While girls are sugar and spice and everything nice boys are so much stinkier than snips, snails and puppy dog tails. Frankly, I have no idea what a snip is, and I’m pretty sure a snail or two have taken a ride in my washing machine. Now, if this nursery rhyme is trying to say that boys smell of wet dog, that’s probably closer to the truth.

I knew I was in trouble the other day, I had just reached the car door to take the younger three to school and everything in my body said something was wrong. I knew it for sure when I opened the door and my 12 year old was burying his face in his sweatshirt, my 11 year old was trying not to gag in the back seat and my 9 year old sat quietly staring straight ahead with a slight smirk on his face, I could tell he was patiently waiting…and then it hit me. He’d hot boxed us all! That little stinker literally sat there pleased as punch with himself and his accomplishment. I could see in his face that he couldn’t wait to get to school to revel in his accomplishment with his friends. With boys everything is stinky.

Over the years I think I have turned 1/2 bloodhound trying to determine where a particularly odious fume was coming from. Be it stinky soccer cleats that have a very distinct smell, which for point of reference is the smell of male cat urine…to moldy towels thrown on the floor in the bathroom. I have searched and found it all. I have spent way to much money on Air Wick plug ins over the years and should have invested in Febreeze a million years ago. Amazingly I have finally found the solution for a sweet smelling boy! About a year ago Dawson had an emergency appendectomy and the very nice nurse in his hospital room smelled so good. She smelled so good that you could actually tell where she had been in the hospital even if she wasn’t there anymore.

By the second day in the hospital I finally had to ask her where she got her perfume. She looked at me a little stunned and then told me she wasn’t allowed to wear perfume or lotion and it had to be her laundry detergent I was smelling. I leaned in closer to her and was like “tell me more! Where do you get this amazing detergent?’ Surprise, Surprise it’s on amazon and called Diva by the Tyler Candle Company. I bought my first bottle while sitting in the hospital room that afternoon and I haven’t looked back.

At first I figured I was only going to use it on sheets and towels because I wasn’t going to waste this precious smelling gift. I couldn’t wait for it to arrive, I was so excited that when the dog lifted his head because he heard the amazon driver I beat him to the door!! I tried not to look like a deranged lunatic as I did my best to casually walk out to get the box from the amazon driver. I kept whispering to myself “don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious.” I was vibrating I was so excited!! I brought the box into the house, opened it and saw the cutest bottle. It was love at first sight or love at first smell. I proceeded to open the seal and took a huge sniff and it smelled just like the nurse. I was in heaven.

At this point I threw out any pretense of not being a lunatic and stripped the sheets off my bed and collected all the towels! In the wash they went and I poured this amazing concoction into my washer, my laundry room smelled amazing. I was now in a frenzy and couldn’t stop there. I grabbed all the throw blankets that vaguely smelled like boy feet and did that load next, again they came out amazing. Next came the bath rug in my master bath and it was divine! I decided to do a load of Adam and my clothes because we’re both divas and deserve our clothes smelling good! Once again they smelled amazing.

I was obsessed, I couldn’t stop and so I came to my next dilemma, do I wash the boys laundry in it or not? I couldn’t resist, I caved, who wouldn’t when you could have the world’s stinkiest boys smell absolutely amazing? I was a little worried at first whether this detergent had what it takes to go against 4 boys so I used my trusty Tide in the laundry detergent section of my front loader but added a little Diva to the fabric softener section and then I waited! I was skeptical but after my washer played its little I am done song, I tiptoed into the laundry room. I nervously opened the door, grabbed a pair of shorts I knew had been worn to wrestling practice, and took a big sniff! I couldn’t believe it but their clothes came out smelling soooo good and I was hooked.

Eventually, I was washing everything in it. I just added it to the fabric softener section to save my precious diva. I knew I was onto something when Noah came home from a wrestling tournament and asked if I had done something different with the laundry.

Me: “Why yes, I did!! Why do you ask?”

Noah: “Because at the end of the tournament one of the guys kept sniffing me and told me I smelled too good for having wrestled all day.”

I was on cloud nine! I had done it, I had cracked the stink code. I was now on a roll and everything was washed and cleaned in Diva. Months passed and random strangers asked me often what I was wearing and I shared with them about my precious Diva. A few months later and it was Football season and again everything gets washed in Diva. For those of you that have ever had a High School football player their equipment and uniforms are on a whole other level of funk. I wondered if Diva was up to the job and she was! I started to get asked by a few other football moms what my secret was and I told everyone about my friend Diva. You know you are on to something when your teenager comes home talking about it.

Noah: my friend “BLANK is mad at you.”

Me: “Why?”

Noah: “He said his Mom bought some laundry detergent you recommended and now his uniform smells like flowers and funk.

Me: “Why does it smell like funk?”

Noah: “He said he puts his uniform in his gym bag so it 1/2 smells good and 1/2 stinks like his gym bag. I told him to put it in a ziploc bag and then put it in his gym bag so it doesn’t stink.”

Somehow I’ve raised a problem solver!

Diva has even caused my somewhat antisocial husband to be stopped on a plane. On his flight to Asia this past month the stewardess said and I quote “Oh Child, you smell good!!”, my husband then had to text me for the Laundry detergent information and shared it with her.

Diva is definitely my friend and ally against all things stinky, while I wish it would solve all things related to boy funk aka Hot Boxing unfortunately it currently only covers laundry which some days is enough.

But at the end of the day Adam and I smell like Divas, the boys smell like gentlemen, and the dog likes to roll in my newly cleaned throw blankets.

Below is a link to the Laundry Detergent if you too are interested in smelling like a Diva, as an Amazon Affiliate I do earn from qualified purchases which will allow me to continue to support my laundry obsession and cover any sports related funk to which I thank you.

Tyler Candle Company Diva https://amzn.to/497mBCe