Day 007 - Banana Bread

Currently Burning: Fruit Salad

I have some bananas that I kind of forgot about. I found them today and they happen to be PERFECT for banana bread! I looked up a recipe and I'm going to use this one. I'm really excited because I've never made banana bread myself. I do love to bake though! I had to run to TJ Maxx first because I didn't have a bread pan - at least I think I don't. Last time I thought I didn't have any pie plates, and I ended up with 3 :/

Start by preheating the oven to 350. The recipe says that I don't need a mixer, so I'm just going to throw everything in together in a bowl. Here's all the ingredients we'll need.

First, mash 4 bananas in a medium bowl.

Mix 1/3 of a cup of melted butter into the mashed bananas.

Mix 1 cup of sugar, 1 beaten egg, and 1 tsp of vanilla into the banana mixture.

Add 1 tsp of baking soda and a pinch of salt and mix well. Finally add 1 1/2 cups of flour. Pour mixture into a buttered bread pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Here's the final product.

Slightly burned :( My oven can sometimes be a little finicky but it still tastes really good :)

Other than that today has been pretty uneventful. I'm finally forcing Roman to buy a new mail key since he lost it 2 weeks ago. Pretty much a lazy Saturday other than that. Tomorrow should be another CBV post, but I need to decide which topic I'm going to cover. Now onto the daily review!

Fruit Salad (3): This is a super sweet scent. It doesn't really smell like a fruit salad to me, but it does kind of smell like the the sweet sauce that's in the fruit salad. I probably won't buy this one again. It also smells almost exactly like Summer Sorbet (another one of her scents) to me.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 006 - Tart Warmer 101

Currently Burning: White Tea & Ginger

So today I'm going to go over how I melt my scent shots. Victoria sells tart warmers on her website (that are super cute) for $14.95. I got the one in jet black.

I'm thinking about getting another one for my bedroom in either brown or brown marble. There's also some cute snowmen ones but I'm pretty sure Roman would flip out and not let me put those in the apartment (doesn't match the decor). Like I said a couple days ago, I don't put the scent shots into the bowl on top. Here's what the inside of my bowl looks like:

 

Gross right? The way it looks coupled with the fact that the tarts were a pain to get out made me decide to go a different route. I know a few girls on the message board talked about this at some point, but I couldn't find the post. They suggested using plastic ramekin bowls that you can basically just flip inside out once the tart is cold. Since they're designed to be placed in an oven for baking, you don't have to worry about them melting. I was in KMart a few weeks ago and I saw a cupcake tin (I guess that's what it was for) that had snowmen shapes. They also had gingerbread men, but I figured that snowmen would be easier to pop out since they don't have arms and legs. I thought the cupcake tin was perfect because I got six bowls rather than just one. I picked it up and cut out each bowl (there was one casualty as a result of poor cutting skills, so I'm down to five now). I then put either 1/4 or 1/2 of a scent shot inside and place it directly on the warmer.

 

The best part about these is NO MESSY CLEANUP!!! Also, I can switch out scents a lot more often and don't have to worry about throwing away wax that isn't quite used up. When they're cold, they're really easy to pop out. They also make really cute snowmen molds that you could keep (I suppose) but I usually just toss them. 

 

So that's what I do for my tarts. I've found that this is the best way for me and I thought that it would be helpful for others out there that are sick of scraping wax out of ceramic or glass bowls :) Now onto the daily review!

White Tea & Ginger (3): This is a clean scent. It's also really herbal. I don't think I'll reorder this one because I don't really like the smell of tea. I haven't ever smelled white tea, but green tea and black tea leaves aren't really great scents to me. This one has that scent in it, but it also has a ginger smell. The throw on this one is medium. 

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 005 - New Camera

Currently Burning: Tokyo Spring

Notice anything different about the picture below? I finally convinced Roman (my partner) to let me use his Nikon D3100 that he got in November (on my birthday actually - but let's not get into that). So now I don't have to take the pictures with my old iPhone 3G (I know right, I've had it since August 2008 :/ still going strong though!). I'm still playing around with settings and stuff, but now that I have a better camera, I don't have to worry about lighting as much. I do like the background on that table though. I feel like it gives the pictures a good contrast since it's so dark. 

I think that for tomorrow I'm going to go write about my tart warmer and how I choose to melt the scent shots. It'll be a good follow-up to yesterday's blog. Now onto today's scent review!

Tokyo Spring (5): I really like this fragrance. It's really hard to describe though. It reminds me of a really nice smelling aftershave mixed with a few exotic floral notes. It does have a heavy green note and is very clean, but it isn't over-powering like a lot of clean fragrances can be. It does have a really good throw though. It also got a thumbs up from Roman so that means I don't have to worry about burning it when he's not here lol. Going to repurchase this one in a candle for sure!

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 004 - Scent Shot 101

Currently Burning: Caramelized Pralines

So, I thought I would do an introduction to scent shots since I haven't really talked about what they are. Essentially, a scent shot from Candles by Victoria is a 2 oz. piece of wax placed in a plastic cup. The cups that she uses I've seen used at restaurants to hold things like mayonnaise and other condiments. Scent shots cost $2.00 and are available under the "Tarts" tab of her website.  It's a pretty good size chunk of wax as you can see below with my hand for scale. Depending on the scent, these can last from about 8 hours to multiple days. If you burn it non-stop then it will last probably about a day and half before the scent is completely gone.

You can melt scent shots a couple of different ways. The wax in scent shots (unlike a lit candle) does not disappear as it melts. Since no combustion is actually occurring, just the fragrance oils will be released from the wax. Once these are gone, you're left with dyed, odorless wax. Victoria sells tart warmers on her website that are basically candle warmers with a bowl on top of them. These are awesome, but I've found that the wax can be difficult to get out of the bowl. A lot of people suggest freezing the bowl and then popping the wax out. I've found that this is really only easy if you use an entire scent shot at a time, and then it can still be a hassle to get the wax out of the bowl. You can also just get a candle warmer and place your own bowl on top (make sure it's heat resistant like a ramekin). I used to just dump the wax out while it was still hot and use a paper towel to wipe out the excess. Unfortunately for this method, it isn't really easy to keep a scent that's not 100% used up before you want another. I'll make another post about how I do it now, because it makes really cute designs out of the wax that you can either keep or toss. Also, there's no need to worry about hot wax or frozen wax with cleanup in my new method :) Now onto the daily review!

 

Caramelized Pralines (5):As you can see, I have this one in a 9oz candle (and I probably need to look into getting a new one since this one is about half gone!) This scent has a very strong caramel note that really comes out when melted/burned. It reminds me of walking by the stores in the mall that sell the nuts that are coated in sugar and sauted. I really love this scent. In fact, I melted it last night and when I walked into my apartment today at 5pm the whole place STILL smelled like Caramelized Pralines! That being said, this is a very strong scent and will stick around long after you've stopped burning the candle. It will fill up a very large space even if coming from a tiny little candle. It's a pretty popular scent overall (I know it's the all-time favorite of sayanythingbr00ke on YouTube).

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 003 - Back to Work

Currently Burning: Sugared Corn Pudding

Today was my first day back to work since the holidays. I was actually ready to go back, even though I only had 2 weeks off for break (much more than some get, so believe me I know I'm blessed). I really love my job so that is probably part of the reason. Of course, in every work place there's things that are frustrating, but overall I'm really happy with where I am now. My job duties actually expanded a little in December, so I'm mostly working on new stuff now.

I'm working on some topics for the next few weeks so hopefully it will begin to get more interesting around here ;) I'm hoping that tomorrows will be pretty informative for any that are wondering what scent shots are and how to use them!

Now onto the review:

Sugared Corn Pudding (5): Very sweet bakery note when hot. Smells like sugar cookies mixed with a corn note. You get more of the corn before it's melted, but after it melts it mellows out to a wonderfully sweet smell. The throw is medium on this one. I really like this one because it reminds me of a sweet corn casserole fresh out of the oven. I'll be ordering probably a mini candle in this one at some point. I think it's a really great scent for this time of year, because it helps warm up my apartment.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 002 - I Caved

Currently Burning: Monster Mash

So...I did it. The CBV Newsletter came out yesterday, and I hadn't read it before I made my post yesterday. Once I did get around to looking at it yesterday evening, I noticed that CBV was having a 15% off sale for the first 2 days of January.  Now, I already had a list prepared for what I wanted, but I was going to wait until February to actually order it (I know she usually has a pretty good sale for Valentine's Day). However, 15% off was too good for me to pass up, so I went ahead and placed my order early.

Once it comes in, I'll do a full haul and review the scents as I burn them. I ended up ordering a 22oz Tureen, a Comfort Candle, a Black Label Candle, a 8oz sampler pack, a couple of minis, and about 30 scent shots.  Yeah so I went a tiny bit overboard, but I figure that since I'll have to review 365 scents by the end of the year, I'd better start adding to my collection! The turnaround time during sales can be up to 2 weeks, so I should get my order sometime in the middle of January. I got a few more Spring type scents so that will give them time to cure before I'll really be in the mood for them later in February/March.

Monster Mash (2): This is one of the Halloween themed scents released this past October. At first, I wasn't really sure if I would like this scent, because it had a very strange note to me on cold throw. After I put it on the warmer, I figured out what it was that I didn't like about it. Monster Mash is a mix of blueberry, Granny Smith apples, and a bunch of bakery notes. To me, the blueberries and granny smith apples don't go together very well. I have another of Victoria's blueberry scents, and I do like the blueberry note in that one, so maybe I just don't like the Granny Smith apple scent. The scent throw is very strong on this one, and definitely filled up my entire apartment. While the scent wasn't horrible to me, it will not be a repurchase.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 001 - Project 365

Currently Burning: Shamrock Kiss

The real reason I started this blog is that I wanted to try blogging everyday for a year. Since today is January 1st, I figured that would be a good start. I've also been looking for an outlet to chronicle my CBV experience, so I thought I would combine Project 365 with the candle blog.

Something that I plan on doing for every post is putting what scent I'm currently burning at the top of the post. I also plan on doing a mini review everyday for that scent (or if I've already covered it, then some other scent that I have not reviewed yet. So far, I've tried 114 scents, so hopefully by year's end I'll have at least 365 :) I also have a rating system that I use which helps me to determine if I'll buy it in candle form. I use a 5-scale, with 1 being never burn again, and 5 being a must-have.

Shamrock Kiss (5): I have half a scent shot of this going right now. To me, it smells like the original Herbal Essences shampoo. I really like this smell, and I think it goes great for a bathroom. The scent throw for me is medium, because I cannot smell it all throughout my apartment, but I can smell it when I open the door so it fills the living room nicely. I'm probably going to order a 4 oz candle of this sometime within the coming months.

That's all for today! Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason