Wax melts are a smokeless alternative to candles but can fill your home with just as much fragrance.
I found that Scentsy, more so than Bath & Body Works, makes wax melts in a wide range of scents along with warmers that help bring life to your home decor.
In this article I will examine wax melts from both companies to help you decide which one can best meet your needs.
Bath & Body Wax Melts vs Scentsy
Both American companies, Bath & Body Works was founded in Ohio, a midwestern state, in 1990 while Scentsy is headquartered in Idaho, a mountain state, and was founded in 2004.
BBW is now a publicly traded company that’s no longer run by the founder, but is still partially owned by the family. Scentsy is a family owned and run company. Although Scentsy is privately owned, the company has still grown exponentially and is steadily spreading throughout Europe and beyond.
Growth patterns vary by company and the manner in which their products are sold to customers is also different.
Selling Wickless Wax to Customers
Bath & Body Works (BBW) has retail locations around the globe, selling directly to customers in stores and online.
Scentsy sells its products to customers through independent consultants. More recently, customers also have access to Scentsy products through their website without the need for a consultant. But the Scentsy business model leans heavily towards multi-level marketing.
The company releases two product catalogs each year – one in spring and one in fall. A special catalog is released around the holidays as well. Catalogs are shared with customers and then customers place orders through their consultant. Consultants earn a percentage of their sales and the sales of individuals they recruited to their team.
Both companies manufacture their wax products in the USA.
Wax Melts: Bath & Body Works vs Scentsy
Here are examples of the wickless wax products offered by each company.
Bath & Body Works Fragrance Melts
BBW wax melts break into four pieces so that you can melt them individually or use multiple sections at once.
This is one of BBW customers’ favorite scents, which smells like black cherries, raspberries, plums, and of course rich, silky red wine.
Sticking with the fruit theme, there are two additional scents you might like.
This is a mouth-watering tropical fragrance that smells like fresh mango, plum, and mandarins sprinkled in sea salt. It’s not your typical citrusy margarita fragrance and at times has a leaf-like scent to it. An interesting fragrance, it just doesn’t meet expectations for when you hear the word, margarita.
In addition to sweet watermelon and citrusy lemons and mandarins, you will smell hints of poppies and lily-of-the-valley wildflowers. Its base notes are soft hints of musk and cedar. This is definitely more complex than your typical glass of lemonade.
While you can still find BBW fragrance melts in places here and there online, the company discontinued them a couple years ago. So when you do come across them online, you are purchasing a rare item that will soon no longer exist. Because it’s a discontinued product, you’ll also find that the asking prices are higher.
Each pack has 0.97 oz (27.5 g) of wax.
Pros
- Wickless fragrant wax
- Perfect if you like fruity and sweet fragrances
- Rare finds
Cons
- They don’t have a strong throw
- You’ll need to already own a wax warmer
Scentsy Wax Bars
Divided into eight sections instead of four, Scentsy wax bars are more than twice as large as the BBW melts, at 2.6 oz (74g) per bar.
Each of these examples are three packs. You’ll receive three bars for a total of 7.8 oz (222 g).
One of my favorite fruity scents is Lemon Verbena.
This bar has the citrus fragrance you might have expected in BBW’s Island Margarita wax melts. Scentsy’s Lemon Verbena is a sweet combination of lemon zest, kaffir lime, and verbena leaf.
Another nice fruity and sweet scent is Blueberry Cheesecake.
This fragrance reminds me of those tall, thick slices of velvety cheesecake on a graham cracker crust with rows and rows of fresh blueberries on top. It’s a nice comfy home scent.
The last one I’ll share is Coconut Lemongrass.
Tropical creamy coconut balanced with crisp lemongrass. It’s a fresh scent that will make your home feel like an island oasis.
Pros
- Set of three bars
- Long lasting fragrance
- Use as few or as many bars at once as you’d like
- Made from high quality ingredients
Cons
- Somewhat pricey product
BBW & Scentsy: Wax Melt Comparison
It’s possible that Bath & Body Works discontinued their fragrance melts due to lack of customer interest. They were more expensive than many brands on the market, but their bars are made with half the amount of wax as other companies, and they are not as fragrant.
Here is how BBW and Scentsy bars look side by side:
| BBW Fragrance Melts | Scentsy Wax Bars | |
| Fragrance options | Limited scents available | 100+ scents |
| Fragrance throw | Weak | Strong |
| Amount of wax | 0.97 oz (27.5 g) | 2.6 oz (74g) |
| Ingredients | Non-toxic | Non-toxic, harmless |
| Price | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
The price comparison is based on price set prior to the fragrance melts being discontinued. If you’d purchased two packs of BBW fragrance melts, you would have gotten eight sections but the combined total would have still been higher than one pack of Scentsy’s wax bars.
Whether BBW fragrance melts are in stock or not, the Scentsy wax bars are made with more wax and have a stronger fragrance.
Scentsy’s Wax Bar Stand Out Features
Since Scentsy is more of a stand out option, I’ll highlight more of their wax bar features.
It’s A Safe Option
In general, the absence of a flame makes wax melts an attractive option for parents of children and pets. It’s a safer option because there’s less likelihood for an accident. You don’t have to worry about your cat tipping it over near your drapes, causing a house fire.
Another worry-free aspect of warming wax instead of burning it is that there is no smoke or soot produced when using wax melts. This is a huge relief for people with respiratory illnesses or other breathing problems.
It’s also a convenient way to add fragrance to a dorm room when using wickless wax bars instead of wick candles.
Scentsy’s ingredients are another family-friendly feature. Their wax is made without any toxic or otherwise harmful ingredients, like formaldehyde, parabens, or BPAs.
Low Voltage but Strong Fragrance
Since wax warmers use minimal voltage due to their low-watt light bulbs, electricity bills are not much higher when using the warmers. Scentsy releases new warmers with every catalog and continues to create innovative and aesthetically pleasing designs that make attractive additions to your home.
Melted wax can hold more fragrance oil than traditional candles because they don’t require the “fuel” that a wick provides. Since the wax is warmed instead of burned, it has a stronger fragrance throw.
Scentsy has released over 100 scents that almost instantly fill large rooms with fragrance. And depending on your floor plan, the scents typically travel into every room within the home.
Conclusion
At this point, Scentsy wax bars are more accessible than Bath & Body Works, but you can still find some BBW wax melts in the online space.
Choose Scentsy Wax Bars if:
- You want to be able to choose your scents
- You prefer to pay a more reasonable price
- You want peace of mind that the wax is made without toxins
Choose Bath & Body Works Fragrance Melts if:
- You don’t mind paying a higher price for discontinued products
- You don’t mind there being a limited selection of fragrances available
- You are feeling nostalgic and want to experience BBW scents
In my opinion Scentsy wax bars are the better choice because they have fresh batches of product and new and favorite scents available for purchase. They’re safe to use and offer more value than some other brands.
If you would prefer an alternative to Scentsy, WoodWick also makes highly fragranced wax melts.
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