Review: Tiffany Candles' Lavender Vanilla

*sigh*

Little, tiny hearts scented like pure bliss.

It's starting to sound like Tiffany Candles* is paying me boatloads of money to talk up their business, right? No folks, they aren't...they really are just that good.

Lavender Vanilla is a creamy, relaxing, yet fragrant blend of these two scents, and does a perfect job of melding them together. On cold sniff, you first get an overpowering but amazing herbal scent that quickly transforms into a smooth, luscious blend of vanilla and soothing lavender. It's great for relaxation, to have melting in the background, or just because  The picture above includes tarts in their old wax blend, and if you can believe it, their new wax blend is even stronger!

This company is stellar. It's freaking ridiculous. They take their time to perfect their craft and don't release new products (in this case, an entirely new blend of wax [now paraffin]) until they have been tested and perfected. If you have any doubt about buying from this company, don't. Sure, I haven't tried everything they have to offer, but everything I have purchased and melted so far has given at least decent...nothing has been under-scented or had poor performance. Their products made me want to keep coming back for more, and Tiffany and Gary's customer service has made a lifetime customer out of me!

*JUST A NOTE: Tiffany Candles is closing the wax portion of their shop tomorrow, December 1st, until the new year. You CAN STILL purchase non-wax products, though! So, get those final orders in, if you're interested!

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Tiffany Candles' Lavender Vanilla
Cold Rating: 10/10; perfect mix of potent lavender, creamy vanilla, and sheer amazingness.
Lit Rating: 9/10; absolutely fabulous! I really don't know how Tiffany Candles manages to produce so many amazing scents with consistently excellent performance and throw. It's like they are magic tarts!!
Throw Rating: 10/10; strong, but not overbearing, plus it is a great sleeping fragrance! Dare I say, sexy??? ;)
Overall Rating: 10/10; like I said before, they have done it again! Fabulous scent, cute shape, astounding performance (these two particular tarts pictured lasted 2 days), I could go on and on...

Review: Yankee Candle's Christmas at the Beach

Well, loyal readers, Christmas time is upon us...
...and I'm loving every minute of it!

Part of me knows it's TOO EARLY to start getting ready and excited for Christmas; this is the adult side of me...and the juvenile side of me has spent the better portion of the last two days listening to Christmas music, decorating the house to surprise Josh, and looking for appetizers for our Christmas shindig.

The amount that I love/am obsessed with Christmas actually pretty pathetic. I've been thinking about it since, oh, I don't know...March? June? More in August? Everything about Christmas makes me ridiculously happy...

...but that doesn't mean we can't crave summer scents during the holidays! Christmas at the Beach should have been the perfect mix of summer and winter, but it is seriously lacking in oomph. The throw was minuscule, on cold and warm throw; upon melting it, I smelled a teeny weeny little bit of pineapple followed by a smattering of coconut, but that's it. One time. Nothing else. This votive was basically useless. I had to add my last tart of Tiffany Candles' Coconut & Pineapple, and then the party got started, but as a stand alone fragrance, Christmas at the Beach DOES NOT cut it. Yankee has been hit or miss for me lately, which is super depressing. I want the strong, powerful Yankee, not this piddly thing!

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Yankee Candle Christmas at the Beach
Cold Rating: 2/10; extremely subtle coconut scent, but not even so much that you'd notice on cold sniff.
Lit Rating: 2/10; nothing!
Throw Rating: 2/10; PIDDLY.
Overall Rating: 2/10; EXTREMELY DEPRESSED/ANGRY/UPSET AT YANKEE, CANNOT CONTAIN MY EMOTIONS, LOOK AT YOUR LIFE LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES, ETC.

Project Wax Round 1, update #1

As you will see, I have made a lot of progress on my Project Wax bag, but have also had to substitute things out for other items. One item I started to melt was so wretched that I had to throw it away, so I've indicated what I replaced it with in comparable wax. I've also gone through and added a few more Christmas scents to the list.

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*Project Wax #1* (start date: November 13, 2012)

Kim's Tarts
-Christmas Wish (3 pack)
-Fruit Loops (3 pack)
-Farmhouse Cider (3 pack)
-Trick of Treat (3 pack)
-Chestnuts and Brown Sugar sample
-Leaves sample
-Praline Pound Cake sample
-White Christmas (3 pack)
-Christmas Splendor (3 pack)
-Christmas Eve (3 pack)

Ollie's Soaps
-Pumpkin Souffle sample (2 pumpkins)
-Lemon Cheesecake sample
-Grapefruit Melon sample
-Peppermint Apple sample scalloped tart
-Pink Peppermint scalloped tart
-Zucchini Bread Noel scalloped tart
-Brandied Pear scalloped tart

Front Porch
-Buttercream and Coconut
-Amish Friendship Bread
-Lime Cookies
-Pumpkin Eggnog
-Purple and Pink Wine
-Lavender Marshmallow
-Lavender Love Dare 

Scentsy
-Pumpkin Marshmallow bar
-Autumn Sunset bar

Candles From The Keeping Room
-Pumpkin and Pralines
-Pink Sugared Waffers* (repurchase, favorite, amazing, etc)
-Christmas Pudding sample
-Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll sample

Streetman Candle Company
-Pumpkin Sugar Cookie
-Strawberry Sugar

Rincon Scents
-Mango Cooler

Dutch Candle Company
-Autumn Forest

Crabby Candle Company
-Sweet Potato Pie

Distinctly Pink Aroma Melt
-Have a Berry Merry Christmas

Yankee Candle
-Mistletoe
-Harvest
-Apple Pumpkin
-Autumn Leaves
-Christmas at the Beach
-Balsam and Cedar
-North Pole
-Red Berry & Cedar

Pics, Petals & Scents
-Cozy Fall Nights 
 
JMae's Candles and Soaps
-Lemon Poppyseed
-Pineapple Orchid

Keone Candle
-Buttered Rum clam shell (melted 2 cubes of this and had to throw the rest away...it was disgustingly buttery and not in a pleasant way; I've since replaced this with 2 Ava's Country Cupboard samples, 2 cubes of one Bathing Garden clam shell, and 4 cubes of another Bathing Garden clam shell)

My Candle Box
-Tinsel Me Pink itty bitty soy drops

The Bathing Garden
-2 cubes of Sleigh Ride
-4 cubes of Jack Frost  -2 cubes of Jack Frost
-4 cubes of Snowed In

Ava's Country Cupboard
-Christmas Splendor sample
-Pleasant Christmas sample

Tiffany Candles
-Paradise scent shot
-Fruity Loops scent shot
-Coconut & Pineapple scalloped tart

Granny's Kountry Candles
-Tank Tops & Flip Flops scent shot
-Home Sweet Home scent shot
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 Not sure what Project Wax is all about? CLICK HERE to find out!

Weekend Wax Review: November 22-25

Hi! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if you indulge in Black Friday, a successful shopping trip. Me? I only do Black Friday online because the idea of getting up at an ungodly hour to wait in line with a bunch of people who have every intention of mauling me for a toaster is NOT my cup of tea...
...I prefer to shop at home. In my pajamas. Coffee in hand. Price checking. Warm. Non-mauling people. Candles.

Black Friday was my one exception to Project Wax, so I placed small orders with a few companies I have been wanting to try; their deals were just too good, so I had to buy while I could! I will anxiously await (read, try to make room for more tarts) these orders to come in! In the mean time, I melted a hefty amount from Friday to today. I decided to include Thanksgiving and Friday because this sort of felt like an extended weekend with Thanksgiving!

During Thanksgiving, my mom had this candle going: Fig & Spiced Pear from Michael's (which, if you don't live near one, if a craft store), but I'm not sure of the brand. I really, really liked this scent! It sort of smelled like Brown Sugar and Fig from B&BW, but much fruitier. The pears were spicy, the figs were pungent, and it was awesome. On cold sniff about a week ago, I'd give it a 6/10. Warm sniff 7/10. Throw 5.5/10, for a total of 6/10. I might have to see if Michael's still sells these bad boys!

First off, I melted Holly Berry from Tiffany Candles. This sample was in her new wax blend, which has no cure time* This scent was pretty good! I'm usually picky with my piney, tree-y, forest-y scents, but the soft scent of berries compliments the Fir tree note very well! It wasn't too terribly strong as far as throw goes, but it filled up our bedroom quite nicely. Also, I love when companies put special touches on their wax, like glitter or baubles or charms. That matters to me more than what type of wax is used or how long I have to let it cure. For Tiffany Candles, I'd wait an entire year for their amazing products! I'd give this one a 6/10!

It seems like I was on a Front Porch kick this weekend. I started off with Lavender Love Dare. Now, Love Dare, on cold sniff, smells great and filled with orange, citrus, and even a little bit of a musky note. With the added lavender, however, the citrus flavor is hardly anywhere to be found. To me, this one smelled musty, not musky, sort of like mothballs, if that makes any sense. I think, while Front Porch makes AMAZING products, I'm just simply not a fan of their lavender fragrances, be it alone or mixed with something else. I will let the rest of my 6(ish) lavender tarts (from my sampler) cure a bit, but I just couldn't get past the old lady perfume room smell. 4/10.

Lavender Marshmallow was the same way...the creaminess of the marshmallow was thrown off by the mustiness of the lavender. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE lavender, it is one of my favorite scents, but I have not had the best luck with lavender from Front Porch. This one was a bit better than Lavender Love Dare, but not by much. It was also a lot less strong than the other scent. On cold sniff, I couldn't get much out of it. I think, if I ever finish my Project Wax bag, when I make another FP order, I will get a Lavender by itself to see how that smells, then maybe I can judge based on the individual scents. For now, this is a 4.5/10 in my book.

 Next up, we have Front Porch's Pink & Purple Wine...while it did, in fact, smell like wine, something was off. I'm not sure why FP blends pink sugar with anything, really, because often times the pink is muted by the strong main scent itself! That's what happened here. I would have liked to smell a little more of a muddled, sweeter wine scent from the pink sugar, but it just got lost in a sea of booze. We were not fans of this one...it was strong, sure, but not for us. On cold sniff, 5/10. On warm sniff, 4/10. Throw overall, 6/10. A total of 5/10, just average.

Next, we have Candles From The Keeping Room (CFTKR)'s Pink Sugared Waffers...oh. my. god. This scent was heavenly. CFTKR so beautifully blends their pink sugar with other, unexpected ingredients to create these....what's the word....magical blends, and no, I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I instantly felt happier when I had this melting...like I was a little kid getting to experience sugary, delicious wafer cookies for the very first time. We melted this all Friday afternoon, all night, and into the morning and it was still going strong. CFTKR is DEFINITELY in my top 5 favorite vendors after this scent, I tell you what. On cold sniff, 8/10. Warm sniff, 9/10. Throw 8/10. Overall, 8/10, and a job well done. I can't wait until Carol opens her shop again!

Tiffany Candles' Fruity Loops in the new wax blend. Simply fabulous. Truly smells like Fruit Loops cereal, melted strong all afternoon, night, and well into this morning. Throw 8.5/10. Cold sniff 7.5/10. Warm sniff 8.5/10, for a total of 8/10. Tiffany Candles does it again...they are really quite unstoppable, especially with this no cure-time wax blend.

Sorry about the blurry photo, not sure what happened there. Finally, Josh picked this one out before he went to work this morning. He said something to the effect of, "here, try this, you don't like bread scents, so get it out of the way." FR's bread scents are absolutely amazing, and this is no exception. It's very complex; when I got home from dropping him off at work, I only smelled freshly baked bread, nothing more...but when I walked into the bedroom, I was greeted with wisps of raisins, cinnamon, bread, and even a bit of cherry! Cold sniff 6/10. Warm sniff 7.5/10. Throw 8/10, for a total of 7/10.

There's my weekend wax review!**

I will update my Project Wax status a bit later, for those of you who are interested. Have a fabulous week, happy melting!
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*For those of you who are new to the wax world, in order to get a better scent and scent throw, candles and tarts often need to cure, or wait a couple of weeks, to reach their full potential and potency!

**PLEASE keep in mind these opinions are all my own. What I find to be wonderful, others may hate, and what other may love, I may detest. We're all entitled to our own opinions, and my reviews don't mean that these vendors are bad, because they are all good at something, I just need to find what I like from each vendor and stick to it! Since I'm new to the different online vendors, I am trying any and everything I can get my hands on to sample!

Review: Ollie's Soaps Peppermint Apple and Lemon Cheesecake

Ayano from Ollie's Soaps has such awesome customer service! If there's a problem, she rights it quickly and efficiently. This online vendor is one of my favorites because their products typically smell wonderful while being affordable,and their Etsy shop is really easy to navigate through...the only problem is picking what you want because there are so many items to choose from! I've been sitting around on my Ollie's Soaps products and thought it was time to get to meltin'!

Lemon Cheesecake was my least favorite of the two I chose to warm today. I don't quite know what it was...but something smelled waaay off. Maybe it was just too much cheesecake, not enough lemon (and there was hardly any lemon scent at all), but to me, it smelled like graham crackers that had been in sour milk sogginess. I know this sounds bad, but it's true, in my opinion. Within an hour, my warmer was off and the wax was out of the house. On cold sniff, it smelled decent, but while warming, it was not pleasant. I hope this does not sully the rest of their products for you because everything besides this scent (in my opinion) has truly been great.*

*I did, however, love the glitter on these little squares so much so that I had to take an extra photo of them melted down completely. It looks like pixie dust, huh!? A little pizzazz on a tart never hurts, people! :)

Next, I chose Peppermint Apple...what the hell? At first glance, these two ingredients DO NOT sound like they would go well together, but I'm here to tell you this simply isn't true. These two scents, when paired together in this tart, are pure perfection. The air feels misty from the lung-clearing peppermint, and fresh with a red, delicious apple scent right next to it; it's almost spa-like.

I have it melting right now and it is still giving off a strong scent throw after 5 hours. I cannot wait to order more of this scent. In masses, perhaps. It's nearly perfect...who would have thought I'd like something apple-y without a trace of cinnamon or spice?! Scents like this, unique combinations, funky names, cool colors, keep me coming back to the wax world for more. Each vendor has something different and exciting to offer, and for Ollie's Soaps, I hope they fight for this fragrance and keep it around.

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Ollie's Soaps Lemon Cheesecake
Cold Rating: 4/10; smells like cheesecake, but I didn't get very much lemon.
Lit Rating: 2/10; the cheesecake smelled alright at first, but it went sour (literally) really quickly. Like I said, it was not pleasant. I had to turn off my warmer and pour out the wax.
Throw Rating: 3/10; it had a less than average scent throw.
Overall Rating: 3/10; the throw of a bad tart is almost as bad as no scent at all. Sorry, Ayano, don't hate me. :(

Ollie's Soaps Peppermint Apple
Cold Rating: 7/10; strong peppermint and apple combined, one doesn't necessarily dominate the other.
Lit Rating: 9/10; I love when I am proven wrong about a scent combination...this is a refreshing, bright fragrance that filled not just our bedroom, but the entire house with its intoxicating aroma.
Throw Rating: 8.5/10, fantastic throw.
Overall Rating: 8/10, nearly perfect. Ridiculously amazed by this scent combination and love every minute of it!

Weekend Wax Review: November 17-18

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, folks! It's the most wonderful time of the year!

We're in charge of the turkey this year. Problems?
...neither of us have ever made a turkey.
...our oven is awful.
...I have an aversion to touching poultry.

IT WILL BE FINE. I keep telling myself that we are adults, we can handle this...
...and then I think of giblets. *shiver*
So, mom, if you're reading this, sorry in advance for potentially poisoning your guests. KIDDING!! (heh??? HEH???)

We melted a pretty good amount of wax this weekend. Josh works all day on Saturday and Sunday, so I kept it simple while he was gone and tried to melt things I didn't think he would like. I melted Kim's Tarts' Christmas Wish (review coming soon) and Fruit Loops. Fruit Loops from Kim's Tarts was pretty good, but not the best Fruit Loops scent I've tried. It lasted a good 6 hours during the day, though, which was awesome. I'd say overall a 6/10. Kim's has been really hit or miss, but this one was decent!

Also, I wandered back into the world of Scentsy with Pumpkin Marshmallow, which is a bar I won from a Happy Fall Y'all giveaway online! This scent was pretty good, but not great; we had this going in the plug-in Scentsy warmerabove, also something I won in the giveaway, but it filled up the back section of our condo pretty fast. It really did smell like marshmallows, but it had a hefty amount of artificial sweetness. Overall, I'd say this was a 5/10; would have liked to smell a bit more spicy, or even some pumpkin...it was very muted. Just because something is strong doesn't necessarily mean it's a good scent. Also, who says pumpkins have to go away after Halloween?! I love this plug-in warmer!

Last night we warmed Tinsel from My Candle Box, a vendor featured in the November Simply Sensational box. This fragrance was fabulous! It smelled like pink sugar combined with strawberries and a hint of peppermint. I warmed it before we went to bed and left it on until the middle of the night. This morning, it was still going strong. Gotta give it up to vendors who have perfected the art of longevity in their wax, right? Great nighttime fragrance! Unfortunately, I'd give it a 4/10 on cold sniff (we could hardly smell anything in the plastic baggie), 7/10 while warming, 7/10 for the throw, which means a 6/10 overall.

Right now, I have Pumpkins and Pralines from CFTKR, of Candles From The Keeping Room*, melting in the bedroom. This is another fabulous sweet smell true to its name. It smells like freshly toasted and sugar-coated pralines on top of a pumpkin pie. Crusty, buttery, creamy, sugary...ohhhh so so so so good. Heavy on the sweet pralines, with subtle pumpkin aroma. 6.5/10 on cold sniff, 6/10 while melting, 7/10 for throw, 6.5/10 overall. Decadent, but can get very sweet and one-note pretty fast (again, this is just my opinion). Try it out, though, it's a good one!

*Another note about CFTKR: Carol, the owner, is so super sweet, and really fast with her shipping. She communicates with customers on her Facebook page nearly every single day with updates about not just her shop, but her life as well. She puts so much time and effort into her wax that I would DEFINITELY purchase from her again even though her shipping costs can be high. In an effort to make up for these costs, though, she adds a ton of samples in every order. I got 9, yes, 9 SAMPLES, ranging in size and shape! How cool is that?! Her scents are unique, her shapes are really cute, and her quality is great! What more could you ask for? Her shop is closed right now, but she will be re-opening after Thanksgiving!

**Another note about this: Being the genius that I am, I decided to include photos in my Weekend Wax Reviews from now on. It's too time consuming to review everything I've EVER melted, so I'll do in-depth, longer reviews on the fragrances/vendors I either loved/hated/found so-so, and then add extra pictures and smaller reviews on the weekend! Like I said, GENIUS!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week, y'all!

PS: I just noticed all of the above scents hovered around a 6/10. This is not on purpose, it's just a coincidence I noticed from my notes.

Project Wax

Some of the YouTubers I follow have been posting videos about this thing called  "Project Wax;" I'm not entirely sure who started it or thought of the idea, so if you happen to be the inventor of this wonderful idea, please let me know and I will give you the credit you deserve!

Project Wax is actually a genius idea.

The concept behind this is simple: you take all of the tarts, clamshells, scalloped melts...basically any type of wax you either want to burn/are hoarding and holding onto for no reason, or have forgotten about/pushed aside, or the wax you don't really want to keep any longer, and put them in a special bag or box. The contents of this bag or box must be used and emptied IN FULL in order to make another wax purchase.

For my Project Wax #1, I'm trying to melt my fall and winter scents during the actual season, but also switch it up a bit. I've been waiting for my last few orders to come in because of longer turnaround times. Now that they are here, I can start my Project Wax bag. I've noticed a lot of YouTubers try and get done with their bags/boxes as quickly as possible, but I'm just trying to destash, so it'll take me as long as it'll take me.

Here's a list of what I've acquired from samplers, orders, and destashes...just keep in mind, I did not purchase all of this! I might actually add some eventually, so I will update it about once a week until I'm done! :)

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*Project Wax #1* (start date: November 13, 2012)

Kim's Tarts
-Christmas Wish (3 pack)
-Fruit Loops (3 pack)
-Farmhouse Cider (3 pack)
-Trick of Treat (3 pack)
-Chestnuts and Brown Sugar sample
-Leaves sample
-Praline Pound Cake sample
-White Christmas (3 pack)
-Christmas Splendor (3 pack)
-Christmas Eve (3 pack)

Ollie's Soaps
-Pumpkin Souffle sample (2 pumpkins)
-Lemon Cheesecake sample
-Grapefruit Melon sample
-Peppermint Apple sample scalloped tart
-Pink Peppermint scalloped tart
-Zucchini Bread Noelscalloped tart
-Brandied Pear scalloped tart

Front Porch
-Buttercream and Coconut
-Amish Friendship Bread
-Lime Cookies
-Pumpkin Eggnog
-Purple and Pink Wine
-Lavender

Scentsy
-Pumpkin Marshmallow bar
-Autumn Sunset bar

Candles From The Keeping Room
-Pumpkin and Pralines

Streetman Candle Company
-Pumpkin Sugar Cookie
-Strawberry Sugar

Rincon Scents
-Mango Cooler

Dutch Candle Company
-Autumn Forest

Crabby Candle Company
-Sweet Potato Pie

Distinctly Pink Aroma Melt
-Have a Berry Merry Christmas 

Yankee Candle
-Fresh Cut Roses
-Mistletoe
-Farmer's Market
-Autumn Leaves
-Christmas at the Beach
-Balsam and Cedar


Pics, Petals & Scents
-Cozy Fall Nights 

JMae's Candles and Soaps
-Lemon Poppyseed
-Pineapple Orchid

Keone Candle
-Buttered Rum clamshell

My Candle Box
-Tinsel Me Pink itty bitty soy drops

The Miserable Life of a Candle

My husband sent me this funny picture and I thought I'd share it with all of you.

Sad, but true! :)

Have a fabulous weekend, and happy melting!

Review: Kim's Tarts' Farmhouse Cider

My husband Josh has come around about my wax fetish..

[is fetish the right word? Habit? Love? Addiction? Problem? Bueller??]

At first, I don't think he saw the point. While we want our house to smell lovely and not like a trash can, I don't know if he exactly got why I like candles and wax. Of course, I'm purely speculating...maybe he's understood the entire time but was simply giving me a hard time! Some people like fine cigars, sports cards, movie memorabilia...I like candles and wax. 

I've started trying to include him more in my scent travels...

[Travels? Is THAT the right word?? Exploits? Cravings? Adventures? BUELLER???]

Instead of me always picking the scent of the day/night based on what we each like, he's been picking what we melt/burn lately! So, last night, when I read the contents from my Project Wax bag (I'll explain this in my next post), he picked Kim's Tarts' Farmhouse Cider. An excellent choice, my fine feathered friend...now I KNOW this is not the right phrase, it's just something I always say. :)

...I really wish I could review this scent better. We wanted to love it...

Per Kim's Tarts website, the notes for this scent are: "Fresh, ground cinnamon, generously sprinkled over tasty hot apple cider. Allspice, fresh clove bud, and drips of Vermont maple complete this flavorful treat. The scent of hot spiced cider warms the soul. SUPER STRONG!" To me, this fragrance pretty much sounded like a dupe for the Bath & Body Works scent with the same name. What we expected to get was an overwhelming spicy apple scent, dripping with fall delight...something that would run us out of the room because it was so strong...

...unfortunately, that was not the case. On cold sniff, the scent was virtually nonexistent. I added one of the 3 scalloped tarts to start into my 24-watt hot plate warmer and figured we'd try our luck anyways. Well, the first one was melted completely and I didn't even know it. If I put my nose almost directly on the wax, I could get a tiny hint of cinnamon, otherwise, nothin'. I added another tart to see if it yielded better results...then had to add the third and final tart when 2 didn't do squat. While the fragrance was fractionally improved with the addition of the remaining 2 tarts, this scent did almost nothing for us. It was really disappointing because the description promised strength where there was none. Onto the next thing!

Happy melting, everyone!

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Kim's Tarts Farmhouse Cider
Cold Rating: 2/10; this one had no fragrance at all. There was a slight hint of something in the middle tart in the bag of 3, but it was not anything included in the Farmhouse Cider description.
Lit Rating: 3/10; one point for each tart, I suppose. Disappointingly light scent after a raving description about strength.
Throw Rating: 2/10; again, you had to be ON TOP of the wax to get any throw.
Overall Rating: 2.5/10; it's hard to review something that basically has no throw, smell, or general use. But, this is 2 out of 3 tarts I've tried from Kim's Tarts that have had a less than average performance. I still have quite a few bags filled with tarts left to melt, and my hunch is I'd better do it fast or else there will be no scent in the wax left to review!

Review: Tiffany Candles' Hocus Pocus

Josh and I LOVE Halloween, and typically, we decorate our house with all sorts of awesomeness. But this year, with all that has been going on in the last two months, Halloween sort of came and went with no extravagance. We got a couple of horror movies got watched, but that's about it. We didn't decorate our house, we didn't get our little pup his Darth Vader costume, we didn't even take our Halloween box out of the closet...

In fact, Halloween just felt like a major bummer this year. The only trick-or-treaters we got at our house were our niece and nephew, which was the highlight of our night. It was so cool to see them all dressed up knocking at our door! There were other kids outside going door-to-door, but they passed us by, and it was depressing. The people in our apartment complex aren't very friendly.

The only other festive thing I did this year, during the day, was melt Tiffany Candles' Hocus Pocus. This scent shot is a sweet mix of caramel apple and candy corn.* Many of the YouTubers have done reviews raving about this scent, so in my very first order from this company, I made it a point to add it to my bag! The lusciousness of this scent really shines through in an unexpected mix of caramel and candy, but the apple fragrance is a bit muddled on cold sniff. Once it started warming, though, you get a powerful, consistent punch of pure, candy-coated heaven. This company, along with Front Porch Candle Co., really have my attention towards their bakery and sweet scents!

I had it going for 6 hours and the scent was so strong that I could not, in good conscience, throw it away. So, I did what any normal person would do and poured it back into the container...and all over the desk....and all over my shirt. OOPS, I guess I was just too excited and clingy to the one thing that made the holiday fabulous this year!

Here's to hoping next year's Halloween won't be a bummer, man!

*sidebar: Lewis Black does a HILARIOUS comedy bit about candy corn, you can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6S3-cXtKs

**Also, Tiffany Candles now has a new blend of wax that DOES NOT NEED TO CURE! YAY!!! So, if you place an order, you can begin melting your goodies ASAP, instead of waiting a few weeks for the items to cure!

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Tiffany Candles Hocus Pocus
Cold Rating: 6/10; strong and sweet; interesting note: I almost got a hint of butter on cold sniff!
Lit Rating: 7.5/10; caramel goodness mixed with the timeless classic, candy corn; apple scent a bit muted, but it started to come through once it was melting.
Throw Rating: 7.5/10; traveled all over the house from the bedroom. Also, melted perfectly, and saved just as well, too! We got at least 6 hours of scent from this fragrance.
Overall Rating: 7/10; I wish I had more of this to melt! Josh, who is a fan of sweets, loved this one! Tiffany Candles has been consistent with excellent performance, a powerful throw, scent longevity, and each fragrance I melt from them makes me want to give them all my money. SO GOOD!!! :-)

Review: JMae's Pumpkin Spice tart

It's alright to burn your samples first, right? There's no rule that says you have to burn your purchased products first...

...Right???!

Because seriously, this pumpkin spice soy tart has been calling my name ever since I opened my package. This tart is adorable and in a cute pumpkin shape! I appreciate these little touches that set online vendors apart from the big named businesses.

Even though Halloween is over, that's no excuse to put pumpkin scents back in storage! Pumpkin and spice are two of my favorite scents, and they are even better when combined. JMae's pumpkin spice soy tart does have these two ingredients, but is, unfortunately, short lived. It only had fragrance for about 2 hours; plus, the scent didn't travel far, just to the doorway of the bedroom. This is not necessarily bad, but I would have liked a bigger scent throw when melting! The other thing is, instead of being scented with evenly with pumpkin and spice, it was heavy on the spice, which is fine...but I couldn't exactly place what spice it was. Maybe allspice? Maybe an all-purpose pumpkin pie spice, combining multiple spices? Something was off about it. To me, this scent invokes more of a cinnamon bun or cinnamon toast type of aroma, with subtle hints of pumpkin. It was semi-powerful, but faded fast. It also did that weird, not solidifying thing when I turned off the warmer. I have 3 tarts left from this company, so let's see how those stack up later on in the days to come!

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JMae's Pumpkin Spice
Cold Rating: 4/10; the only scent I got on cold throw was some sort of spice that I couldn't put my finger on...it made me sad there was hardly any scent, but...
Lit Rating: 5/10; it was sort of bakery, sort of spicy, not really all that pumpkiny...I definitely got a hint of cinnamon, but I really couldn't place what the other scent was AND IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!
Throw Rating: 5/10; it stayed in the bedroom and didn't drift too far, just average.
Overall Rating: 5/10; I'm sad that I didn't get much out of this scent. Maybe it was an off day, but the scent only lasted about 2 hours and then it was gone. Poof...where did it go?! It stuck around pervasively at first, then fizzled out, as some tarts tend to do. It had a decent spicy scent, though!

Weekend Wax Review: November 2-4

I melted quite a few things this weekend.

Part of me wants to go through my stash of Tiffany Candles as slow as possible because I looooooooooooove their products. I have not found one scent from them that I haven't been in love with! This weekend, I melted: Hocus Pocus (caramel apple mixed with candy corn, very sweet but very fruity, too), Mulled Cider (a fantastic mix of apples, oranges, and spices, mainly clove and a hint of cinnamon, I think), and I burned my 4oz. jelly jar of Stress Relief some more.

From Bath & Body Works, I burned my 'Tis The Season candle, as well as Snowed In, and Leaves, which is always a great choice.

Yankee Candle also got a little bit of action this weekend: I burned my large tumbler of Midnight Jasmine for a few hours as well.

...I guess this weekend wax review includes Friday, too!

Ollie's Soaps got some love this weekend, too! Josh suggested I try Sinus Relief, since he was having allergy symptoms.

Finally, I melted a couple successful scents from Front Porch, which included Pink Peppermint, a newly discovered favorite of mine. Lavender Marshmallow, however, is my first negative experience with this company...it smelled like sweet bug spray to me! I guess you run that risk being a lavender fan!

Anywho, this is a day late and a dollar short, but have an awesome week! Happy melting!

Review: Bath & Body Works' Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin

Fall is such a great season. It is the beginning of holiday baking, allows us to carve pumpkins, excitement for Christmas starts looming, and is just filled with joy in general! Nothing says 'autumn' like a hearty pan of pumpkin cupcakes, cinnamon and spices filling the air, and a hot cup of apple cider to tide you over on a wispy, cool day.

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin sure does the trick! It is much more muted than Spiced Pumpkin from Yankee Candle, but then again, the operative word of this candle is "SWEET." There is definitely vanilla cream in this fragrance, as indicated by the scent description, which is not off-putting at all! In fact, the vanilla does a good job at NOT being the superstar, as per usual. This is not to say I don't enjoy Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin, because I really do! It's strong without being imposing, pumpkiny without being hit in the face with a gourd, spicy without being choked with clove buds, etc; though the first scent note I get from this IS clove, I don't mind at all...it seems like a lot of the candle folk online do not like overly spicy scents...MORE FOR ME, then! :)

And hey, take a look at that burn! I have been having so many problems with Slatkin/White Barn/Bath& Body Works' wicks this year and I was surprised to see a candle that ACTUALLY worked well and fast. Probably half of the candles I've purchased this year from B&BW have had uneven burns, low scent throws because of uneven burns, thin and flimsy wicks...it's sort of been a tragedy. Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin had a fantastic burn, even when burned two or three days later! It was satisfying to get a candle that did what it was supposed to do.

Unfortunately, I waited too long to post this review, and this scent is no longer in a 14.5 oz. candle anymore. They released the fall candles right on the cusp of summer's end and quickly got rid of them to make room for the new winter lines. It's a shame because I had a few family members in mind who would have gotten a kick out of this fragrance. Oh well, onto the next scent line! If you can get your hands on this one, or it makes a triumphant return, go for it, you probably won't be disappointed!

Hey, candles at B&BW are 2/$20 again this week, and I'm not sure when it's ending. Check it out, you know where to find them!

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Bath & Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin
Cold Rating: 6/10; sweet and spicy, pumpkin is muted, but this is not a deterrent.
Lit Rating: 7/10; perfect harmony of all of fall's classic fragrances: spices, pumpkin, and vanilla! Also, had fantastic performance, which is worth noting during this year of awful burns.
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; it took a while for the throw to smack me in the face, but once it was there, there was no stopping it.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10; an all-around great fall scent: nothing more, nothing less! :)