Review: JMae's Soaps and Candles' Black Raspberry Vanilla

I'm always on the lookout for up-and-coming, newly started, or new-ish candle/wax/scent vendors and shops; they seem to put more love and soul into their products. This is definitely not to say Yankee and B&BW don't take the time to make high quality products, but there's something about supporting "mom and pop" stores that I appreciate and prefer. I tend to always root for the underdog in life.

There are many subscription boxes out there, from Birchbox and ipsy, to Conscious Box and Knoshbox. Basically, each month, for a certain price, you can get a box loaded up with sample goodies delivered to your house. Birchbox is arguable the most popular, and this service mainly contains beauty, skin care, and makeup products. One of the sample box brands I've happened to come across in my internet travels is called Simply Sensational. This particular box happens to have a lot of candles and wax tart samples! I did not purchase an October box, but you can bet your sweet bippy I've got my eye on the November and December boxes!

Anywho, I came across JMae's Soaps & Candles' (formerly Imperfect J's Cupcake Soaps) Facebook page because I saw she was going to be joining the Simply Sensational box! I wanted to order from her right away because some of her scents sounded too awesome to pass up! Through Facebook, I contacted Jamie, the owner, and placed an order for a few scent shots. The scents I got were: Lemon Poppyseed, French Market, Pineapple Orchard (a Bath & Body Works type), and Black Raspberry Vanilla. In addition, I received a Pumpkin Spice soy tart sample in an adorable pumpkin shape, a Vanilla body scrub sample (which was FABULOUS and made my skin really soft!), and a Tootsie Pop! I thought it was a nice touch to include not only a sample, but a lollipop, too...very cute!

My first choice to burn was Black Raspberry Vanilla, which is (???) a Bath & Body Works dupe. As you can see, there are sprinkles at the bottom of my tart! I love this added flare; I'm not sure the sprinkles sank to the bottom or were meant to be there in the first place. I personally don't care about where the additions end up in a tart mold since they all melt anyway, but I know some people are extreeeeeeemely picky. It is definitely nice to see some color added into her tarts! It shows she put in the extra time to add something to set her apart from many other companies.

Now, onto the scent. As it has been well documented, I am not a fan of bakery, IE: the beating of the dead horse.* Bakery this is not: it's just fruity goodness! While melting Black Raspberry Vanilla, it started out pretty tame. I thought, "okay, this will be awesome." But then, it kicked into full gear and lo and behold, ultimate sweetness set in. I melted this tart for about 3 hours the first time, and 2 hours the second time, then the scent started to fade. It was juicy, it smelled delicious, the room was filled with sweetness and just...joy! I thought it was strange to note that, even when the warmer was off, it took like 30 extra minutes for the tart to solidify and harden! It was the craziest thing! I enjoyed this one and am slowly coming around on the sweet scents.

~~~~~~~~~~
JMae's Soaps and Candles Black Raspberry Vanilla
Cold Rating: 6.5/10; sweet, sugary, vanilla-y, delicious smelling (even though I don't know what the original smells like, I think I'd like this one better)!
Lit Rating: 6/10; very sweet and powerful, but definitely sweeter when melting than on cold throw.
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; strong and fragrant!
Overall Rating: 6.5/10; juicy, made me want a smoothie, weird melt, though! Maybe it was just cold in here???

*no horses were harmed in the making of this post.

Also, a quick link: Purchase November's Simply Sensational box here, starting November 1st, for $23.99: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SensationalSampler (GONE, THESE SAMPLER BOXES SOLD OUT FAST THIS MONTH!)