years? No less than 10. I stock up and pretty much emerge myself in the hazy fragrance all year round - I really should get a hobby huh?

Promise me this, if you do stumble across Bath and Body Works Black Tie any time soon, you'll at least pick up the jar and inhale the scent?