ok i know this post is way old but this really intrigued me!!! I have been looking for a list or something like this to see the oldest names of some BBW products- just out of curiosity. i started with my collection around 1998, 1999, and ever since have been addicted!! i have (well if i could find them in my lotion mess of a collection)
Heart's Desire - one of my first favorites
Daffodil Fields
White Gardenia
orange blossom
gardenia lilly
absolute tulip,
strawberry daquiri (not too old)
and more that i just cant remember. But these are some that stand out in my mind as older products.

Welcome, Lola...

Around 2004 I purchased a spiral bound book called 'BBW-aholics Unite! by Kimberly Williams.
It is an unofficial guide to BBW products and came with a CD-ROM showing all of BBW's early products from the early 90s.

I am not sure if this book is still available but it contains a complete listing, by date and scents/descriptions of ALL BBW products from around 1991 to 2003.

Perhaps some of the people on the board know where to get a copy. I lost the author's address and email.

My first BBW purchases were Almond, Vanilla Bean and Freesia back in the early 90s. They came in cylindrical bottles with a green flip top. The early labels were paper and had a generic drawing of a sprawling green tree.

Since there were only 95 stores then, their products were also sold at Structure and one other store owned by Limited Brands (cannot recall the name).

Around 1994, the bottles were changed to those similar to the ones which were replaced by the 'new' packaging.

The FIRST body care company was Body Time, which is located in Cali. That was around 1972 and Body Time invented the original China Rain fragrance.

Body Time in Cali SOLD their name which was orginally The Body Shop to the British Body Shop

The Body Shop came next, with mail order and then opened their first store in NYC in 1988.
The Body Shop copied a lot of Body Time's products. And TBS also INVENTED body butter in 1992.

Most of the Body Shop stores were franchises in the early 90s and malls made an effort to keep BBW out of the malls. So BBW products were sold in other Limited Brand Stores, usually in a small corner.

BBW started moving into the malls as a free standing store after the Body Shops became corporate stores and bought the franchises back from their owners.

I worked mainly for The Body Shop part time back in the early 90s but have also worked for BBW, Origins and L'Herbier de Provence (which became L'Occitane later).

Later got into nursing when my real job (investments) ended in 2002.

I am now medically retired due to an acute stroke in 2007.

Sorry for the digression.

I used to collect old BBW products but they don't keep that well and usually chemically break down after 2-3 years. The bottles get brittle and begin to crack during this process.

Body Shop products are worse, and I've noticed their body butters lose their scent a month or so after opening them.

I know there are ancient BBW products available on eBay. However, after about 5 years they will be rather spoiled.

Victoria's Secret Garden scents and a few others are made by the same company as BBW and they do a lot of 'switching'. For example if you like Winter Candy Apple from BBW which is only seasonal, you can purchase Endless Love from VS which is the SAME product with a different name.

Vanilla Bean Noel came out at BBW around 2001 and is the same fragrance as the old Sugared Shortbread which preceeded it.

As far as collecting the older BBW scents, there are several alternatives such as e-tailers and Parfums de Coeur which makes excellent knock offs of BBW and VS products. You can find PDC stuff at any CVS.

I am sure the other people on the board can give you hints and tips on how to find something which resembles an older BBW scent.

Hope this info has been helpful. Sorry about the long post.

Yes, yes, I do, though I only "collect" the ones I really, really like.

Off the top of my head, the ones I have include:

Merry Mistletoe
Limelight
Fresh Ginger Lime
Freesia
May Bouquet
White Ginger and Amber (I think I gave this one to my mom)
Seaspray (thank God Dancing Waters is SOOO much better!)
Gardenia Lily
Juniper Breeze

That's all I can think of at the moment. God, it's early. I used to have a lot more but some got purged in my September move and I was forced to sell some when I was unemployed in August. (like my Limelight body cream..... )

If anyone knows about the 'bbw-aholics unite' book that Jeff mentioned PLEASE let us know. That book would be heavenly.

kelli, there was a book by goreygal, ebay name, i think i have seen an auction or two a while back, she had made a book like that she was offering, i cant remember when, but if you look up the name on ebay, if shes still there, maybe she has a copy left.

How I wish i could get my hands on that book! I love seeing the older BBW products on eBay. I totally remember those paper labels. There are SO many old scents that I wish I could smell.
I had a few things that I hung onto for a long time, including:

Body Splash (circa 2001, these were in the tapered spritz bottles that had a tiny "bubble" texture on them)
Absolute Tulip
Fresh Waterfall Mist
Waterblossom Ivy

"Refreshing" Bubble Baths (mid 1990's; came in tiny, flat, squarish bottles with white swirls and lettering)
Plumeria
Freesia (the original purple one)
Flowering Herbs

I actually still have the Fresh Waterfall Mist spray but can't use it anymore as it just gives me a wicked headache... reminds me of the sharpness of CK Escape which does the same thing to my brain.

Also two things I've been wondering... the first thing I ever bought from BBW when I was hmm probably 15 was a body splash and I'm 99% sure it was called Pineapple Mango. It was gold in color and very sweet. I remember picking it out in the store but I got bored of it after a month and it pretty much went the way of the dodo. Does anyone recall a scent called Pineapple Mango? In all of the lists of old products I haven't seen this one listed. Maybe I am not remembering clearly.

Also, is it just me or did it seem like BBW used to have way more selection of scents at any one time? Maybe it was my teen years where walking into a BBW felt like an endless wonderland? Now it sometimes seems like their number of fragrance selections is less than it should be?

Lemonz,

I think i do remember a pineapple mango in the early nineties. Those were the days of the natural looking earth friendly-type bottles.

And yes, it seems there were more signature scents at one time. The lines had fewer products, though.

Wow you guys are awesome with this stuff. I dont know why but it just fascinates the hec out of me ( the old names and scents). Oh and Lemonz, i was floating around BBW the other day and they have a Pineapple Mango now but i think it was just the candle. Not sure exactly (even if that was the name) but i remember something about Pineapple Mango caught my eye- so not sure if its with the candle and home stuff only, but i am like 70% sure i saw it. Hope its the same?

Haha as a matter of fact I actually saw and smelled that new BBW pineapple candle today! It smells pretty yummy, although I don't think I'd want to wear the scent. However, my husband thinks anything pineapple is the devil incarnate so I won't be buying this one

I used to be a BBW junkie. I have since started collecting Bonne Belle Lip Smackers. It seems like my entire life since I was a young child I was always collecting or hoarding something!

I sold off most of my collection to a person on ebay who has a store of her own. I do stock-up on a particular scent if I really like it, but for the most part I stopped collecting!

I do have a blast from the past though- the ORIGINAL Sugar Plum Body Lotion from 1997! I have six bottles of this lotion as this is the one that started the craze for me! One bottle is discolored but the lotion is still as good as the first day I purchased it. I can also say that the other five bottles are just as good. It has the older style label but it is in the second generation bottle. The Sugar Plum scent had been reformulated I think in 2000 and it does not smell the same as the original. The original was quite sweeter and more fruity. I just love it!

The best BBW collection I think came in the year Holiday Season 2000 and the following year. BBW was always coming out with a new fragrance for special holidays like Valentines Day and Mothers Day.

My other long gone favorites are: Passion Flower- which I still have one bottle and one shower gel, Frosted Snowdrop(none left in my collection), Pink Hydrangea, the original Iced Pineapple and Orange Blossom.

Anyway, it has been good to think back to the good ole days. I miss the old BBW!