Review: Sniff My Tarts Lemon Bread Serendipity Marshmallow Smoothie

Do you like milkshakes?
Do they, in fact, bring all the boys to the yard?
When I hear the word "smoothie" in wax when paired with words such as "creamy," "marshmallow," "fluff," or any other light, airy word, I automatically assume "milkshake," "not smoothie."
Smoothies have fruit.
Milkshakes have marshmallows.
Am I crazy?!

As I have documented thoroughly on this blog, I AM NOT a fan of zucchini bread in wax. It smells like corn chips and/or cigarettes. ICK.
Bread bread, though, is fine, so long as I melt it in the kitchen (I know, it's an association thing).
Lemon Bread Serendipity Marshmallow Smoothie from Sniff My Tarts not only gives a citrus twist to this wonderful scent, but also gives it that bready scent as well. The bread isn't overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination, it just gives this scent some much needed variety, as serendipity can be overpoweringly gnawing. This is just a nice bakery scent with lots of pizzazz. If you like SMT's serendipity marshmallow smoothie and like lemon or bread, chances are, you'll dig this! It's very strong, too, on cold sniff and while warming!

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Sniff My Tart's Lemon Bread Serendipity Marshmallow Smoothie
Cold Rating: 7.5/10; pretty strong on cold sniff, and you get all of the notes individually, too!
Lit Rating: 8/10; great scent for the kitchen, it makes it smell like you've been baking some sort of delicious concoction all day.
Throw Rating: 8/10; awesome throw in the kitchen made for a happy and bright smelling household.
Overall Rating: 8/10; a great scent made even better with the addition of lemon and a slight bread scent. Delicious lemon bread recipes. House smells like baking.

Review: Candles from the Keeping Room's Tiki Beach

I wouldn't be summertime without some sort of coconut.
Lots and lots of coconuts.
You put da lime in da coconut, you know, things like that.

LOOK AT THE MOON MAN.
LOOK, DAMN YOU!!!
How stinkin' cute is that mold?!
Anywho, Tiki Beach is Candles from the Keeping Room's take on the popular Bath & Body Works scent.
...and it does a pretty good job as a dupe!
On its own, this scent could be stronger, but it's pretty freakin' similar to the candle! The throw is decent, too. This is a very rich coconut scent that reminds you or tropical islands and suntan. Aloha, friends!!

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Candles from the Keeping Room's Tiki Beach
Cold Rating: 5.5/10; now, the reason this is lighter on the cold side of things is because of paraffin, I believe. Sometimes, Carol's tarts are super strong on cold sniff, sometimes they are light on cold but throw really well. It's a paraffin gamble, really!
Lit Rating: 7/10; fabulous coconut experience, especially when paired with the Tiki Beach candle in another room. Great scent, very summery!
Throw Rating: 7.5/10; very good throw, considering the source. Sometimes, strictly coconut scents can be lighter, but this was excellent.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10; summer (finally) winding down (not really but one can hope). Still wanting to melt coconut scents. MUST FINISH PROJECT WAX BOX. Annoyed that it's taken me so long. No more coconut scents left. All project wax and no coconut makes Lolo Moon Man.

Review: Shayz Scentz' Pink Grapefruit

I have mentioned before that I have really been into grapefruit scents, more specifically, the non-B.O. type of grapefruit scents. Nothing says summer like citrus explosion!

Well, I'll have you know I have not ordered from Shayz Scentz yet.
I'm not sure why I haven't.
Maybe it's because her scent list is pretty long and I cave under wax pressure.
I melted pink grapefruit from Shayz on a day when I needed a pick-me-up. It was fabulous! You get the the zesty grapefruit notes. This is the non-B.O. type of grapefruit, too, so yay! The cold sniff throw was a bit less that the warm throw, but even in a larger room like the kitchen, this was strong. Definitely a repurchase. I melted this for 7 hours.
The only impressions of Shayz I have are positive. Maybe I will make an order at some point.

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Shayz Scentz' Pink Grapefruit
Cold Rating: 6.5/10; very nice on cold sniff, but a little lighter than while warming. Plus, you get mainly pink sugar from this while cold.
Lit Rating: 7.5/10; such a good scent! Equal amounts of pink sugar and grapefruit.
Throw Rating: 8/10; great throw for a scent I figured would be weak!  Even in a big room, this scent shines.
Overall Rating: 7/10; perfect pick-me-up scent. Juicy. B.O. is not the way to go.

Review: Sugar & Spice Gourmet Soy Candles' State Fair Funnel Cake

THE DEL MAR FAIR (I refuse to call it by its new name, the San Diego County Fair, because that's just ridiculous) is one of the country's best, if I do say so myself.

This year, Chicken Charlie, known for such wonderful, gourmet delights like deep-fried Kool-Aid, deep-fried cereal, deep-friend Klondike bars, deep-friend avocados (seeing a theme here???) has whipped himself up yet another winner: a sloppy joe sandwich...on Krispy Kreme donuts.

Not that you're reading, good sir, but this is my formal proposal: Marry me, Chicken Charlie. I think we can be happy together and married in baconed, fried bliss.
That is, of course, if Josh doesn't mind. :)

I was in the office filing some things and melted Sugar & Spice Gourmet Soy's State Fair Funnel Cake. This was a nice cinnamony cake scent mixed in with typical carnival friedness. This time, I enjoyed these two things mixed together! Some fried scents (fritters, donuts, cakes, pastries, etc) have that weird undertone I have talked about a lot...not so with this one! In fact, it was scrumptious. The cinnamon wasn't too strong, but it was there, and is was close to something you would really smell at a state fair! Yum! It lasted well over 8 hours. I would repurchase this scent, too!

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Sugar & Spice Gourmet Soy Candles' State Fair Funnel Cake
Cold Rating: 6.5/10; you definitely get the friedness of this scent on cold sniff, which made me nervous that it's be too buttery and icky.
Lit Rating: 7.5/10; nice balance between bakery and spice! Love!
Throw Rating: 7/10; the throw was consistent and lasted quite a while. Very impressed!
Overall Rating: 7/10; yum! Delicious cakey goodness mixed with cinnamon spice and dough! Makes me want to go to the fair; fattening foods socially acceptable there. Chicken Charlie is a mad genius.

Review: The Happy Little Bee's Honey Almond

Honey is one of those things we always have in the house but rarely ever use. Unless I'm having a glass of tea, or course. Or we're making honey mustard sauce.

The Happy Little Bee's Honey Almond (old photo pictured) means a finished clamshell! Yay! After the Honey Almond disaster from Sweet Fixations I wrote about in my Weekend Wax Review, I needed something that worked well and gave me a burst of honey almond goodness...well, I knew this was the one. Even though it's light on cold sniff, it really packs a proverbial punch while melting!

I had this in the bedroom, and got pretty good results! I like to order this from every vendor if they carry it to see how it smells, and The Happy Little Bee's is one of my favorites. It's not so strong that you can't stomach it; the scent is "pretty," if pretty had a smell. Honey and almond work well together on many levels and I must say, I am not disappointed!

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The Happy Little Bee's Honey Almond
Cold Rating: 5/10; sort of muted on cold sniff, but you can definitely smell both notes in this!
Lit Rating: 7/10; almost perfect combination of honey and almond, but not too overwhelming.
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; medium throw with a nice longevity. This lasted about 5 hours!
Overall Rating: 6/10; soothing, mysterious, cloyingly sweet, and I wish THLB was opened so I could buy some more from her!

Review: Candles from the Keeping Room's Exotic Coconut BBW Type

It's almost summer, my least favorite season.
Too hot.
Sand. Meh.
Too many people, too many kids, to many life forms itching to interact.
HUMBUG, I say, humbug!! (*NOTE: I am not really an anti-social curmudgeon, I swear, but summer in San Diego has been rising about an average of 5-10 degrees in the past few years, so I am not a fan).

But summer also means parties and bonfires.
Wonderful sunsets. Photographs. Memories.
Margaritas.
Coconut!

In the spirit of summer, I decided on something tropical. Exotic Coconut BBW Type from Candles from the Keeping Room is a very nice coconut-y scent with hints of perfume-e-ness. I have smelled the lotion in this scent at the Bath & Body Works store, but have never purchased it. This is strikingly similar to that scent! Carol doesn't mess around when she dupes scents! The coconut is the sweet type, not overly buttery; the others notes I picked up in this scent were musk (I'm assuming the perfume note is from the musk) and possibly sandalwood? Without the coconut but add vanilla, it would have smelled like Tiffany Candles' Vanilla Sandalwood. I enjoyed this and would repurchase it. I melted this in the bedroom, which is a pretty large space, and it lasted about 6 hours. If you like dupes, try this one!

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Candles from the Keeping Room's Exotic Coconut BBW Type
Cold Rating: 6/10; slight coconut-y sweetness mixed with an exotic undertone; also a bit perfumey.
Lit Rating: 6.5/10; great scent, it livened up an otherwise boring day!
Throw Rating: 5.5/10; the throw was decent, but I wish it had been stronger. I could only smell this in the bedroom, not in the hallway, not anywhere else. Average + .5!
Overall Rating: 6/10; might need the lotion in this? Not available? Boo. Summer's coming, time for tropical scents! Overstocking shelves with tropical scents, having no fall/winter scents. Decent, will repurchase! PS: MOON MAN TARTS!!!

Review: Jaimie Lauren Cupcakery and Confections in Wax's Cinnamon Vanilla

Ahoy, waxy friends! Another weekend has almost come and gone, and I want to say HAPPY (belated) MOTHER'S DAY not only to my mother, but to all the mother's out there reading my bloggy-blog. Hope you had a fun weekend celebrating you! Sorry this post is late, Josh and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary! Now, let's get into a review, shall we?! :)

I melted Jaimie Lauren Cupcakery and Confection's in Wax's Cinnamon Vanilla the other day. This was a very nice scent, though it was a sweeter cinnamon than I like. In my opinion, as I've stated in the past, there is a heartier type of cinnamon and then a sweet type...this definitely had that sweetness, which can go either positively or negatively, depending on your scent-mood. This also had an underlying note I did not much care for, perhaps something bready or bakery? Needless to say, it was nice and I did enjoy it. It lasted only about 3-3.5 hours, and I might repurchase it in a blend with vanilla bean noel or something creamier! Don't let my reviews EVER deter you from discovering something on your own, it's also been documented that I'm sort of nuts. :)

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Jaimie Lauren Cupcakery and Confections in Wax's Cinnamon Vanilla
Cold Rating: 6/10; nice on cold sniff, but nothing too strong. Medium, I'd say. Everything about this was just fine!
Lit Rating: 6/10; minus the fact that this is sweet cinnamon and has a stranger undertone, I enjoyed this! Might be good mixed with either vanilla bean noel or Nana's Kitchen/another cinnamon type of scent.
Throw Rating: 6/10; could smell this into the bathroom, but not past there. Didn't stick around too long, lasted just around 3-3.5 hours only.
Overall Rating: 6/10; Sweet cinnamon mixed with creamy vanilla. Medium-ish scent throw in bedroom. strange undertone threw me off from liking this more. Would have liked to see this scent last longer in my warmer!

Review: Candles From The Keeping Room's Cinnamon Indian Bread

...okay, I figured out what it is.
I am trying to get rid of some CFTKR scents to make room for the order I placed on May 2 (my self-given birthday present).
Yeah, I got "some" stuff.

As you may very well know, as it has been thoroughly documented in this blog, I am not big into "bread" scents. Bread scents seem to generally be very wet/moist-smelling, someone once described them as smelling of "tortilla chips," which I find ridiculously accurate. Zucchini bread scents can also smell like cigarette ashes under some circumstances. BLECH.

When I got a sample of Cinnamon Indian Bread from Candles From The Keeping Room a couple of months ago, I thought, "oh, this sounds sweet, let's give it a try!"
...and then it sat. For a long time. And then it sat some more. Things kept piling up that I'd rather melt. I felt bad for these little toasts because they were so cute. On cold sniff, they smelled like nice sweet breads.

Well, the other day, it was their time. They were the chosen ones. These toasts has met their maker...
...and I can't say this was my thing, either.
Granted, this was better than zucchini bread, but not by much. I'm still not a fan of bread. The cinnamon note in this was paired nicely with the sweetness of the Indian bread, but...something always hinders me from enjoying these yeasty delicacies.
Most of you ladies and gents who LIKE bread scents would definitely dig Carol's Indian bread line...it's different from zucchini in that it's much sweeter. This had a good throw, so I'm sure the other fragrances do, too, it's just not my cuppa, so I wouldn't repurchase, but you might love it!

PS: HEY, BLOGGER, STOP REFORMATTING MY POSTS!!!!!!!!

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Candles From The Keeping Room's Cinnamon Indian Bread
Cold Rating: 5.5/10; cinnamon and the sweetness of the Indian bread pair nicely together. I've noticed Carol uses both sweet cinnamon AND regular cinnamon in her wax, and this is definitely the sweet type (but I usually prefer her more straight baking cinnamon).
Lit Rating: 4/10; better than most bread scents I've smelled, but that's not saying much.
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; definitely had a nice throw; I melted this in the kitchen and it lingered throughout the house (but didn't go into the back bedroom).
Overall Rating: 5/10; slightly rounded down. Love of bread overshadowed for disdain for wax-bread. Still searching for the perfect bread scent I actually enjoy. Sweet cinnamon < baking cinnamon. Others would enjoy this.

Review: Candles From The Keeping Room's Watermelon Cotton Candy

As far as fruits go, watermelon is not my favorite. Pineapple? Yes. Oranges and bananas? Sure! Watermelon has the same problem as lettuce, it's too "watery" tasting. (weird, huh?)

This little tiny tart, however, smells amazing. It's fruity, juicy, sweet, and deliciously strong. Though I don't enjoy watermelon the food, I find I like watermelon in wax! I am glad because Watermelon Cotton Candy from Candles From The Keeping Room warrants an entire bag! Watermelon seems to mix well with the overpowering cotton candy, and Carol's take on this popular fragrance is pretty spot on. The throw was very strong, I could smell this throughout the house. This lasted about 7.5 hours, and only started to fizzle out the last hour or so of melting. I would definitely repurchase this...the blend is amazing!

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Candles From The Keeping Room's Watermelon Cotton Candy
Cold Rating: 6/10; surprisingly, this was pretty strong...most of the time, I think that, since Carol uses strictly paraffin wax, I won't get any cold sniff scent, but with this, you got a nice mix of both cotton candy and watermelon.

Lit Rating: 8/10; again, surprisingly, lovely! You got the juiciness of the watermelon, the sweetness of the cotton candy, and the two blended very well together. IMPRESSED!
Throw Rating: 8/10; great throw with this scent, too! I got this in the far corner of the bathroom, and could even smell it when I went outside to empty the trash.
Overall Rating: 7/10; hatred of watermelon turns into love of the wax scent. Strength of this tarts means I will repurchase. Cotton candy reminds me of how much I hate clowns.

Review: Rosegirls Purple Cow Raspberry Swirl

Purple Cow is apparently a drink consisting of grape something and vanilla/milk/ice cream. I've never had it because I am not a fan of "grape" flavored/scented things in food, wax, or life in general...

...like with most things, there are exceptions to the rule or norm.
Purple Cow Raspberry Swirl from Rosegirls is freaking phenomenal.
I mean, it's insanely good.
The grape and raspberry pair extremely well together to create a sweet, fragrant foodie type of smell, as if you had made a shake in your blender and lifted the cap for a whiff. It really does smell heavenly!
This is a DEFINITE repurchase. This chunk lasted for 10+ hours in the office, which is the newest place I like to melt wax. The room is just big enough to make a difference as far as scent throw goes, regardless of vendor in most things I've melted. The kitchen/living room/TV room is just too much of an open space to give a good scent throw opinion, but I find that the stronger it is on cold sniff, the better it does in one of these 3 rooms.
I wish I had waited to melt this. It was so great. If you like raspberry, Rosegirls does have an overall awesome raspberry fragrance!

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Rosegirls Purple Cow Raspberry Swirl
Cold Rating: 8.5/10; cold sniff scent is strong and juicy. Hints of both grape and raspberry.
Lit Rating: 8.5/10; mmmmmmmmmmmmm, milkshake...this might make me want to track down a Purple Cow and try it in real life. It doesn't take long for this to start making the room smell amazing, about 5 minutes, max. Wonderful!
Throw Rating: 9/10; this.lasted.3. freaking. days. after. it. was. put. out. Let that settle in. Strong throw, when the door was opened, I could smell this in the backyard. *insanity*
Overall Rating: 8.6/10; yes, it deserves the .1 extra. Just a fabulous blend, looking forward to more Rosegirls raspberry blends in the future. Childhood memories or milkshakes. Grape? How could it smell good?? Because Rosegirls is a believer of making customers happy and interested in trying new scents, think of that!

Review: Candles From The Keeping Room's Fruit Loops Toasted Marshmallow

If I ever eat cereal, it's usually for dinner or dessert, but rarely for breakfast. Why? Because I'm insane.
Also, I eat my cereal in a cup, not a bowl. Why? Because it tastes better. ;)

Candles From The Keeping Room's Fruit Loops Toasted Marshmallow is one of the best fruit loops blends I've ever encountered. I got this in a swap I did with a waxy friend of mine, Karen! She raved about this scent and was gracious enough to send me a tart in this scent, and I was simply blown away by this! The fruit loops is toned down by the creamy, toasty marshmallow; this fruit loops blend is much more lemony than others I have tried, but I enjoyed it very. very much. I can't wait to buy a huge bag of this when Carol reopens her shop, but as of right now, I am on a wax BAN BAN BAN BAN BAN. My only caveat are sampler boxes (Simply Sensational Sampler) and round robins. :)

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Candles From The Keeping Room's Fruit Loops Toasted Marshmallow
Cold Rating: 6.5/10; paraffin is known for not producing the strongest cold sniff rating, but you definitely smell this one with a dominantly fruit loop cold sniff smell. Slight hints of lemon, almost no marshmallow.
Lit Rating: 8/10; love fruit loops scents, and in my opinion, the lemonier, the better. This has a nice mix of creaminess from the toasted marshmallow and the loopiness of the cereal. Love!
Throw Rating: 7.5/10; pretty dang strong! Also, this seemed to linger as well.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10; Slightly rounded up because it deserves it. Carol's fruit loop and toasted marshmallow blends as a whole are fabulous. Can't wait for the reopen! Thanks again to Karen for sharing. :)

Review: The Bathing Garden's Vintage Circus

Recently, I got 2 orders in from The Bathing Garden. I am a huge fan of Shannon's clamshell tarts. Everything about them is unique: the scent, the decorations, the colors are vibrant and fun, I love them!

...Vintage Circus is just not my cup of tea.
I didn't hate it, but I certainly wasn't over the moon about it. This scent pairs together candy apples with blue cotton candy. It's super uber sweet on cold sniff, and you get each individual note off the bat. This one was certainly strong, but the mix of the apple and the blue cotton candy melded into something funky...sort of strange, sort of comforting...I really don't know what it's all about, or if I liked it, LOL. It's confusingly interesting. I wouldn't repurchase it, but again, stellar throw, and two cubes of this scent lasted...probably 6 hours? It woulda kept going, but I needed a change. If you like either of these two scents and are into something new, give this scent a try. Shannon is currently closed at the moment to catch up on orders, but will be back soon! :)

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The Bathing Garden's Vintage Circus
Cold Rating: 6.5/10; the blue cotton candy on top is sweet, the apple on the bottom is strong and fruity...
Lit Rating: 4/10; there's just something about this while warming that's....odd to me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it was strange while melting. Musky? Not sure...
Throw Rating: 8/10; cuh-raaaazy strong throw, I'll tell you what!
Overall Rating: 6/10; eeked by with a 6, huh? Well, I shant change my system...this one was interesting, like I said, and on cold sniff, it smelled great, but something was off. See for yourself!

Melt-A-Palooza: Tiffany Candles Donut Shop Family!!

It's no secret that I love Tiffany Candles. She was one of the first vendors I ever purchased tarts from online (I think I made 3 small orders during the same week: one was Kim's, one was Front Porch, and the other was Tiffany Candles!).

Well, just in case you weren't aware, she has a small line of scents in a Donut Shop Family! On the latest edition of Melt-A-Palooza, I review for you all of the available scents in this line! Come along for the sweet, fried ride!

Donut Shop is obviously the scent that started it all (I think? I'm assuming?). None of Tiffany's donut shop line has that overly fried scent, and that makes me a instant fan. Donut Shop is sweet, but has a touch of cinnamon in it, too. The new wax blend of this scent lasted a full freaking day, no joke! I enjoyed this one a lot, and I am looking forward to repurchasing this time and time again. I actually have one more, buried somewhere in a box! On cold sniff, 6.5/10. While warming, 7/10. The throw was a 6.5/10, for a total of 6.5/10, slightly rounded up. Great way to start the Donut Shop line!

Gooey Donut Shop adds marshmallow into the mix. This was the most surprising of the bunch, in my opinion! Many people have said elsewhere that they weren't particular fans of this scent. Well, I LOVED it. I might even say it was my favorite of the bunch. Again, amazing burn, lasted over 20 hours, through the night, and into the next morning. The marshmallow is really nice in here, it adds more creaminess to the already amazing Donut Shop. Again, pretty spicy, in my opinion. On cold sniff, 7/10. While warming, 8/10. The throw was a 6.5/10, for a total of 7/10! Will definitely repurchase!

Jelly Donuts is definitely my least favorite out of the 4 scents in her Donut Shop family. It used to just be straight jelly, but then they added her Donut Shop scent to include it in this line. I wish I would have liked this because I love jelly donuts...but I don't. At all. I tried, but the artificiality of the jelly is too much to get over. It's even "harsher" on warm throw. There was a faint scent of Donut Shop and the spice included in that scent, but the jelly....I don't know if it's raspberry, strawberry, grape...I couldn't even differentiate, it all smelled so icky to me. I had to turn off the warmer after about 90 minutes because it was giving me a headache. On cold sniff, 4/10. While warming, 3/10. The throw was a 4/10, for a total of 3.5/10. I'm not saying don't get this scent because some people dig it (I know that Gary, Tiffany's husband, posts about loving this scent a lot on their Facebook group), but it just wasn't for me. Sorry, Tiff!

We've come to the last scent, Ultimate Donut! This combines Donut Shop with Snickerdoodle. Again, another great scent (and this is coming from a "passing-liking" bakery person). Snickerdoodles are really nice sweet and spicy cookies. I've got a lot of history with Snickerdoodles. When added do Donut Shop, you get the cookie note added ON TOP OF the donut, for maximum bakery! I will repurchase this one, however, it only lasted 8 hours, which is fine by me! On cold sniff, 6/10. While warming, 7/10. The throw is a 6/10, for a total of 6/10!

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That concludes this installment of Melt-A-Palooza! Hope you enjoyed! :)

Review: Jaimie Lauren Cupcakery & Confections In Wax's Coffee Cake & Spice

Do you want to know something sad about me? Well, do ya?!
...I basically can't get through the day without my old, trusty friend anymore. Maybe you've met it...its name is coffee.

I'll admit it: I'm addicted to coffee. Also, I have become quite a fan of (good) coffee scents!

Jaimie Lauren Cupcakery & Confections In Wax (JLCCW, for short) is a great company. Jen, the owner, has some of the best customer service in the business. Her business is really an amazing one: the company is named after Jen's daughter, Jaimie Lauren, who is on the Autism Spectrum! She also has special tarts for sale (they used to be puzzle pieces, but I think she is changing them??), and if you buy these tarts, the proceeds will go to the Autism society. Very, very cool! She is in the process of getting her own .com website since she used to have an eBay store and they had high fees.

Now, I ordered a 12 pack tart sampler. Coffee Cake & Spice is the 4th one I have melted and I CANNOT wait to place another order! Her products are super scented, last a reasonable amount of time, and perform well, too (strength is good, no melting problems, etc). This little tart was spiiiiiicy! I loved it, it was very strong with a hint of coffee underneath a nice, cakey scent. Super wonderful! The coffee cake is definitely reminiscent of a strudel/strusel cake, flaky, buttery, and fragrant, like you've got cake baking in the oven! I would have liked to get this in more tarts by itself, or possibly a blend with another scent.

That's another thing worth mentioning about this company: Jen is constantly coming out with new scents, as well as asking her fans for help naming new blends and scents! It's a lot of fun to be part of her Facebook group. :)

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Jaimie Lauren Cupcakery & Confections in Wax's Coffee Caked & Spice 
Cold Rating: 6.5/10; each individual note (spice, cake, and a slight hint of coffee?) is in there, and you can smell them together and individually on cold (and warm) throw!
Lit Rating: 7.5/10; ummm...simply grand! If you like coffee cake scents, this is definitely one to try. It'd be good in a blend, too!
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; this had a nice throw, and it lingered a little bit into the living room!
Overall Rating: 7/10; just like grandma's coffee cake on a Sunday morning: strong, delicious, and spicy! So, so good!!

Review: Sweet Fixations' Pink Fruit Loops

In my year of exploring wax vendors and scents, I have really come to love all things fruit loops. It really is a wonderful duplicate of the cereal. Sometimes, things edge into Trix territory, but that's okay, because at the end of the day, I know that sweet, fruity mix is going to make me entire house smell wonderful for hours to come.

Y'all know me and decorations on tarts: the cuter, the better. This little tart from Sweet Fixations had AN ACTUAL FRUIT LOOP in the middle of it! Fearing the worst type of melt-down on the desk, I removed the piece of cereal. But, look at that cool purple tart with the awesome pink glitter! Major points in my book for creativity on the tart as well as on the label!

This scent is a really wonderful blend! You definitely smell both scents on cold sniff, and you get both notes while melting this tart as well. Sometimes it's heavier on the pink, sometimes it's heavier on the 'loop. It wasn't too strong and the scent stayed mostly in the bedroom. I would definitely repurchase this scent, and I would eventually love to have a fruit loops candle! I really enjoyed it, and Josh got a kick out of it, too!

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Sweet Fixations' Pink Fruit Loops 
Cold Rating: 6/10; you can pick up on the pink sugar right away! The fruit loops is a little more subdued on cold sniff, but it comes out after a while.
Lit Rating: 7/10; great blend, and a great dupe for the popular cereal! I really enjoyed this one, and I liked that I could smell more pink sugar sometimes, more fruit loops other times, and a blend all the time! :)
Throw Rating: 6/10; It wasn't terribly strong, but it wasn't weak by any means. It just wasn't more than middle of the road.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10; rounded slightly up on this one as well! This is something any pink sugar or fruit loops fan would enjoy. Love, love, LOVE the decoration, as well as the cool label! Infinite love of children's breakfast cereals coming from this household. :)

Review: Butterfly Lane's Peppermint Cake

Every year for my mom's birthday, my grandma makes her a peppermint/candy cane angel food cake. It's tradition. And it's delicious. Is it December yet?

Butterfly Lane is a new-to-me vendor. I placed a small order a while back for some scent shots and some heart tarts. Peppermint Cake intrigued me because I thought it might be similar to the cake I have smelled in real life, so I got it to compare.

This is way different, but in a good way!

While the peppermint note is super strong, the cake is not chocolate (thank goodness), but not quite yellow...to me, it's almond! Creamy cake mixed with powerful almond and peppermint...it's amazing. Even in the scent shot cup today, I can still smell both notes clearly, as if the wax was still there. This is a brilliant blend! I am such a fan. It was surprisingly strong, too. In total, I had this melting, oh, 6-7 hours? The peppermint died down in about 4ish hours, but was still in the background some. This scent is a definite repurchase!

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Butterfly Lane's Peppermint Cake 
Cold Rating: 7/10; a wonderful marriage of almond cake and peppermint!
Lit Rating: 8/10; this is a really lovely scent! Very minty, very cakey, very "pretty" smelling. Josh liked this one, too!
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; I could smell wisps of this around the living room, but it wasn't as strong there as it was in the bedroom. Overall, it was a medium-slightly high scent throw.
Overall Rating: 7/10; memories of my grandma's peppermint angel food cake. Unfortunate use of a dozen eggs. Kate Smith. Yum!

Review: Streetman Candle Company's Almond Cookie

It has been thoroughly documented through this blog that I love to eat sweets, but am not necessarily a fan of sweet scents. Cookies are especially lovely...with a nice cuppa coffee...on a cold winter's day...but sometimes, cookie scents can be too buttery and icky....

It has also been documented that I am a sucker for weird scents or tart shapes. Well, Streetman Candle Company makes these awesome Snap Sticks! I'm sure I've talked about them before, but in case I haven't, you basically snap off the amount of wax you want and throw it right in the warmer! Very convenient!

I have yet to burn any of my Snap Sticks from the sampler I bought because I wanted to give them at least a month of cure time, just to be sure. As an aside, I try to let all of my wax (except for B&BW/Yankee candles) cure for at least a month to ensure proper and/or decent scent throw. I pulled Almond Cookies out of the box first, snapped it in half, and threw it in the warmer. Within 20 minutes, our bedroom was filled with the amazing aroma of cracking, crispy cookies and a slight hint of almond. In an hour, the almond scent permeated the air and intermingled with the cookie to create a wonderful and delicious scented home! I was so surprised how strong and long this was because almond always seems so delicate...boy, can it pack a punch! It lasted all day long, from about 11am until 10pm. I was so, so good, and I am definitely an almond fan, a Streetman fan, and a Snap Stick fan!

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Streetman Candle Company's Almond Cookie
Cold Rating: 7/10; this is pretty strong on cold sniff, surprisingly, because I always assumed almond cookies would be a light scent! Preconceived notions SMASHED!
Lit Rating: 7.5/10; I am running out of ways to say "this was so good!" It was super airy yet buttery and sweet, a gentle yet powerful (confused yet?) mix of lacy and buttery cookie with almonds, simply delicious. You actually smell the 'toastedness' as if you were baking cookies in your own home!
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; it wasn't too terribly strong, but it was more than average. It lingered throughout the bedroom and bathroom, but not so much into the living room.
Overall Rating: 7/10; insta-fan of this one within an hour. Very nice, yet gave me room to breathe, if that makes any sense. Made me want cookies. DEFINITE repurchase! I think it would be a really good mixer in other scents like Serendipity, too!

Review: The Happy Little Bee's Orange Buttercream Cupcake

Do you like cupcakes? I certainly do. Have you had orange buttercream cupcakes? Neither have I...

...but if they taste anything like this scent shot smelled, I am an instant fan.

Orange Buttercream Cupcake from The Happy Little Bee is sweet. It is buttery. It is most certainly creamy! It's a bright orange citrus mixed with what would be the best, most delicious tasting yellow-cake-and-orange-frosted cupcake EVER (if it existed in real life).

This scent is not typical of something I would enjoy, and yet I LOVE it. I can't get over it! It lasted about 4.5 hours in my 24-watt hot plate warmer. I swear I still smell it lingering 3 hours after I turned it off, though! We really, really liked this a lot. Besides the fact that her labels are cute (which has nothing to do with this tart, it just had to be mentioned), it seems that the owner's (Deb's) tarts are really that much better with just a little bit of cure time. Ugh, I am so sad this is gone because I would melt it again right now if I had another! Ahhh, c'est la vie. Next order I make (and it's looking like I will, eventually!), I will get this one!

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The Happy Little Bee's Orange Buttercream Cupcake
Cold Rating: 6/10; I mainly smell a sweet and buttery orange frosting on cold sniff, but it is strange that I liked it so much.
Lit Rating: 7/10;  I had my doubts, but this was simply fantastic. Creamy and sweet, yet bright and surprising. You really get the orange, the buttercream, and the tasty cupcake notes individually AND mixed together!
Throw Rating: 6.5/10; this scent was fairly strong! It lingered out into the living room (we were playing Mario Kart and I could smell the citrus in this every now and then). My only complaint is that I wish it had lasted a bit longer, it started to get pretty "waxy" smelling after 4 hours (I let it go a little too long, I think, so it started to smell funky).
Overall Rating: 6.5/10; this deserves every point it garnered! Another example of why you can't necessarily say "I don't like bakery scents, YEAH, LAUREN" (did I just scold myself in writing???)...if you get a chance to try out this company, give this scent a whirl...it's really nice! :)

Review: Tiffany Candles Totally Scrumtpious (NEW SCENT)

Before I start this review, I wanted to thank all of my readers for helping me get to 10,000 page views! This truly is the little blog that could!

How many of you remember those chocolate oranges that you'd whack really hard to break open into segments? Those were so fun, huh!?

Well, I've heard Totally Scrumptious compared to that candy. I sort of get that because there's definitely orange and most certainly chocolate, but there's also a strange floral note mixed in here...I don't know if that was intentional, but it's definitely out of place. The throw was in the middle of the range, it stayed mostly in the bedroom; however, the scent lasted a good 5+ hours. Would I repurchase? I don't know...I might blend this in a candle with something else!

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Tiffany Candles Totally Scrumptious
Cold Rating: 6/10; the smell of orange and chocolate mix in between the weird floral note. Not sure why it's so dominant, but it is sort of throwing me off.
Lit Rating: 5.5/10; again, that out of place floral hinders me from enjoying this to its full potential.
Throw Rating: 5.5/10; it mostly stayed in the bedroom, but as I said, it did last a couple hours longer than I thought it would. It grew on my after a while, but not by much.
Overall Rating: 5.5/10; alright, but not the best. Desperate desire for a chocolate orange.

Review: Tiffany Candles Red Velvet Cake (NEW SCENT)

Red velvet cake is all the rage in Southern California right now...is it like that in other parts of the country and/or world? Everywhere I go, I feel like I see red velvet ice cream/yogurt, or red velvet baked goods, red velvet candles, or red velvet flavored air...(and while I made the last one up, I'm sure you can get it in Las Vegas at those $20 per hit air bars, so technically I'm not joking???....). It's good, but it's not great.

This is one of my favorite scents from the Tiffany Candles sampler. It's dead on to what I think red velvet cake smells like in real life. It was pretty strong, too, and lasted about 7 hours. I am floored by Tiffany's ability to make realistic wax versions of real-life foods. This one was chocolatey and a touch sweet...I'm not sure if cream cheese frosting was supposed to me in this, but I swear I smelled that creamy, delicious note of frosting mixed in between cake and chocolate. If my actual red velvet cupcake/yogurt/air tasted as good as this smelled, I would be an instant fan for life.

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Tiffany Candles Red Velvet Cake
Cold Rating: 6/10; right off the bat, you smell chocolate (which, in case you didn't know, is all red venlvet cake it, chocolate cake with a ton of red food coloring), and that's about it.
Lit Rating: 8.5/10; I am SO impressed with this scent! It is AMAZINGLY dead-on to red velvet cake, right down to a subtle cream cheese frosting kind of note! It is SO good!
Throw Rating: 7/10; the throw on this was pretty good, and lingered through the house a bit.
Overall Rating: 7/10; ridiculously close to the real thing and one of the best and more realistic cake scents I have smelled. Unfortunately, I am out of the 2 I had. Burning desire for cake again.