Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #85: Lights Out's Wild Ginger Candle

I love little candles at my desk, they give off such a nice ambiance!

Lights Out's Wild Ginger
Cold Rating: 6/10
Lit Rating: 3.5/10
Throw Rating: 4/10
Overall Rating: 4.5/10; while this does smell authentically like ginger, it smells more dirty than gingery. Sort of smelled the way wet money smells??? Small hints of spicy/sweet ginger, not much else. Little throw, even in a small room with the window shut, or a large room with the window opened in the back. No difference in location. Took a long time for such a small candle to pool out to the side, almost 2-3 hours?? Kept going down instead of out. Perhaps not the scent for me, may be better in a larger size? Interested to browse this company's website, see what else is offered, in what sized. Nice flicker while I'm working, wish the throw would have been better. 2 oz mini tin candles are cute, but not the best judge of throwing/character. Great branding on their website. Leaving the room and sniffing like an idiot trying to get a smell of what's melting. Hate being honest, it makes me sound so mean. :(

Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #84: Lake Providence Lodge's Lavender

Some days, you just want your house to smell like a spa, you know?

Lavender ~ A clean, relaxing herbal lavender scent. 

Lake Providence Lodge's Lavender
Cold Rating: 7/10
Lit Rating: 7/10
Throw Rating: 6.5/10
Overall Rating: 7/10; a lower throw than I am used to with LPL. Wonder if it's because of the placement of my warmer, or if it's just the way it it? Very herbal, nothing but an herbal but smooth lavender. Probably the most authentic I have ever smelled. Lasted 8 hours in the bathroom, diminished in throw after a while, was overall pleasant, happy medium most of the time. Simple white wax; clean, adorable labels. Melt cups a plenty. One of my top 5 favorite vendors right now. Reminiscent of a spa room, a scented lotion, or a fresh sprig. Delicate and zen, but really nice. Not too in your face, clean and refreshing almost. Could have used a little bitta some'some, if you know what I mean.

Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #83: Rosegirls' Koopa Troopa Assault

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! :)

Remember Mario? Rosegirls came up with an entire line or Mario Brothers-esque scents and they are really funky and fun!! A+ for names and scent pairings, RG! :)

Koopa Troopa Assault - raspberry sauce, pomegranate & sweet lemon confection chunks with marshmallow smoothie overpour

Rosegirls' Koopa Troopa Assault
Cold Rating: 7/10
Lit Rating: 7.5/10
Throw Rating: 7/10
Overall Rating: 7/10; fruit explosion! The raspberry sauce is definitely the standout note, followed by lemon and something else that smells strange to my nose. It's probably the pomegranate, and it wasn't just one chunk. I know it's just me because I let someone else have a chunk and they LOVED it. Melted a whole bag in about 2 weeks. Lovely color combination, invoking the Mario/koopa spirit, don't you think? Chunks lasted between 4-8 hours each, always melted it in the bathroom of living room. Love their marshmallow smoothie scent. Love their SLC scent (one of the best lemons in wax). Clever, creative. Mediumish throw. Scents different to different people! Hoarding tendencies? Melting slowly through my bagged RG stash.

Subscription Box Corner: June 2015 Treatsie Box Review!

After one disastrous item in May's Treatsie box, I serious almost cancelled the service. It was that bad. I decided to give it another go. Let's jump into the June box!

The box, of course.

Card with the box's contents! Very cute this time around.

The Art of Caramel sent 2 different types of popcorn: bananas foster with dark rum, and vanilla bean cocoa nib. They were just okay. I am not a huge popcorn fan, but if I had to pick, the vanilla was a bit better. 3/5 for both. Not get, not bad.

Moravian Cookies in the Meyer Lemon variety were excellent! Thin, crispy cookies awesome lemon flavor, bright and zesty, crumbly, delectable. 4.5/5.

Nutwhats is a hilarious name and I love the label for some reason. Their Almond Nutwhat brittle tasted like the inside of an Almond Roca. Quite delicious, and not super hard. Loved this. 5/5.

Nutwhats also sent their Peanut Butter Crunch type of brittle, which was just as good and even a bit of a more soft crunchiness than the almond. Sweet, peanutty goodness. 5/5.
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Overall, this month's box had quite a bit of good and one meh product. Not nearly as bad as the feet brownies from last month, and good enough to make me want to stick with it one or two more months.

Order of the Odor: Volume 11

Happy Summer! We here at the Order hope your days are bright and sunny and the wax is melting in the warmers and not the mail boxes. Please join us in answering this month's questions:

If you could create any theme for a wax tart collection what would it be? What three scents would you have in this themed collection?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION. My theme would be one dedicated to my favorite movie, "The Big Lebowski." The three scents would be as follows (I actually made waaaaaaaay more than 3 possibilities and am keeping these in mind for the future):

1) I Am The Walrus: "crisp, salty sea air mixed with cactus and sea salt, with small wisps of lime will make you forget you're a sea animal. Coocoocachoo."

2) Careful, Man, There's A Beverage Here!: toasty, creamy marshmallow, pungent vodka and a splash of cream, rounded out by hints of coffee liqueur. Almost a White Russian, but so much better!

3) The Dude Abides: Keep your calm, man. An intoxicating, powerful blend of sweet, but musky pink sugar and soothing peppermint will make you forget her life was in your hands.

Deb melted a tart from Dessa's recently that was so good, so strong that she is even saving it to melt and reuse again! It is a delicious fruity bakery that she thinks you need to try before she scoops them all up for herself. You've been warned.

Sunnee's Rosegirls sampler came this past month and it will full of brightly colored and highly fragrant chunks of happiness. See which ones stood out as her favorites and which just didn't make the cut. Get ready to feast your eyes!

Flaming Star Scents used to be Pic, Petals and Scents and Liz recently melted a nice huge chunk from PPS that has had plenty of cure time! So how did this old wax perform? And what has Liz been up to lately?

Subscription box popularity is going as strong as ever. Lauren bought a box recently that any waxy home fragrance lover would enjoy. It comes with three tiers of price points, amazing packaging and high quality candles to boot. Ready to be enabled?

Thirty Street Crafts creates a fun themed wax release about every month. June's release was built around a circus theme. Julie scooped up an order of her very favorite wax tart shape to date... any guesses?

Who doesn't love a "Favorites" post?! Michelle lays it out for us and lists her all time Top 5 Vendors for us and why in her most recent post. The best part? You can order from almost all of them right now!

To Try: Influenster's L'oreal Paris Ultimate Straight VoxBox!

I was selected by Influenster to try their Loreal Paris Ultimate Straight box, filled with tons of hair products. Let's dive right into this!

The front of the box!

Inside the box, upon first opening it!

The loot!! Look at the shiiiiny packaging. I had no idea there would be this much stuff in the box and I have never done more than a 2 step hair process (shampoo and conditioner).

Step #1, as expected, is shampoo. This shampoo smells really good. It also has a good consistency. When I applied it, it went on just fine. After following the instructions (leaving it in more than I usually do), I rinsed it out and was surprised by how smooth my hair was after only shampooing. This changes in a bit...

Step #2 is a pre-conditioner. PRE-conditioner? I have never even thought to try such a thing. This was pretty thick, like a conditioner, only milkier, in my opinion. I honestly couldn't feel a different when using this before the shampoo, even with multiple uses. It did smell nice, though.

Step 3? Conditioner. I am used to this and it's really no different than any other conditioner I have tried. It applied nice, and left my hair feeling smooth each time. When using JUST the shampoo and conditioner together as an experiment, I liked this combo waaaay more than I did with steps #2 and #4 involved. Much less greasy, and no more or less straightened. Hmmm...

Step 4 was the Perfecting Balm, something I have never heard of. I did notice a tiny bit of difference after using this a couple of times, but honestly, it weighed my hair down to the point where it felt greasy, instead of light and bouncy like the photo below. I really couldn't feel it being any shinier or softer than my normal shampoo. It just felt heavy and I was annoyed with how frizzy it felt in my scalp. Most of the time, I did steps 1-3 and didn't bother with this because I *think* it's the culprit.

Overall, though all of these products smell good, I am not convinced about making the switch to a 4-step series of shampooing and conditioning hair care. The differences in straightening that I noticed were too minuscule to continue using past this set of bottles. My hair is also not wavy enough to continue using. I will be sticking of my normal Pantene shampoo and conditioner, which isn't super expensive but does just fine for me.

Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #82: Vintage Chic Scents' Mr. Sandman

HAPPY JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, already!?!

I have very little tolerance for anything but mint scents at night now. I have conditioned myself to them, apparently. I am like a cat who doesn't want to be touched. "Blue raspberry? 10pm? BOOHISS!!!!!!!"

Mr. Sandman is sure to bless you with sweet dreams when you melt this scent, a combination of rosemary mint, peppermint, eucalyptus and spearmint.

Vintage Chic Scents' Mr. Sandman
Cold Rating: 9/10
Lit Rating: 9/10
Throw Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9/10; sweet dreams indeed! Minty extravaganza! Peppermint, rosemary mint, eucalyptus, what could be better?? SUUUUUPER strong! Each ingredient evenly added into this blend, nothing really overpowers the other thing. Herbal rosemary mint, cool peppermint, pungent eucalyptus, borders on fresh because of the rosemary/eucalyptus combo. Still there when I woke up, lasted over 13 hours in the bedroom, 10 hours in the bathroom. Smells like a lovely garden...or something. These snowflake/leaf scents are HUMONGOUS, need to be cut up into many pieces (at least 2), but cutting wax, again, is the devil. Pretty colors. Unique names. Nighttime. Are we into naps as adults? I don't know the etiquette.