719 Walnut Avenue's Ocean Mist: Candle Review

Today I am going to review one of my favorites from this company: Ocean Mist from 719 Walnut Avenue. This candle is a 14 oz, 3-wick candle with a bright blue sky colored wax that pools out to a translucent cornflower blue color. On the label is an ocean wave curling in the current. Surfs up, bro! I was so pleasantly surprised to fall in love with this candle, but I will get in to that in a few.

The scent description on this candle reads:


Cold Sniff: On cold this was a light, fresh scent. I was certain that it would be a light thrower-better suited for a small room like a bathroom. Bathrooms like fresh smelling candles right? Its very fitting. I noted an ambiguous aquatic note-slightly salt water-ish, with a rounding out of a masculine note. I am over the masculine scents, like for-real for-real. BUT, once again I was at Walmart and just had to buy every candle that I could find from 719. I hadn't seen this scent before so I thought, why not. I really didn't give this scent any other thoughts on cold sniff, and that kind of sucks for me. That means I'm not impressed.

Hot Throw: Holy shizz guys, scratch the record, REWIND! I take back what I said about this candle being un-impressive. I was pleasantly surprised that this candle not only filled my master suite, but also gently wafted out into the upstairs hallway. It was a medium throw, about a 6, which is all I want for my upstairs. The part that I obsess over is the actual scent. It was a smell I have never smelled before, and in a world of constant re-packaging, scents seem to be more recycled than ever before. This was a breath of fresh-air LITERALLY! The most simple way I can describe this scent is like a clean aquatic-type smell~so here goes...a blend of Windex with a dash of a sexy man! Ha! I mean this in the best possible way! I swear it's so good! It's got a clean smell similar to a Windex (minus the nasty ammonia smell) and a masculine note (minus bergamot). This is a great candle to light after you clean the home for a gentle, good clean smell that ISN'T laundry soap, or cotton-y. It's gentle, it's soft, it covers you like a warm blanket-or better yet, a clean, white sheet just taken off the line from drying in the fresh air. It is a relaxing scent that I actually left burning to put me to sleep. It is comforting and relaxing and I just can't say enough great things about it. If you like more aquatic-fresh smells than this candle is a great one to try!

Wax Performance: This candle like Sunny Sangria performed better than candles from this company in the past. The wax pooled out deeply and with the most beautiful blue liquid. The wicks stayed in place, didn't need trimming and didn't cause soot. The wax color stayed the original summer blue-sky blue and didn't discolor-even better than most BBW candles do. Towards the end of the candle, I'd say the last 2 burns, I needed to cotton ball this candle due to some puny wicks. Scent throw was wonderful all the way up until it burned itself out.

Overall: This candle hit me in a nostalgic spot, I think, which is why I felt so strangely in love with this scent. It was different than any others I have smelled, it had the ability to calm me (like I'm a raving lunatic or something) and the color of the wax and wax pool are some of my favorite shades of blue. This candle is the perfect example of why it's not good to judge a book by it's cover--so to speak. It's hot throw out shined its cold-sniff and proved to be worthy of me picking up duplicates of this candle. Call it luck, call it love, or call it my own personal blend of happy, I am satisfied with the gentle clean breeze of Ocean Mist. And I think you'd be too!

Yankee Candle's Exotic Bloom: Candle Review

Today I am reviewing Yankee Candle's 22oz. large jar candle in the scent Exotic Bloom. It has one of the loveliest bright red colored waxes I've seen and it pools out to a molten cherry color. On the label there is an array of tropical foliage to get the burner in the mood for the vibe of this candle!

The scent description on this candle reads: Deep in the tropical night, the seductive perfume of island flora creates an air of mystery and romance. This has to be one of the most nondescript "stories" that I have read in a while from Yankee--who are very much fans of giving their customers a "mindset" of the candle rather than the scent notes. I guess they want to leave the interpretation up to their consumers. It's like one of those inkblot tests; "So, what do YOU see in this picture...?"

Cold Sniff: On cold sniff, this candle is right up my alley. I love fresh, powdery smells and this candle delivers just that. This candle is part of Yankee's Fresh collection, and I would have to agree. It is indeed fresh. Since there are no scent notes to guide me, I will say that it smells similar to Yankee Candle's Blue Hydrangea. It's got that powdery very light floral in the sense of hydrangeas, lilacs, tulips, magnolias~ that type of floral. It's very true for spring and even summer. This candle has a certain dewy aspect to it and it is a very congenial smell. I think most people would like it-it isn't offensive or cloying. I figured by its lighter fragrance that it would be a light thrower.

Hot Throw: Blown away about this scent performance! After burning several what seemed to be unscented Yankee's, the throw on this puppy was enough to fill one whole level of my 3 level home. I noticed the smell quickly too; even before it pooled all the way out. Just how it smelled on cold: fresh, dewy and powdery, it smelled on hot throw. It's a very authentic scent, not manufactured and fake. Very pleasant. I'm thankful for this candle for restoring a little faith in me for Yankee Candle. The last 2 burns of this candle had a more light scent throw, and got moved to a bathroom so that it could perform strongly in a smaller room.

Wax Performance: When I first popped the lid on this candle, it seemed moist. The wax was glossy, and there was what I call a "condensation" ring around the bottom half of the candle. I could tell that it was loaded with fragrance oil! I was like a kid in a candy shop; mouth watering! I just KNEW that it was going to be a strong thrower. After the first few burns, probably due to the saturation of oil in the wax, my candle started to not want to pool out, even after hours and hours. So, I helped the little guy out with wrapping it in foil to reflect the heat back into the candle and force the wax to pool out correctly. It helped, and every subsequent burn --I had to foil it--until the last 2 burns which I suppose I had burned off the excess oil at which time it returned to pooling out normally without foil intervention. The closer down to the bottom I got, the wax became more oily. The candle was actually glossy after I blew it out and let the wax cool. See below.

The final few times I lit the candle, I was greeted by fragrance oil that had seeped to the top!

I got kinda excited about all the fragrance oil, and while this candle was a very fragrant little thrower, the burn was troublesome due to all the oil, and I had to foil the candle all the way until it's final burn. It's a shame because I like the Yankee jar candles to display their beautiful flickering flames and pretty labels, but this candle was just looking like the Tin Man all bundled up! Exotic Bloom was just all scent and no display in this case, and for that I was a bit sad. 

Overall: While this candle was a great scent thrower that made me happy once again with Yankee Candle, the performance of the wax and the saturation of oils put it in a tricky spot; one which I was happy when it was finally over for Exotic Bloom. The scent is great, but very similar to others done before by Yankee, such as Blue Hydrangea. If you like soft, dewy florals then this candle is worth a sniff! I'm sure that the odd burn I had with this candle is an isolated incident, and I will continue to burn Yankee's--but I won't feel the need to stock up on multiples of this particular scent.

719 Walnut Avenue's, Sunny Sangria: Candle Review

 Today I am reviewing a 14oz, 3-wick candle from 719 Walnut Avenue (can you tell that I'm STOKED about this BBW knock-off company?!) called Sunny Sangria. This candle has a cerise colored wax that pools out to a lovely sangria color (how fitting, huh?). The label has a picture of a bunch of sliced oranges and berries surrounding a glass of what we can assume is sangria. Now, I can say that I wasn't a huge fan of the name of this candle or the label for that matter because I don't really care for the smell of sangria~bad memories of over-doing it with the sangria--if you know what I mean. But, I was looking to buy some candles from this line, I was at Walmart, IT was at Walmart, so I picked it up to give it a try. I mean, it was less than $5, so what have you really got to lose?

The scent description on this candle reads: A fresh blend of summer fruits, berries, melon, orange and kiwi touched with a hint of sugar.

Cold Sniff: On cold, this candle smells plain and simple like fruit punch. I know a lot of reviewers like to get technical and try and list all the individual notes that they can pick out, but for the sake of getting you guys to know how this candle smells by using your imagination, because hey, smell-o-vision hasn't been invented yet. I like to describe the candle using the most close and to-the-point measures I can. So yes, it smells like Hawaiian Punch if you can imagine that. I don't smell any wine notes or any individual fruit notes, its just a well blended, generic fruit punch smell. Nothing new, nothing old.

Hot Throw: On hot throw, this candle was a great thrower, it filled the bottom 2 floors of my house with a tropical punch smell. On hot, the candle deviated a bit from the sugary Hawaiian Punch smell of cold sniff to a more exotic vibe, bringing forth mostly a sweet orange smell with a note that reminded me of a passion fruit. Maybe it even WAS passion fruit, who knows. It was a great throw even up until the final burn. Definitely stronger on hot than I thought it would be. I would say it threw at about a 7 or 8, and became the dominating candle scent of the house when I was burning a lighter one upstairs, and a Yankee downstairs (again, a lighter smelling one, so as to not contaminate the scent throw of Sunny Sangria for the purposes of this review.).

Wax Performance: The wax pooled out well, as have all the candles I have tested from this company. There was no tunneling, just a clean and even burn with no sooting. The wicks stayed nice and centered, better than the other candles I have tested from this company that have tended to drift outward, needing to be set back in place. Maybe this is because this candle is from their new line and they have corrected their mistakes from the past-or I just picked a good candle. Either way, great performance and strong throw for $5.

Overall: I was surprised at the scent throw of this candle, it was very strong and prominent. Usually fruity smells seem kind of lost in my open-floor plan house, but this candle made it's presence known! The wax was a pretty color and the pool was deep and "healthy." I would not repurchase this candle simply because I thought it was a pretty generic scent--one every company puts out in one form or another. It's a summery scent of fruit punch! I'm not a huge fruity candle lover, so I would pick a different scent over this one. But if you like fruity scents then this candle is a very worthy contender for you to consider. And did I mention that it was less that $5?! Hellur, go pick this one up you summer fruit candle lover, you!