Day 105 - Round Robin #8 Review

Currently Burning: Kimono Silk

I was so excited to be able to participate in Round Robin #8. For those of you that don't know, a Round Robin is essentially a tart swap on the Pouring Pot (CBV Message Board). Someone decides to start a Round Robin and posts asking if anyone is interested. They typically run with about 15 people (so they aren't going for months and months). The only thing it requires is one person to organize it (collect addresses, determine the order, and notify people of the address of the next person in line) and another person to start it. Round Robin #8 was organized and started by the same person (Allison) so that's possible too. You need about 30 or so scent shots to start the box. 

The box is a medium, flat-rate box (USPS) to keep the cost of shipping down. The rules are that the amount of wax you take out, you have to put back in. For example, if you take out two 1/2 scent shots, then you can add back 1 whole scent shot to make up for it. It's really cool because you get to try a bunch of new scents and only have to pay the cost of shipping.

There were 36 different scents when I got the box. Of those, I had probably only tried about 1/3. I was able to pull 15 new ones that I was wanting to try. When I sent the box back out it had 42 unique scents. Here's my list of scents I pulled along with the cold reaction:

Bouquet (House Blends) - Mixture of Sweet Pea and Magnolia. On cold I mostly get the magnolia, but it's definitely toned down by the sweet pea.


Three Wise Men (Christmas) - Frankincense, myrrh, patchouli, and sandalwood. Very earthy but still reminds me of the holidays.


Kim's Country Cornbread (Bakery)- Smells similar to Fresh Baked Bread, but I can tell it's definitely a sweet corn bread. Buttery and is 1/2 of Cajun Cornbread (which is the top layer of Momma's Peach Cobbler).


Reese's Peanut Butter (Bakery) - the best peanut butter scent that I've smelled from Victoria with just a hint of chocolate.


Sweet Talk (Perfume) - Victoria's Secret dupe. Smells mostly like a tart raspberry with a few other fruits.


Why I Autumn (House Blends) - this smells strongly of anise (licorice) to me. There's also some woody notes in the background but I don't really get apple or lemon.


Carrot Cake Orange Delight (Bakery) - Much sweeter version of Carrot Cake. Whereas carrot cake is very spicy, this is sweetened up by the orange and cinnamon strudel.


Papaya Waterlily (Fruity) - Similar to Cantaloupe Lily. Description lists coconut, peach, pineapple, apple, orange, and banana. Not sure if the description is mixed up because it definitely smells like papaya and waterlily. Very sweet fruity/floral.


Fresh Linens (House Blends) - Eucalyptus, Gardenia, and Rain. I mostly get the Rain scent with a hint of Eucalyptus. Doesn't really smell like laundry.


Moonlight Path (Perfume) - Bath and Body Works dupe. Mixture of sunflower and musk. I get mostly musk with a hint of floral.


Summer Nites (Earthy) - smells slightly powdery with a hint of fruit (banana maybe). Reminds me of the Circus Peanuts candy!


Nut House aka Pistachio Pudding Cake (House Blends) - Nice and smooth custard. I'm not a huge fan of pistachio, but this is really good on cold throw!


Pumpkin Frappuccino (Bakery) - smells like Starbucks in the Fall. The pumpkin and coffee are blended beautifully!


Cranberry Relish (Bakery) - Smells kind of like generic hard candy. I definitely get some berry, but I'm not really getting any apple.


Breakfast in Vermont (Bakery) - this one also has the fresh baked bread note hiding in the background, but I also get caramel, white chocolate, and maple. Yummy!

Overall a pretty good haul! My video review of these is posted below.

Now onto the daily review!

Kimono Silk (3): This was a new scent back in February. I like this a LOT better when it's burning than on cold throw. However, it's still not one of my favorites. It's a fruity/floral with some musk in the background. It smells a lot like rose to me with a hint of some citrus and peach. The throw is medium on this one. I probably won't be reordering this candle, but it is nice.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 091 - Blogging for CBV Order/Review

Currently Burning: 007

I was selected as one of the winners for the Blogging for CBV contest for the month of March. I was super excited :) The contest runs every month until the 15th of that month. To submit your entry, email victoria@candlesbyvictoria.com. She selects 3 winners every month to receive a $50 gift certificate to CBV.

I found out about winning and had placed my order the next day I was so excited :) I wasn't planning on placing another CBV order until May so this was an awesome surprise!!! I have enough SS and new candles to still do my daily scent of the day up until the beginning of July at this point lol.

I went a little overboard this time and definitely spent more than $50, but it was so worth it! I was able to stock up on 2 of my Top 3 scents as well as get some candles in some scents that I love.

I picked up 2, 22 oz tureens. The first is in the scent Shamrock Kiss which I LOVE. Shamrock Kiss was actually the first scent that I reviewed on my blog here. It's in Halo Green glitter which is SO pretty! I think I'm going to have to get Halo Dark Green soon to compare, but I need to figure out what scent would fit that color (I'm one of those that my glitter has to go with my scent).

Keeping along that vein, my 2nd 22 oz tureen I picked up is in the scent Sexy in Stilettos (which I reviewed here). This one is in Halo Red glitter which looks like crushed up rubies. It's SO pretty. Exactly the color red that I was looking for because I really did not want it to be pink.

I decided to pick up another Black Label candle. I'm going to have order every single one of these because they've all been really good. I may not reorder some of them, but they're all at least 4 on my rating sheet! Bonsai is no different. This is a mixture of Japanese Rice Pudding and Vanilla Blossoms. I can tell that this one needs to cure some more. It's been 5 days since I made my video haul and it's already gotten better. The really heavy doughy note that I got on first impression is getting a lot sweeter. This one smells like it's going to be flipping fantastic once it fully cures!

Next I got a 6 pack sampler of 9 oz candles. I've decided to alternate ordering 8 oz and 9 oz samplers because I love both jars so much :)

Best Friends (reorder): Review located at the bottom of the post here.

Clean Cotton (reorder): Review located at the bottom of the post here.

Springdipity (reorder): Review located at the bottom of the post here.

Enchanted Forest (reorder): Even though this is a reorder I haven't yet reviewed it. This is a minty/woodsy type scent. I actually really like it because the sharpness of the peppermint really helps to mellow out the earthiness.

Pink Bubblegum Crush (reorder): Review located at the bottom of the post here.

Spellbound (reorder): Review located at the bottom of the post here.

Moving on to scent shots. I'll start with my free one which was Carrot Cake. 5 days later this one smells a LOT more like carrot cake. I still get the spicy notes, but I'm now getting the sweetness from the carrot. So good!

Finally I have my scent shots. I picked these in kind of an interesting way. I keep 4 different lists of scents: Must Order, Should Order, Might Order, and then a list that has all the rest of the scents in it. If I hear someone talk about a scent, I put it on one of the first three lists depending on how much I like the sound of it. As scents get moved off of it, the 4th list gets shorter. I use a random function in excel to pick out a certain number of scents from the remainder list so I can try scents I've either never heard of or I missed somehow. Normally when I place scent shot only (or mostly) orders, I'll select a certain number of scents from each list. For example 20 from the Must Order List, 15 from the Should Order list, 10 from the Might Order list, and 5 random ones. That way I get a good variety of scents.

Long story short (yeah right) this time I got 2 from each category for a total of 8. I list them from which list I pulled them from:

Might Order
Island Delight - This is a mixture of Lime, Strawberry, and Pineapple. This one is really good and really juicy!
Coconut Hibiscus - This one has a crazy amount of oil in it! It kind of reminds me of a pina colada right now. I'm not a huge fan of the taste of hibiscus, but they do smell nice.

Should Order
Kiwi Kicker - I'm really liking this one cold! It smells like a fresh kiwi!
DKNY Delicious - A dupe for the perfume that I have not smelled. It's nice so far.

Might Order
Raspberry Banana Guava - This one smells exactly like the Raspberry Mambo chewy candy. So yummy! I think I like this better than regular Raspberry Guava!
Iris & Fern - I think this one is my favorite of the scent shots! Victoria's converting me into a floral person :) It smells a lot like the Hyacinth scent shot I have, but it is still pretty different. Can't wait to burn it!

Random Ones
Coconut - I'm on the fence with this one. I can tell that it's starting to get better, but it still doesn't really smell like coconut to me.
Cantaloupe Lily - This one is really pretty. I love fruity florals and this is no exception. There's a juiciness coming from the melon that's sweetening up the lily a lot!

And an extra special treat - here's my unboxing video of the whole thing! Enjoy!!!

Now onto the daily review!

007 (5): This is an amazing spa scent. It's a little lighter than I normally like my candles to be, but the scent definitely makes up for it. I can't really pick out individual notes because it's so well blended. It is really relaxing and would be the perfect scent to light with a bath. I will most likely be reordering this one!

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 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