Scenting Your Cage

Hey there dandies!  I’m your dear here, and it’s like 10PM where I am.  I know it’s not the best time to make my first post, but I thought how much fun would it be if right off the bat I showed you something little that makes me happy, that isn’t a lot of money, and isn’t makeup or some hair product you have to take my word for that it works.

I was never really a candle or a scent person before very recently.  I’m not sure why, but my nose isn’t very sensitive to smells, and I would always joke that I had anosmia because people would say something smells sooo good, and unless it was a really overpowering smell, I just didn’t respond to it.  Then I found a Scentational candle at my local Marshalls.  Now I’ll be honest, it was mostly it’s really cute packaging that got me to buy it.  I figured even if I couldn’t smell the candle well I could burn it down, then scoop out the guts and turn it into a pretty jar for my Q Tips  and face pads and stuff. 

The first one I bought was just entitled “Affection” and I’ll admit this one was a little strong to the other people in my house, but I was really excited about it, because it could fill my room and into the hall and a little bit of the room across from it after only like one or two hours of burning.  Now, because it was a soy candle it lasted a really long time, but because I was a candle newbie I didn’t treat this candle very well.  The wick was pretty long, and I only lit it for maybe half an hour the first time I burnt it which is really bad for your candles.  I’ll get into proper candle maintenance in a little bit.  Now I’ll be honest, this candle was packaged in this really pretty white almost milk glass container with stark black lettering that made me think of like old timey apothecary jars. 

 

                                                       (These are the two that I bought)        

Sadly, by the time I wrote this my candle had been all burnt up and already replaced by the next line this company has put out called “Fearless.”  I was actually out at Marshalls again with my grammy trying to find another “Affection” candle because I loved that sort of soft spicy smell that reminded me of being locked in a boy’s arms at the drive in theater and just sort of soft romantic spring nights.

The way that “Fearless” smells invokes those same sort of male musky romantic emotions in me, but this time it’s more upscale.  It’s hard to explain, and I’m so bad at picking smells because I don’t have the most awesome nose, but I definitely smell sandalwood, and dark tones.  It’s sort of funny that I associated these scents with manly romantic feelings, because when I went to their site so I could get the link for you guys the product page described “Fearless” as being part of a scent line that, “All six fragrances are unique, with masculine overtones.  For your favorite man in your life.  A fragrance to remember him by.”  So maybe I bought boy candles?  Do candles come in unisex, or are there really smells that appeal to only men, and others to only women like perfume? 

 

I feel like it makes a room so much more comfortable when you have like little candle flickers in the room and these really nice inviting smells, and it’s just a very comfort or pleasure seeking thing to have.  Plus, when you're done you get this really fun jar that you can use for storage and making your counter, or vanity look fancy!

 

The only downside to these candles are the jar does get very hot when you light them and you can’t move it around, but I don’t really need to do that anyways, and at least with the white one, the jar was super easy to smudge or get dirty.  But the pros out way the cons here pretty easily.

Anyways, I did want to wrap this up with some candle maintenance, because I had no clue going into this that there were wrong and right ways, so maybe some of you guys don’t either.  So apparently wicks aren’t the right size when you get them and should be shortened to 1/4 of an inch.  If it lets off smoke when you light it, the wick is too long, and as it burns continue to trim the wick to a reasonable size.  The second thing is proper burning time.

Candles have like a little memory and if you burn a candle right the first time, you won’t have to be as worried the second or sixth time you burn it.  Scentsational recommends you burn the first time for as long as 2 to 3 hours, or however long it takes for the entire top surface of the candle to melt.  This will prevent canoeing, or that problem you get where candles will burn down the middle, but there’s tons of candle still left unmelted on the sides of the jar.