I knew this shopping trip was going to be dangerous before I even walked into the store.
I’m a huge Bath & Body Works fan, and the seasonal collections are my weakness. I love the candles, I’m obsessed with the candle holders, and the PocketBac holders? Let’s just say I have very little self-control around a tiny hand sanitizer wearing an elaborate costume.😅
So, of course, I had to see the Bath & Body Works Halloween 2026 collection in person.
This year’s theme is basically a haunted carnival filled with fortune tellers, ghosts, skeletons, potions and glowing accessories. It’s dramatic, colorful and a little over the top—which is exactly what I want from a Halloween collection.
First, let’s talk about the new scents
The three new carnival-inspired fragrances this year are Cotton Candy Cobwebs, Spooky Popcorn and Carnival Fog.
If you love sweet, gourmand fragrances, you may have a completely different experience with this collection. I’m just not a big fan of scents that are overly sweet or smell too much like food.
Cotton Candy Cobwebs has notes of spun sugared webs, fresh berries and fluffy whipped vanilla. The name is adorable and the packaging fits the haunted carnival theme perfectly, but the fragrance was too sugary for me. It really commits to the cotton candy experience.
Spooky Popcorn smells like cauldron-popped corn, drizzled butter and sea salt. It’s impressively accurate—basically a movie theater in candle form—but I don’t necessarily want my apartment to smell like a popcorn stand.
Carnival Fog was easily the most interesting of the three for me. Its notes are spooky autumn air, woody incense and midnight fog, so it’s fresher, smokier and much less dessert-like. I liked the concept and appreciated that it wasn’t another super-sweet fragrance, but I still didn’t fall in love with it enough to bring home the candle.
The promotions that day didn’t help either. Bath & Body Works sometimes has those really good body care sales where products drop to around $6, and that’s when I’m much more willing to experiment with a scent I’m not completely sure about. But on the day I visited, only the men’s body care was on a good sale ($5.95 all men care! 😱). The women’s collection was either full price or buy two, get one free—which, to me, is only a deal if I actually want three products. Since I didn’t love any of the fragrances that much, it just wasn’t worth it.
The returning Halloween classics were there too, including Vampire Blood, Ghoul Friend and Pumpkin Carving. I know people wait all year for them, and the new packaging is very cute, but fragrance-wise, nothing convinced me to add another candle to my collection this time.
The accessories, however? That was a completely different story.
The accessories were the real event
Bath & Body Works knows exactly how to get me with Halloween accessories.
There were ghosts, black cats, crystal balls, potion bottles, skeletons and an entire creepy carnival scene. I wanted to pick up everything just to see what it did. Does it light up? Does it project something onto the wall? Does it glow in the dark? Apparently these are the questions that matter to me now.
I even loved the Twisting Ghost Fine Fragrance Mist Holder. It’s a pearly little ghost wrapped around a fragrance bottle, and it is both ridiculous and adorable—which is often the perfect combination at Bath & Body Works.
The candle holders I loved but left behind
One of my absolute favorites was the Light-up Color-changing Cauldron Waterglobe 3-Wick Candle Holder.
It’s a black cauldron with purple bubbling potion, tiny bats and stars, and color-changing lights. I loved it. I stood there admiring it for way too long.
But it costs $99.95, I already own other candle holders, and I genuinely have nowhere to put another one.
I also really liked the Glow-in-the-Dark Skeleton Boo! Pedestal. The skeleton popping out of a grave next to a little jack-o’-lantern feels more traditionally spooky than the carnival pieces, and it immediately made me smile.
At $44.95, it was a much more realistic temptation than the cauldron. I could easily imagine bringing it out every Halloween, but I had to remind myself that “more reasonable” isn’t the same as “necessary.” My New York apartment has officially stopped accepting new seasonal décor.
And then I saw the piece that made every other candle holder look restrained: what I immediately started calling the carnival castle.
Its official name is the Glow-in-the-Dark Circus Luminary 3-Wick Candle Holder, but “carnival castle” feels much more accurate to me.
This thing is a full haunted carnival scene with a fortune teller, skeletons, glowing details and different sides to explore. It’s absolutely a statement piece. It’s also $275.
Did I love it? Yes.
Can I justify it? Absolutely not.
Besides the price, where would I keep it after Halloween? I live in New York. Storage space here is basically a luxury amenity. My apartment is not prepared to become a seasonal Bath & Body Works museum, no matter how much my heart wants it to.
The Wallflowers almost got me too
I was also very tempted by the Halloween Wallflowers fragrance plugs.
The Potion on Books projector, the Fortune Teller projector, the Encrusted Cauldron, the Dripping Skull and the little black Witchy Cat were all so good. Some light up, some project images and some are just cute enough to become tiny pieces of Halloween décor.
I kept picking them up and imagining where I would put them.
There was only one problem: I have officially run out of available outlets. 🤣
I wish I were joking. Between lamps, chargers, appliances and the Wallflowers I already own, every outlet in my apartment has a job. I cannot start unplugging essential electronics because a tiny glowing cauldron needs a home.
So I behaved and left the Wallflowers at the store. This was restraint, not a lack of love. 🌝
The car accessories tempted me—and I don’t even have a car
One unexpected thing I really liked was the Halloween car fragrance holders. The Encrusted Cauldron and Dripping Skull designs were tiny, iridescent and covered in the same purple and green tones that appeared throughout the rest of the collection.
There was just one small problem: I don’t own a car.
Very New York of me.
That still didn’t stop me from picking them up and looking at them as if I had somewhere to use them. I left them behind, obviously, but if you have a car and love decorating absolutely everything for Halloween, they’re such a fun little detail.
What I actually brought home
Naturally, the PocketBac holders were the items that broke my self-control.
I bought the Party Ghost PocketBac Holder, which is a sparkly little ghost holding a lollipop and a bat balloon. It’s cute, festive and exactly the kind of tiny seasonal accessory I cannot resist.
I also brought home the Light-up Fortune Teller PocketBac Holder. It has a purple crystal ball held by skeleton hands, and the whole thing feels perfectly dramatic for Halloween.
These were the ideal purchases for me because they’re fun, I’ll actually use them and—most importantly—they don’t require a storage strategy.
That is how I’m justifying them, anyway.
My final thoughts on the Halloween 2026 collection
For me, the fragrances were not the highlight of this year’s collection. The new scents leaned a little too sweet or too food-inspired for my personal taste, although Carnival Fog was definitely the most interesting one.
The accessories were where the collection really shined.
The cauldron candle holder was gorgeous. The giant carnival luminary was incredible. The Wallflowers were dangerously cute. And the PocketBac holders were, as always, impossible for me to leave behind.
I’m proud that I walked out without a $275 haunted carnival castle and several new objects that would need their own shelf. I still got two adorable pieces from the collection, and my very limited New York storage space survived another seasonal launch.
Would I reconsider the cauldron if it went on sale?
Please don’t ask me dangerous questions. 🤣
*Prices and availability may vary online and by store.
Leave a Reply