Crabtree and Evelyn filed for Chapter 11- Who didn't see it coming?

Crabtree & Evelyn filed bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. According to WSJ, the company expects a 24.4% drop in retail sales for fiscal 2009 from 2008 (though online sales will probably increase 10% this year), and is over $24 million in debt.

Sad news, indeed, which leads me to try and remember when was the last time I shopped at Crabtree & Evelyn for anything other than their environmental oils. The answer was that I stopped buying their body products a few years ago. And apparently, I'm not the only one.

Last time I was at one of their stores I noticed those jumbo body wash bottles (they were selling three for the price of two, or something like that), but upon sniffing I realized they all had the same unpleasant plastic smell, which didn't much resemble the original labeled scent. I passed on that deal. New scents seemed to appear briefly, not impress anyone and go into oblivion. The Holiday trio (vanilla, chocolate and pomegranate, if I remember correctly) had shimmer in the bottles, seemed more like a BBW product and seriously lacked in the class department.

But the most annoying aspect and the reason I stopped shopping there was the discontinuing of favorite scent lines. I'm still hoarding half a bottle of the Rose Damask bath and shower gel which was so much better than the somewhat aquatic Rosewater. I also liked their Citrus body wash, the original Vanilla and the Azzemour home products. And there were lavender laundry detergent and linen spray that were sold for a brief moment. The point is that in the last five or six years you could never be sure a favorite product would still be there the next time you need it.

Since I refuse to pay inflated prices for a soap on eBay, I simply moved on. You'd think someone at the company would notice the crazy hoarding and the crazier bidding wars over some of the discontinued items and would come to a certain conclusion. Instead, they filled the store with those godawful Vera Bradley bags.

What do you think? Do you still shop at Crabtree & Evelyn?

Photo by G.M. Kowalewska

Bed Habits: Linen Spray from Jane Inc. and Crabtree & Evelyn

Part of my morning ritual of making my bed is spraying the pillows, comforters and quilt with a lavender linen mist (or sometimes with perfume. There was a week I used Louve every day, and another time it was Bandit. Don't ask). Some of the people reading this are raising an eyebrow. The rest are scent addicts and either already do something similar or are planning to start.

My linen mist of choice for years was the wonderful but little known Sweet Sheets Bedding Spray from Jane Inc. (they also have a laundry detergent and fabric rinse, both excellent, but their dryer sheets are pretty much crap).

The other thing I do to scent my bedroom is using Crabtree & Evelyn lavender home fragrance oil in a lamp ring. Occasionally I switch to the Rosewater scent, but most of the time it's lavender. That's why I decided to give their linen mist a try. I was quite enthusiast, because the Crabtree & Evelyn spray comes in a bottle twice the size of Jane's.

Scent-wise, I like both. Jane's is more astringent and very true to the fragrance in their laundry products, which satisfies me on some weird level. The Crabtree & Evelyn smells very much like the lavender in my back yard. It's a little softer than Jane with just a hint of powderiness. I could have been very happy with it if only it lingered and actually scented the linens. It's quite an amazing phenomenon: I spray it on the bed, but five seconds later I can't smell a thing, so forget about having a lightly scented bed. Jane's Sweet Sheets, on the other hand, is still detectable when I climb into bed some 16 hours later.

Pink with a Twist

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and many of our favorite companies have launched pretty pink items that we can buy and have a percentage of the sale donated to the good cause. You can have a look at offers from Estee Lauder Pink Ribbon Collection (most items are already sold out), Smashbox, L'Occitane, Prescriptives Pink Ahead Collection and Crabtree & Evelyn.

Since I don't do pink makeup and I'm not in the market for a more hand cream, I really loved this offer from the Pashmina Store: 5 % of every pink item purchase will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, including the pink animal print silk-pashmina blend scarves. I'm all about zebra prints these days, so my choice was easy. It would liven up my dark coats on dreary winter days.

Bring it Back

My favorite method for room scenting is to use lamp rings. It's the most practical way to go when one has an unusual number of cats running around, knocking things off and getting into everything. Candles are way too dangerous and reed diffusers are most likely to be chewed on and spilled.

Very few companies make the right kind of oils for these rings. I use oils from two companies. One is Crabtree & Evelyn: Lavender, Rosewater, Summer Hill and whatever new one they come up with. Currently I'm enjoying the fresh, crisp scent of Sarawak. It's a floral ginger blend that I hope stays in their collection for a while. I still miss the freesia scent they had for years and discontinued just before repackaging and reformulating the whole Freesia line.

My other favorite is The Thymes. They used to have a much bigger selections of environmental oils, both from collections that are no longer with us (a moment of silence for Lemongrass & Limeleaf) and as part of the current lines, only the oil was discontinued (just like the wonderfully addictive laundry detergent in Goldleaf. My unmentionables haven't smelled the same since).

I've always loved the Fig Leaf & Cassis collection. It's not exactly L'artisan Premier Figuier, but it's still good and quite complex for such a fresh scent. Despite the cassis, it's not very fruity. More like a full bodied green fig, a little dark, no coconut in sight, can feel chilly at times. I don't recommend the weak cologne, but the other body products are worthy of a separate review. There used to be an environmental oil in this scent. I'm still hoarding the last bottles I bought, and will be very sad once they are all used up. If there's one product I wish could be brought back from the eternal pastures of lost fragrance is this one.

Here's an interesting concept for those of us who are genetically linked to alligators: Showering with a moisturizer. There are several moisturizing gels and body washes on the market, but Crabtree & Evelyn are trying a new angle with their In-Shower Moisturizer. Basically, it's a moisturizing cream that is supposed to be suitable for showering.

It's a good idea, I'm just not sold out on the actual product. It doesn't spread as well as a shower product usually does and it's a bit too slippery under water. I didn't expect it to lather, but I wanted it to feel like it was getting me cleaned, considering the shower scenario.

As far as moisturizing goes, patting it on a wet/damp skin seems to be quite effective, but it's more of a moisture-sealing product than a nourishing one, and my skin requires a little more than that. However, if your skin is less demanding than mine, this might be a very good product (as long as the texture doesn't skeeves you out).

My other issue was scent. I tried the mango butter and cranberry and wasn't impressed with it. It didn't smell like either cranberry or mango, just something synthetic, medicinal and not too pleasant. Not very different than the Lemon & Sage line from Bliss. It's a very non-C&E scent, as they are usually on the girly floral side.

I'm not giving up on the Naturals line just yet. I'm curious about the body butters. They have a potential to be great if they managed to get the scent right, and the same goes for the shower mousse.