Glade Expressions Collection Review Time!

As I've mentioned several times, I am a BzzAgent.  This means I get to try all these new and nifty products and tell everyone about how much I love them or how much I don't.  Glade was awesome and sent me a HUGE (well I felt it was huge) coupon book full of coupons to share as well as some coupons for me to get free product with too.  We picked up our set at Meijer.

The two we decided to try!

I did have to hand out some coupons while at the store (even though I hadn't tried it) because I could already tell they smelt good (at least initially) and the store was having a sell on them.  I figured, the less money people have to spend initially, the easier to get them hooked!  I brought my lovely little friends home.  We chose the fuji apple and cardamon spice spray because Mike fell in love with the little "lift here" sample sniff on the oil diffusers.  We chose the Pineapple and mangosteen diffuser because we really appreciated the look of the wood holder (well and we wanted to try two different fragrances).

The back of the spray bottle with it's instructions.

What the spray bottle looks like with the label removed.

I'll start with the spray bottle (because it is a bit more simple).  The idea behind the design of this spray is that the it is simple looking and will match any decor without screaming "I need smells goods in my house!".  I really do appreciate the fact that the label with the fragrance name/brand/details comes off.  It really made me feel a bit fancier and willing to leave the spray out and about in rooms that aren't the bathroom (because what happens/is seen/ is smelled in the bathroom stays in the bathroom).  There was a downside to this too though.  It's plain white.  Just white.  All of them are white.  Not only do I feel like this is going to need constant cleaning (because you're hands don't have to be amazingly dirty for dirt to cling to white and this is something that will be going in people's hands frequently) but I really wish that there had been some bottles with prints on them.  I love cutesy patterned things and really like for the things I use on a regular basis to reflect that about me.  (Plus cute things make me feel happy and I find myself using them more because of that.)  I'm sure that white matches most normal people's homes just fine, but it would be nice to see at least one or two patterned bottles in my opinion!

The wheel you twist to refill the spray bottle.

Gotta love Box openings!

I find this especially true since the holders are refillable.  As you can see in the picture above, the bottom of the bottle twists off and you just pop out the old can and pop in the new.  It was amazingly simple!  (I tested how easy it was to replace purely to test it.  I have not run out of my fragrance yet :D).  The last thing spray specific (I will talk about the apple scent in a moment) is that the bottle can be slightly hard to squeeze.  Instead of having a lever that can break on you, Glade made it so that we just squeeze the neck of the bottle to release the fragrance.  If you look at the above pictures, you need to squeeze right where that red is peeking through.  It's not a huge hindrance (and I could just be a weakling), but occasionally I need both hands to squeeze it.  Mike, however, has no problems with this.  Maybe my hands are just small!

The back of the box.  30 days of fragrance and a no-spill design!  Score!

This next bit is going to be slightly more picture heavy.  The concept behind the diffuser is a bit more complex and I really want to get across how cool I think it is.  First off, the diffuser seemed to be packaged really nicely.  It was easy (as you can see from the photo above) to figure out how to construct it.

The oil in the bottom of the base. 

The look of the wood/bamboo style diffuser.

 So, first off, I do feel like there is a really good chance this is spill proof.  All of the weight is at the bottom (the weight of the oil and the base feels pretty solid too).  To lightly test this, I even put the diffuser down where the animals could check it out.

The diffuser card!

 






None of them managed to spill it, but I can't say for sure (since I haven't experienced this yet) how much of the weight is going to be lost when the oil starts running low.  









Once again, I found myself disappointed by the lack of patterns available.  As far as the decoration of the diffuser went, it was white (ick) or bamboo/wood look.  Now, we absolutely adore the bamboo/wood look!  As you can see above it has a very nice grain pattern and as you will see below in a bit, it accents the diffuser card nicely.  To put this thing together out of the box, you take the diffuser card and push it into the oil holder.  I just pretended it was one of those funky milk bags we had in school, got a firm grip on the bottom, and pushed it down.  It makes a slight clicky noise and you're ready to decorate with freshness!

My diffuser in it's new home on top of the tv!

As you can see, it doesn't take up much space and it really does look nice put on display.  Our living room isn't very big and our tv tends to take up alot of the space.  Having the diffuser on top of it also brings the fragrance to head level.  I have begun to receive the compliments of "Your home always smells so nice when I come over" (of course my renewed infatuation with cooking and canning could help that too!).  Since I'm here and talking about the diffuser, I'll talk about it's fragrance first.  The Pineapple & Mangosteen smells like a tropical pina cola smoothie tastes!  It's a very delicate blend of pineapple and tropical scents.  I'm not normally a tropical smell goods kind of gal (to be honest, if selecting for myself alone and not for the look of the diffuser as well I would have picked the lavender).  I normally love vanilla, honeydew, and overall delicate scents for home smell goods.  Tropical sometimes very easily crosses that line of "too sweet" smelling.  That being said, I LOVE this scent.  I feel like it is the perfect balance of fruitiness and it really has an overall calming smell.  I want to say I plan on trying the other scents, but I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to.  This smells that good!

The spray in it's new home in my dining room.

The best way to describe the Fuji apple & cardamon spice scent is to say that it smells like apple cider.  Pure and simple apple cider.  The scent to me is very reminescent of (now this is an experience I didn't have before moving to Michigan) going to a cider mill and breathing deep as you (and several others) sip the fresh cider.  Each time I smell it, my mouth starts to water for a cake doughnut and I'm ready to count the days down until our first orchard visit.  It's a very "fresh" smelling scent.  You can smell the slight sourness (think Granny Smith apples) and then it's followed up by a light mulling spice smell.  Now, Mike (lover of all things apple cider) loves this scent as much as I love the pineapple (to be fair, I really like it too!) so I think we're going to have to work out a balance between them!

My overall summary of my opinion is this:

Bland bottles and diffusers = bad
Amazing scents = good
Ease of use and setup = good
Construction = good
Lasting of scents = good so far

I really suggest trying these out.  You can visit their Facebook page here for more information, reviews, and just to familiarize yourself with them more than I have for you!