San Diego Woman Spills Bath & Body Works Air Freshener in Her Car. Then She Sees Her Dash Peeling: ‘What I Came Back To’

Bath & Body Works car fragrances have prompted customer complaints that leaking fragrance oil damaged surfaces inside their vehicles. Now, a San Diego woman is sharing her experience after she says a leaking fragrance caused paint on her car’s dashboard to peel.

Creator Kyna Kali (@kyna_kali) shared what happened in an August 2026 TikTok post. She captioned the post, “The fragrance was leaking somehow. Bath and Body Works car fragrance literally peels paint.”

“I don’t know what Bath and Body Works put in their little scent things,” Kali says in her post. “But this is what I came back to in my car. The liquid melted the paint.”

Bath & Body Works Air Fresheners Have a Complicated Relationship with Car Interiors

Kali’s post adds to a history of similar consumer complaints involving Bath & Body Works car fragrances. In 2016, Florida customer Kira Zander filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that fragrance from a leaking Scentportable damaged her vehicle’s console and forced her to replace it.

More recent complaints have surfaced online as well. In May 2026, a Reddit user posted photos of damage they attributed to a Bath & Body Works car air freshener. Other commenters described similar experiences, including damage to dashboards, buttons, plastic trim, and leather.

The Mary Sue also previously reported on a TikTok user who showed apparent damage to a car after a Bath & Body Works air freshener leaked. That report noted other online complaints involving melted plastic and damaged car interiors.

Kali’s Post Suggests the Problem Has Not Been Fixed

One commenter on Kali’s post also claimed to have experienced a similar problem. “Call Bath & Body Works. I am in the process of making a claim with them. It did the same with me,” the commenter wrote.

Bath & Body Works currently sells car fragrance refills. The company’s product pages describe the refills as having a “high concentration of rich fragrance oils” and instruct customers to place the refill inside a compatible holder with the film facing outward. The company’s current safety data sheet identifies the product as a car fragrance refill.

Motor1 examined the ingredients listed for Bath & Body Works’ car fragrances and identified several that can interact with plastics or coatings. The outlet noted that limonene can degrade certain plastics, while benzyl salicylate functions as a plasticizer and phenoxyethanol has been associated with damage to some acrylics and polycarbonates.

Those findings offer one possible explanation for the damage reported by customers. They do not establish why Kali’s dashboard peeled.

Bath & Body Works packaging warns to avoid contact with surfaces and clean spills immediately to prevent damage. The company says containers can burst when heated because of pressure buildup.

High interior heat accelerates liquid expansion and pressure buildup inside vent-mounted units, causing concentrated oils to leak. If a spill occurs, immediately wipe the area dry and wash with mild soap and water; avoid alcohol or harsh cleaners, which accelerate paint damage.

The Mary Sue reached out to Kyna Kali and Bath & Body Works for comment and will update this article if they respond.

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