Women in Topics: For your body

Have you stepped into a Bath & Body Works store in the past few days? The packaging of the cornerstone Signature Collection is OMG TOTALLY DIFFERENT. I think I might hate it, although there are a few positive things about it, particularly the new design of the body splash bottles. Here's a rundown: The Good

• The idea of a bottle redesign, overall. Those shower gel and body lotion bottles had been in need of a major overhaul for quite some time. Whether I like what they actually chose to do with them is another story.

• The silver bottle caps. Cute, and a bit more upmarket than the old black caps.

• The body splash bottles. Much, much better. The shape is much more appealing, and the minimalist labeling is a nice touch.

• The fact that a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, seems to be having a soft launch in the middle of this redesign mess. Looking forward to sniffing that one.

The Bad

• The hand cream. Now packaged in an awkward, squat little tube, you now get only 2.5 oz for $10, whereas under the old regime it was 4 oz for $12. Tsk tsk.

• The font on the bottles. To me it looks like the cheap no-name body products that you find a random drugstore -- like those gift sets that someone always buys for the 4th grade teacher at Christmas.

• The fact that the Oil to Cream Body Wash which I love so dearly seems to have been discontinued. It's on sale for $8.

• The timing. All the holiday gift sets are in the old packaging. Shouldn't they have launched the redesign at the time the gift collection made its debut, or waited until January for a fresh start? By the time you give away these gifts in December, they'll look old.

Mixed Bag

• The revamped graphics on the labels. I LOVED what B&BW had been doing with the labels, especially with Velvet Tuberose and Japanese Cherry Blossom. Some of the new versions actually look like Photoshopped versions of the old ones, and I think they're hideous. Some, however -- like Black Raspberry Vanilla -- actually look better in their new clothes.

• The new bottle design of the shower gels and body lotions. As I mentioned above, they were definitely in need of a redesign, but I'm not sure I like the new rounded, curvy shape.