Foodie Scent

Slatkin & Co. Vanilla Shortbread

I just checked the B&BW website and apparently they're not selling this candle anymore so, sorry if you wanted to get this one. There's always ebay. I bought it right before Christmas. This scent should definitely be called lemon shortbread. This smells exactly like the lemon cream cake dessert thing at Olive Garden. It also reminds me of the lemon sugar body line Bath & Body Works had a couple of years ago. It's lemon, then sugar, then cake. It's not bad but not a favorite of mine. It's a little too sweet and lemony for me. Little less sugar next time.

**Update - The more I burn this one, the more I like it. Sometimes it reminds me of Cap'n Crunch cereal too! Haha.

Glade Candle Review

Fail.

This scent is called Creamy Custard and Blushing Apple but I've smelled Pumpkin Pie while it was burning too and that review would be the same.

I wanted to give Glade Candles a try after seeing all those commercials with that annoying lady that pretends these candles are French, as if French candles are widely known to be the best. This scent smelled sooo good in the store. I'm not a real fan of the whole dual scent thing but the one on top (creamy custard) smelled so good I bought it for that. It does not burn evenly even after burning it all night long. The wax just would not burn all the way across. The scent is practically non-existent even after putting it right in front of me while burning. But when you do catch a whiff, it smells completely different than what it smelled like before burning. This candle and the pumpkin pie candle have the same baby powder-type fragrance. Gross.

I'll mainly stick to spending a little more money on my home fragrance, however it is kinda fun to review a wide variety of things including brand new products so I'll continue to review cheapy things as well.

{Currently Burning - nothing again! I'm sick of my winter scents but it's too early for spring. I'm gonna break out some foodie scents next. I have some good ones too!}

Renuzit Pearl Scents Review

Fail.

I saw the commercial for the Renuzit Crystal Elements (the little rocks in a vase) Amber Vanilla Scent and I was interested but when they didn't have that new scent in the store, I went for the Pearl Scents in "After the Rain". It was an "odor neutralizer" so I figured I could put it in my bathroom and forget about it. ...Ten minutes later sitting in my living room, I had enough and threw it away.

This is a small plastic jar with a bunch of little oily beads inside - kinda pretty. After peeling the seal off the top, there's a decorative lid (well it's just gray plastic) with openings for the scent to come through but so the beads don't fall out. The smell is cheap and very strong. Extremely strong. I thought they had improved on the quality of less-expensive fragrances but I guess you still do get what you pay for. The store I went to, KMart, had Orchard Garden (which I couldn't smell since the scratch n sniff sticker didn't seem to have any more smell to it) and Pure Breeze (and that one was just pure awful). They didn't have the lavender one, which I might have liked better but the scent to these is too strong for me. Plus I'm not huge fan of constant fragrance which is why I like to burn candles and I never use Wallflowers or Scentports. I don't like to smell a strong scent every single time I breathe in.

I bought another home fragrance product from KMart so that review will come next. I've been kinda broke so I thought I would give the cheap stuff a try. Stay tuned to see if I ever try it again.

Tips for Burning Candles

1. Wick-Trimming

If you're burning quality candles, forget about trimming the wick. This is just completely not necessary.

2. Candle Burning

A. Probably the most important tip is to burn the whole top surface of wax all the way across every single time you burn a candle. The more wicks the candle has, the less time it takes for this to happen. So for example if you are burning my favorite - a Slatkin 3-Wick, the surface area is burning in more areas so the wax melts all the way across pretty quickly. If you are burning a large 1 wick candle, like the large jar candles from Yankee, you will need a lot of burn time. I always think about this before I light a candle because once you have to blow it out too soon one time, it's hard to get it to burn evenly again.

B. Sometimes when you burn a candle, following all instructions properly, the flames get very low and they are still burning but the wax is not melting as quickly. Do not blow out! Keep burning! I find this happens with Slatkin candles sometimes and if you keep burning the candle, the flames will eventually rise again and melt the wax quickly and evenly again. I don't know why this happens, but if you blow them out while this is happening, sometimes it's very hard to light the wicks again at all.

3. Putting the candle out

I like to blow out a candle instead of putting a metal lid back on to make it go out (like some have been known to suggest) because that really blackens the lid. Plus you get a strong smell of the candle right after it is blown out and you don't get to enjoy that when the lid is left on. You could also use a snuffer but I just don't think it's necessary to buy an extra tool and then have to find someplace to store it.

4. Cleaning the Wick

Some people recommend taking off the black bulb-type things that collect on the top of the wick. This prevents them from falling into the wax and keeping your candle clean and pretty. However, I don't feel that this is necessary if you don't care about the black pieces collecting into the wax. You only see them when the candle is being burned and it doesn't affect the candle burn or fragrance. Also, a couple times that I have done this, with either a tissue or my fingers, it has broken the wick off which is not good. Trying to burn a candle with a wick that's too short is pretty difficult and sometimes impossible.

Stay tuned...Different brands and different forms of home fragrance to come!

{Currently Burning - Christmas Cookie by Yankee Candle}

Yankee's January Scent

So I'm loving the Yankee Candle 2010 calendar that I bought. I decided it would be a good idea to post their scents for each month for those of you that love to burn seasonally and don't have the luxury of the calendar.

January is Sparkling Snow.

Yankeecandle.com describes this as "The crisp, naturally fresh scent of gleaming, snow-covered pines with hints of patchouli and fruit." It definitely has a light pine scent, not nearly as strong as all the pines that come out during Christmas and that's nice for January. There's not a strong patchouli scent because I hate that smell- it just makes it a little woodsy. And I don't get much of a fruit smell - it's not like the orange in Slatkin's Winter (which is still the ultimate winter scent to me). It might be a little soapy but it's overall not a bad scent to burn this month. My mom likes this sparkling line. She also has sparking vanilla, which I'm not a huge fan of but this one: not bad.

An All Time Favorite

Sandalwood Vanilla by Slatkin & Co. from Bath & Body Works. This is a sexy/romantic fragrance to me. It's a good blend of masculine and feminine. I always used to light it when I had male company. Hopefully I'll be lighting this again sometime soon. The website describes it as "a powdery soft and sensual fragrance that blends the warm woody essence of sandalwood with creamy vanilla". That doesn't say much but I can't do any better myself. It really does just smell like the two notes it's comprised of. They changed the packaging so if you see this candle now it's in clear glass with a lighter, floral picture which to me does not echo the product. That dark amber color of the glass better represented the sexy fragrance, in my opinion.

My sister, a former manager of B&BW, once told me they were discontinuing this fragrance so I proceeded to buy stock of it. I still have yet to burn several of the exact product - the 3 wick candle. I even have a couple of what I call the "turbo" three wicks which I don't even know if they make anymore. They're taller than the regular 3 wicks - almost doubled the size. My brother also loves this scent so I think it's a great unisex candle. Light one to set the mood tonight!

{Currently Burning - Spice by Slatkin & Co.}

Post-Holidays

I hope that the one person who reads this blog had a wonderful Christmas, or whatever, and happy New Year.

I went overboard with buying holiday scented candles this year like I usually do so I'm still burning up those. So it'll be Winter, Fresh Balsam, Spice, Christmas Cookie, and Jack Frost for awhile.

I bought some Fireside products (by Slatkin & Co. from Bath and Body Works) for my brother for Christmas and he liked them so that's another recommendation. I bought him the three wick candle and Scentport. Another scent great for winter...or fall.

I also just bought the 2010 Yankee Candle calendar which I'm excited about. Besides the beautiful pictures each month showcasing a certain scent, there's also a peel off sticker that lets you sample the candle scent as well. So more new scents to come! Stay tuned!

{Currently Burning - Winter by Slatkin & Co.}