I think I’m addicted to candles. I love the warm glow, the nice smell they throw through out our home, the romance of them … At any given time I have five to six burning throughout the house. I think they add to the cozy, homey feeling of our humble abode.
The buttercream scent at Yankee Candle got me started a couple of years ago (well after the home candle craze began - I’m a late bloomer), and I’ve since branched out to match candle scents and colors with room function and the season of the year. I also like White Barn Real Essence candles and love the pretty jars they come in.
Candles are awfully expensive when you burn through as many as I do, so I try to catch the seasonal sales and stock up. I probably spend about $600 per year on jar candles alone at sale prices :eek:
Anyone else burn a lot of candles and if so, what are your favorite scents? Have you branched out to making your own? That’s a hobby I may pursue eventually and would love to know more about it.
I have a sinful amount of candles OUT, but I don’t burn them all that often outside of religious work. But just this morning I put a few scented candles on top of a radiator in a few rooms - so my kitchen smells ever so slightly of vanilla, my dining room of melon, and my bathroom of clove and cassia.
The best scents, IMHO, come from Aroma Naturals. They use only plant oils, not cloying or funky synthetic perfumes, and they even have vegan candles that burn better than soy. In addition to regular pillar candles, they’ve got these Aromatherapy to Go tins which work great for my radiator air fresheners, as well as being easy to tuck into a purse and bring with you to work or whatever. In the summertime, I leave one in my car and the heat of the sun turns it into the best car freshener ever! They’re not cheap, but they seem to burn slower than most other candles I know of.
Definitely think about making your own, especially if you like jar candles. They’re so easy. You can even melt down all the scrap from the candles you buy and recast a new candle from it!
Someone mentioned candles with wooden wicks to me the other day, which I’ve never heard of. Anyone use those?
Get a few good candles- I’m a big fan of the Yankee Candle Company clean cotton scent- set them up accordingly.
Near and around the good candles, stick a bunch of cool dollar store candles. They add the extra light and warmth, but usually don’t smell like anything (even if they should). If there is a little smell, it’ll be way over powered by the good candle anyway.
But seriously- the dollar store is amazing for candles. There are two or three here in town that have huge stocks. You can find really nice colors, jars, etc. It’s great!
Clearly, I’m addicted to candles. I just have to find the cheap way to feed my addiction.
I went to IKEA last month. I needed some sort of hamper for my dirty clothing. So I got these two small hampers and now I separate lights and darks when I put them in the cleaning, rather than having to do it on laundry day.
Hm?
Candles?
Oh, well, yes, uhm… five boxes, why? Three of them are Christmas colors, they were on sale!
I only burn them one at a time, in whichever room I happen to be. I love smelling them but my sense of smell is in the “off” position by default, really… I need to “sniff” and don’t want to go through life sounding like Wolverine on the prowl :p. SiL was shocked, shocked I tell you, when she gave me a candle for Christmas and I went and burned it. My-brother-her-husband told her that’s what candles are for and she decided that particular brand of The Crazy must be genetic. Later she found out that other people burn candles too.
I think it may be a socially acceptable version of playing with matches… but whatever it is, I like it and love shopping for candles.
Yes! I love the Yankee Candle Company, but I’ve had a few from Bath and Body Works that are great. I’m currently working my way through an ocean-scented pillar from Pier One…smells like summer…sigh.
WhyNot, I’ve never used them but at one place I worked at the WoodWick candles were a big hit. People said the wick burning sounded like a crackling fireplace.
I love candles, but with five cats, it’s way too easy to torch one, so I generally only light them when I have company and can be sure each candle is supervised by humans. I use candle cages, too. They’re awesome.
My personal favorite are the Pier One candles. They retain their scent way longer than any other candles. They smell great even when they’re not lit.
My wife could have cause the great 1867 new england candle shortage she burns so many candles. I’m amazed our cats still have their tail hair. Plus we live with-in and hour or so of Yankee Candle Home Headquarters in Ma. Twice a year I drive up to that damn place! Just kidding, it can be fun sometimes.
I came in here to mention WoodWick candles. I had never heard of them but my sister got me one for Christmas. Loved it!!! The wick does sound like a crackling fireplace, I would think having a grouping of them lit together would be fabulous!
It did seem to burn through a bit faster than a “regular” candle, but that’s the only minor nitpick I had on it. I’m definitely going to look for a couple more.
I am a sucker for Yankee Candles, love love love them. My favorite scents are Home Sweet Home, ButterCream and Cotton. Their citrus candles are great too in the summer.
Do you do push down the wax on the sides so the candle burns evenly? My husband calls me a pyro because I am always messing with the candle wax, but it really does help to burn them better. I’m not the biggest fan of pillar candles because it’s harder to get them to burn evenly, so I have mainly jar candles.
Oooh…my new makeshift hurricane candle holders consist of mason jars filled half-way with glass gems, then pop a tea candle in it. I set them on the railing around the perimeter of my deck. Cheap, sparkly, and oh so candle-icious!
I have zillions of candles and I burn them all the time!
I only buy candles at the dollar store, I don’t do scented. I did buy under pans for the candles, from the thrift store, so I needn’t worry when they drip.
I used to feel if there was a black out I’d be oh so prepared. Which is true. But should the black out last more than a few days, rest assured I’ll have burnt through the boat load and will be sitting in the dark! :eek:
No wait, I have antique oil lamps as well. Now where did I put that oil?
I recently learned that it’s best to burn a candle long enough for the wax to melt all the way across the top of the candle. That prevents the “tunneling” drawback you’re referring to and it really does work! It also helps to keep the wicks trimmed to at most 1/4" before burning which cuts down tremendously on the soot.
Some candles I purchased at Blue Moon Candles have held their scent down to the last little stubbles of the pillars, the prices are reasonable and the customer service is excellent. I bought two 6" gingerbread pillars and used them in my kitchen/dining room during the holidays :::drool::: Got so much positive feedback from friends and family (after they got over their disappointment that I hadn’t actually BAKED gingerbread).
I’m interested in learning more about soy candles. I understand they are healthier for the air, hold their scent longer, and just an all around better candle experience.
I go to the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke Co. Indiana in October each year, and its only been there that I can find candles by Our Own Candle Company. My gods, they are so great. They’re in like Mason jars, and they have some great scents. My average burn time for one jar is from 80-100 hours.
I can have anywhere from one to ten candles burning at a time. I’ll try mixing scents that you normally wouldn’t, just to see what the overall effect would be.
The blueberry smells great in the jar, but upon burning it, Hubster demanded that I never burn it again. And he can’t smell much 85% of the time. And I didn’t care for the baby powder, burned my nose. But the peppermint was really refreshing.
I had to switch totally to jar candles after The Burning Dining Room Table Debacle of '99 and then DeHusband complained about the smokey ceilings.
So now I use candle warmers. Love them. Keep heating the wax over and over until it loses the scent (several months). I have a friend that adds oils when her’s loses scent, but I just buy more candles!
Candle junkie checking in - but I am more about the fragrance than the fire, by necessity. Cat burned tail? Check. Set dining room table afire? Check.
I love the Yankee Candle wax tarts, because they’re cheaper than the candles (therefore, I can buy more fragrances at one time.) I DO NOT like the food scents though - the hazelnut coffee one made me gag after a little while, and the cucumber-and-canteloupe one had the WryGuy checking the trash can repeatedly for “something smells rotten in here.”
Best candle scent I ever discovered seems to be lost to me forever, though. I’d found a selection of votives at Wicks & Sticks quite a few years ago, and one of the fragrances was called Clarity. It was a pale green candle with a sweet, but very clean and not cloying scent. I looked for it online for years after Wicks & Sticks closed, but never did find it, and now I can’t remember the manufacturer’s name either.
Oh, me too, with the tarts. I don’t like the food scents either, except for Juicy Grapefruit – it’s pink and it smells fruity but not too fruity.
Any clue as to why the price has gone up so much? A couple of years ago they were 99 cents, and now they’re $1.79 at the Yankee Candle stores and the Hallmark Gold Crown stores.
A local drugstore has a small Yankee Candle section. The last time I was there, stocking up, the clerk asked if I’d be interested in some tarts that were “out of season”. She went in the back and got them, and I scored about 50 for 59 cents each.
DeVena, I’ve seen those candle warmers but was waiting for someone to confirm that they worked. Cool.
My candle source: Waxman. One of the best things about moving to Chicago is being near them (you can order online, but there’s nothing like the smell of walking into the shop). They have the greatest scents, and their votives completely liquify so they don’t burn unevenly (something that frustrates me when I get votives from elsewhere).
The candles are all handmade in the shops (one in Chicago, one in Lawrence, KS) and the people are incredibly nice.
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