Yankee Candle Halloween and a Couple of Extras

It’s nearly autumn, at least all of the autumn ranges are being released (and Yankee Candle had a 30% off offer), so it’s time for my annual Yankee Candle order for a couple of the Halloween scents. I do sometimes buy things in between, normally the wax melts or tea lights, but I always buy a Witches’ Brew and normally something from the Halloween accessories range. I also got a Fruit Salad large jar candle, it’s the only size available in it, which is apparently always available in the US but only a special release in the UK so if you’re in the UK then get it quickly as these ones often disappear without any warning.

I’ve only had them for a day but I have burned them all to see how they smell when they’re lit, though I don’t tend to find there’s that much difference in scent cool to warm when it comes to Yankee candles in the actual jars, some of the wax melts change but not the actual candles that I’ve had.

One thing I like about Yankee Candle, aside from the products themselves, is that every order I’ve made online has arrived intact. They may go slightly overboard when it comes to the packaging, think multiple layers of bubble wrap around wax tarts, but the candle jars themselves are ones that could easily get broken as they’re fairly thin glass in some cases, especially the Halloween specials. They have polystyrene at the top and bottom that fit snuggly so even if they did move in the box then they’re not going to smash against each other or anything else. Another touch I liked in this particular order that I haven’t had before are the scratch and sniff style cards they’ve included that have four scents from different collections released recently. Normally I probably wouldn’t pay much attention to these advertising things but the fact you can smell the scents without having to buy them has made me consider ones I wouldn’t have considered before, Ebony and Oak in particular I wouldn’t have given a second thought but I kind of want some things in it now.

I love the theme of this year’s jar candles, the black background with the Halloween themed things on them, in this case spiders for Witches Brew and green apples for Forbidden Apple, in the different colours that make the different scents stand out from each other. They change out the designs every year and I think this year’s or the ones from two or three years ago with the silhouettes of a Halloween landscape with witches and things around it have been my favourites. The glass is coloured and the designs printed on so in the past they’ve glowed with the silhouettes blacked out when the candle gets low enough, I expect this year’s will do the same.

I have a feeling that I’ve reviewed Witches’ Brew candles in general at least a couple of times on this blog but as it’s in the order I’ll do a mini review here too. It’s one of those scents that seems to have a love or hate reaction, I don’t think I know anyone who’s smelled it who is in the middle. It’s sold as patchouli and, although that’s the main scent, there’s something in there that gives it a sweetness to me. It smells exactly like those little artisan gift shops that sell incense and candles, or at least the ones near me. For some reason I just find it really comforting. It’s a hard scent to describe but if you like patchouli I’d say it’s definitely one to try out. This year I bought it in the Medium Jar Candle (£18.99) which lasts 65 – 90 hours, Votive Candle (£1.80) which lasts up to 15 hours and Wax Tart (£1.49) that lasts up to 8 hours. In the past I’ve bought it in tea lights which I think are a great size for these things as they have a decent throw if you want to scent a room but aren’t as expensive and a lot of people have tea light holders. As far as throw goes this one doesn’t seem as strong as previous years. I just finished last year’s jar the other day and I think it was stronger than this one. It will easily fill a room though, even a large one, and the scent goes out of my bedroom and along the landing if I have my door open. It does linger for quite a while too after blowing it out, more than a lot of scents.

This year the second Halloween scent is a new one, at least that I’m aware of, and it’s called Forbidden Apple which is both a good Halloween themed product and apple scents are often my favourites so I got this one without smelling it. This is available in the same range of products as the Witches Brew but I only bought the Medium Jar Candle (£18.99). This is supposed to be fresh apple with a hint of bergamot, black oak and vanilla noir which makes me think it’d have something more incense or woods scented in there but to me, even when lit, it’s pretty much just fresh apple. It’s stronger than Witches Brew but it may be to do with the freshness of the scent and it does seem to smell ‘warmer’ rather than just fresh when it’s warmed up. The throw for this is really good, it seems to travel further than Witches Brew though it doesn’t linger as long when it’s blown out. If you’re expecting something more oak or vanilla noir based then I’d try and smell it before you get it if you’re not a fan of pure apple scents.

I didn’t buy it this year but I thought I’d mention the Candy Corn scent as it seems to be a favourite for a lot of people and products in autumn in general. I’ve bought it in the past and it’s the same scent again so I thought I might as well include it as I’m doing a Halloween review. It’s a very buttery scent to me, very sweet and quite strong so if you like the smell of candy corn, or sweet buttery popcorn, then this is worth checking out. As it’s not my favourite scent I didn’t get it and it can be very overpowering if you don’t like it much as it does linger for quite a while afterwards. I will say, however, that it does go really well when burned alongside Witches Brew to add a richness to the other and make it slightly sweeter.

Onto the permanent and less autumnal scents and the first is the Large Jar in Fruit Salad (£21.99 and lasts between 110 and 150 hours) which is definitely a summer scent, though I do burn these kinds of scents all year so it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s very bright and fruity and you can tell there’s some kind of peach and melon in there but the main thing I get from this is a Hubba Bubba flavour I used to love when I was little. It’s very strong and it has a great throw, I used it when I had a bath and the scent travelled all round upstairs and was stronger than the bath bomb I used when you weren’t in the room. It’s not got great staying power once you’ve blown it out but it’s definitely got the power to scent all of upstairs if you want one that’ll fill a big area. This is only available in a large jar in the UK as it’s a special appearance from the US range but I think that means it’s available more in the US site, not sure on availability over there.

The second thing in the permanent range I originally bought to give as a present but I’m not sure it’s a scent they’d like so luckily I bought a few different wax tarts so I’ll give some of the others instead. It’s the Pink Hibiscus Wax Tart (£1.49) which is pretty strong, though I haven’t burnt it yet as I’m undecided whether I’ll be keeping it or not. It’s a strong floral and, although it does have the hibiscus scent I get quite a strong rose smell from this, like Turkish delight, so a sweet rose. I’m not sure how that will translate when its heated but it’s definitely not pure hibiscus.

Onto the accessories and the first is one that I saw last year and meant to get in the sale but it had sold out before I had the chance to. It’s the Spider Web Jar Holder (£12.99) which holds both the medium and large Yankee Candle jars. This one is definitely very Halloween themed but I have had the Illumalid that goes with it out all year so I’ll be keeping this out year round too. It feels strong and well made and I like the height for the part that holds the jar, it’s high enough that if you keep a few large jar candles around it it will still stand out. The base is wide enough and very stable so I see no problems with this staying upright even with a large candle in it, it does need to be on a flat surface though as the larger candles can overbalance if it’s on any kind of a slope, the medium sized ones can tolerate a bit of an angle but there’s no grip on the base so it’s got to be on a surface that it won’t just slide off. I have included a photo of the Forbidden Apple candle in it with the Illumalid as that’s still available this year for £6.99 so if you want that to go with it then you can get the set. I like the fact you get the spider hanging from the top part and linking the two things together. There is also a votive holder available in this range for £6.99.

If you’ve been following me since last Christmas (first of all thanks) I got a votive candle in the advent calendar and said I’d buy a votive holder so I could actually use it the way it’s meant to be used and I finally got one! It’s been longer than I meant to but I love the Halloween range, actually Halloween themed things in general, all year round so this Metal Web Votive Holder (£3.99) will be used all year round. It’s more of a subtle Halloween theme than a lot of their products in that it’s a more gunmetal or brushed silver than black and it could just be a more modern looking design in metal rather than being obviously a spider’s web. I did consider buying one of the more traditional Halloween themed votive holders, I love the skeleton, pumpkin and monster ones, but thought this would be better for a year round look plus I think it’ll look amazing with the shadows when the candle gets lower as it’s held in a glass container inside the metal so the light will shine through. The feet on the bottom are just a part of the metal outer design and there are indents inside as it’s just a sheet rather than built up. It doesn’t get too hot but I’d put it on something heat proof anyway, I have some slate coasters that work well for it or just a surface you know won’t be damaged by it will do as the holder itself contains the candle. This range also includes a Jar Candle Holder for £6.99 and Illumalid for £6.99.

I like everything I have got in this order, which is great considering I bought almost all of the scents blind, but I do wish that the U had some of the Halloween accessories that the US gets. I would love to have some Boney Bunch things, a few years ago I almost got the wax tart burner but didn’t and regretted it since as they don’t seem to be releasing anything Boney Bunch recently. I guess they just weren’t selling well enough or something but I’ve almost considered buying them on eBay sometimes, the price always puts me off. I just hope that in the future they release more in the UK as I’d love to have something from the range