Candle Junkie! (Indoor and Outdoor Candles)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Indoor and Outdoor Candles
Date:	25/10/00 (939 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Suits all moods, buy them everywhere, suits any price range

Disadvantages: can be very epensive considering they will be burnt

I am a candle junkie! Yep, that's right I have so many candles of all different types that I like to think I have a pretty good insight into the candle market. Gone are the days when candles are purely functional items when the sun went down, now they are some of the most useful and attractive home accessories that you can have and there is so so much choice.

Candles are fabulous for so many reasons. Firstly, the make great gifts as there is so much variety that if you put a little bit of thought into it you can find candles with personality to match anyone. I know that sounds strange, but I often look at a candle and I think how much it would be a great gift for a certain friend of mine. Secondly, candles are great to look at, they are relaxing, you can have them placed around your bath, on a table for that romantic meal, at parties to provide atmospheric lighting and they are soothing and relaxing whilst studying so I discovered. The smells released by candles are also an additional bonus, it used to be that candles were functional for light but now you can find candles in so many aromas that whatever takes you fancy you'll probably be able to get. This is good in terms of acting like an air freshner, but also as the House Doctor would probably say as a tool to help selling your house!

You can buy candles anywhere, but I will give you my top places to buy some of the best on the market.

~~~~~~~~~ ATHENA~~~~~~~~~

There is no longer an Athena where I live at home, however where I am studying at university in Exeter there is one and I am amazed at the range of candles they have. My personal favourites at the minute are the jungle themed candles. There are many designs, but the leopard and tiger print ones are fun. There are the square candles and traditional round ones, but they are all fun and I imagine a good accessory to a home. The down side here is how expensive they are, I worry about paying £15 for a candle as at
the end of the day they do fade in time so you have to burn them and some could argue that you may as well just burn the £15, it depends I guess on how much you value functional over fun slightly eccentric candles. I have one as I fell in love with it, but for the time being it will sit on my shelf.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BOOTS~~~~~~~~~

Now, we will all spend a lot of time in Boots I am sure, but their gift department as a whole is a gem. They have a vast range of candles though in many shapes and sizes. Yesterday in fact I discovered their range of sand candles which were a new one to me. You can chose the type of container you want (price ranges between £1.50-£4.00, very reasonable), this makes it ideal for gifts as you can match the container to the person, then you choose what colour of scent of sand you want (£3). I opted for a clear glass with swirly patterns container with purple lavender sand. Inside with the sand you get 3 wicks and you simply poor the sand into the container, put in a wick and light. I am so impressed with this latest discovery as my previous comment demonstrates sometimes I have problems burning my candles as they look so nice. With sand candles you always have the same nice container and just replace the sand. I will be buying a lot of these for christmas presents this year! Boots also have a lot of other interesting gift candles. They have strange shaped bottle with items floating around in them, like flowers and then a wick in the top. These are very nice to look at and although not cheap are not out of the price range for a nice gift.

~~~~~~~~WAX LYRICAL~~~~~~~~~

These are also a new one to me and are based in a concession in my local card shop although I hear that they have their own shops in some towns. They have a vast range of aromatherapy candles and nice containers as well to put them in. Aromatherapy candles always seem to charge a premium but these seem quite reasonable. This shop is also great
for oil burners and other scented home accessories.

~~~~~~~~~~~DEBENHAMS~~~~~~~~~~

This is a wierd one I know, I stumbled here accidently, but they have some of the nicest candles I have ever seen with flowers, shells and other objects of interest enbedded in them. Some of them are huge as well and imagine many hours of burning ahead. I did actually buy a shell candle for my bathroom and it was a wierd xperience seeing it burn as the shells eventually kept falling out and I was left with a pile of starfish, shells and seaweed!

~~~~~~~~DUNHELM MILL SHOP~~~~~~

Although Dunhelm Mill shops are not countrywide, they are a great place to find lots of candle bargains. I especially like huge candles, but they are so expensive and I resent paying £20 plus for something I am going to burn. Here though you can by large candles very cheaply as well as many interesting candle holders and oil burners.

~~~~~~~~WILKINSONS~~~~~~~

Yes, your local Wilko's is a candle hunters paradise. In their selection they have some really naff looking ones, however there are also some ones that look pretty expensive. I recently bought some ones with oriental symbols on. A medium sized one cost me just under £2. Last week I saw that they had just introduced many more scented candles all at under £2.

~~~~~~~~~INVENTORY~~~~~~~~~

My final choice is the faithful home friend Inventory. At the middle price range in the market they seemed to have cornered a big section of the market. I always get drawn into this shop even If I don't want to go in as I spend so much money! Their trick is to have a glass shop frontage and fill it with glass shelves of candles in bright colours. They have the hugest church candles ever which I would love on the large iron candle holders by my front door, I think I will have to write a few more dooyoo opinions before I can actually have some though.

I could go on forever about the ma
ny places to buy candles, they are everywhere as all people from every walk of life seems to appreciate them. I will quickly mention, Woolworths, Sainsburys and Next as being of interest to any candle lover.

Candles will never go out of fashion, they may discover different means of making them, different styles (wax, sand, gel) but they will still remain a must have home accessory.
If anyone has anywhere that they think is great for candles I would love to know, as lets face it you can never have to many!

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