Bzz and product reviews

I live in a house with two cats, a dog, and a toddler that is still sometimes in diapers. Needless to say, it doesn’t smell like roses and freshly-baked bread in here all the time. Enter BzzAgent and the Glade Expressions Collection campaign! As part of my bzzKit for this campaign, they sent me coupons for two FREE products – one each of the Fragrance Mist and Oil Diffuser starter kits, plus a bunch of extra discount coupons. Yay! Two floors in my house, and they can both smell nice!

There are four scents in the line: Cotton & Italian Mandarin (scent mist only,) Fuji Apple & Cardamom Spice, Lavender & Juniper Berry, and Pineapple & Mangosteen. Where I redeemed my coupons (my local Target,) there were only three scents available for each product. I was hoping to pick up the lavender fragrance mist, but it wasn’t on the shelves, so I opted for the cotton instead. I planned on putting the spray in my upstairs bathroom, and I’m not a fan of food smells in there for obvious reasons. I also would have preferred the bamboo oil diffuser holder to go on my kitchen windowsill, but it only came in the pineapple scent and that one seemed a little too sweet for me, so I opted for the white holder and apple scent combo instead. It’s apple season anyway, right?

So, before picking up this fragrance mist, I really didn’t understand the point of refillable sprays. I mean, isn’t that just extra landfill fodder? But after pulling off the holder label, I get it. The design is clean and tasteful, and looks fine sitting out in my bathroom. (Bonus, guests don’t have to go searching through my cabinets to cover their shame!) Most of the branding is on the utilitarian refill, so the only thing you see is the stylish white silhouette of the holder. The scent is fine. I expected a really chemical smell, but it mostly just smells like hotel soap. What does cotton smell like anyway? I am firmly planted north of the Mason-Dixon line, so the only cotton I ever smell has been bleached, dyed, and woven within an inch of its life. In the future, I’m more likely to refill with lavender, assuming I can find it.

I like the apple scent more. It really smells like crisp, slightly spicy and sweet apples. Of course, that just made me want to make apple crisp all day,  and my poor husband was dying to go apple picking. (We got that out of our system shortly after.) The fragrance was really strong the first day, but mellowed out considerably in the following week. My sister-in-law commented on how nice the house smelled during a visit a few days after. We also went out of town for almost a week, and the house didn’t smell like cats when we got home! Now, about three weeks after putting the diffuser out, I can only occasionally smell it. I assume that’s because I’ve gotten used to it – it’s a lot easier to detect after I’ve been out of the house for awhile. My only complaint is that the once-white refill is starting to yellow at the top – the same way a reed diffuser turns darker at the ends. In the bamboo holder it might not be as obvious, but contrasted with the white one, it’s noticeable. I have it in a window, so maybe the light affects it somehow. I do appreciate the spill-free design, especially with a toddler and inquisitive cats.

All in all, I’m pretty likely to purchase a refill, at least for the diffuser (we don’t go through a whole lot of the spray in our house, but maybe now that I’m leaving it in plain sight, we will!)