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Banana Guard
by FridaysArePurple ~~The Problem~~ It is so annoying when a banana gets squished inside your bag. This horrific phenomenon presents a double edged sword as not only is your banana bruised, resulting in a disappointingly substandard lunch, but all your stuff is covered in sticky banana mush. Admittedly, this isn't exactly a life or death ... situation, but if it happens often enough it might just push you to the limit and leave you no choice but to fight back with a Banana Guard. So why not use a simple lunch box? Well, I walk to and from work everyday and carry my things in a cross shoulder bag. If I put a square lunch box in there it knocks uncomfortably against my leg as I'm walking which ranks even higher on the scale of annoying-ness than a squashed banana. So in my Pre-Banana Guard days this was simply not an option and countless bananas were left with no other option but to optimistically enter my bag solo. Sadly not all of them made it. ~~The Solution~~ The Banana Guard is a protective plastic case which clips shut around a banana, protecting it from bruises. As the photo clearly demonstrates it is banana shaped and a violently bright yellow colour. It has small holes along the length to stop the banana getting stuffy in there. This is a good feature in case you forget about your banana and leave it in there for a day or so before remembering to rescue it. As it is plastic it can easily be washed or wiped clean if need be. The shape is straight at one end and curved towards the other end as it has been designed to fit all sorts of different shapes and sizes. You just place your banana towards whichever end is most appropriate. I have used my banana guard most weekdays over the last few months since I got it and have only encountered one stubborn banana which didn't want to fit. And yes, it was a rather large one but it was more an issue of girth than length. However it was only just slightly too big so I managed to force it in anyway. In this situation it probably would have worked just as well to leave the Banana Guard unclipped as it probably would have worked well enough like that anyway. ~~The Niggles~~ To open and shut the Banana Guard there are two clips at each end and another larger clip in the middle. It is a bit fiddly to get in to and I don't think little children would be able to do it themselves. As it looks the same on both sides, it is not clear which way round you have it and therefore which way you need to push the middle clip to open it. It opens on plastic hinges which seem to work fine. The brave and carefree among us would remove the Banana Guard from a bag at lunch time, remove the banana from its bright yellow slightly immaturely amusingly shaped casing and loudly snap the clips back into place to close it back up again (it doesn't seem possible to do this quietly). I have to admit that this is not my personal approach in the staff room at work. I usually fiddle around with it in my bag, trying to discreetly free the banana without drawing too much attention! ~~The Verdict~~ Since I have owed my Banana Guard I have not had a single squashed banana and I have also never come across a banana that is too impossibly shaped to fit in it. It also fits in my bag much more comfortably than a lunch box would. So on that basis it deserves the 5 stars I shall award it. I you are interested in buying one they are available on Amazon from £3.20 and upward, depending on the supplier. I have noticed that you can also get blue ones but somehow that just seems wrong. Yellow is the best. Read the complete review |
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Yankee Candle Warm Spice
by k2705 Keeping my home smelling nice is very important to me, and my favourite way to do this is by using scented candles or wax tarts. I love the way the atmosphere can be changed depending on the fragrance of scented wax. It can create a bright fresh clean feel to a room or a warm cosy romantic atmosphere, it can also bring back pleasant ... memories. I have recently been trying some fragrances from Yankee that I haven't used before, one of which is Warm Spice. I usually opt for the floral scents and would never have chosen this if I was ordering it online as the colour alone would put me off but I bought this from a large department store and the smell instantly bought back memories of when I was little, my great Nan always used to bake and at Christmas she used to get me to stir the Christmas cake mixture and make a wish, the smell of Warm Spice instantly too me back. Wax Tarts are simple little discs of oily wax without a wick, I always think they feel slightly oily rather than waxy, they measure approximately 6cm's x 1.5cm's and cost round about £1.00 - £1.20 depending on where you buy them from. They have a fluted edge and do look just like a little tart. In my opinion Yankee make the best wax tarts and these are the ones I always use. The tart comes wrapped tightly in clear cellophane allowing you to see the pale brown wax, the wax tart has a label stuck to the front which shows a small picture that usually depicts the fragrance of the wax, Warm Spice, as you might imagine, has various spices on it including nutmeg and cinnamon. You can usually get a good idea of what the wax tart is going to smell by just by smelling the wrapper, handy of you are in a shop and not too sure if you like the sound if it. Yankees official description of this is:- "Deliciously indulgent and creamy, a classic blend of vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg." To use a wax tart you do need an oil burner and an unscented tea light, its just a case of popping the unwrapped wax tart into the burner and lighting the tea light below it so it melts the wax tart. Once lit it doesn't take long before the oily wax is starting to melt and the fragrance filters around the room. Once the pale brown coloured wax melted it wasn't long before a delicious warm spicy fragrance filled my room, cinnamon was very evident along with the brown sugar, it was sweet and warm. The fragrance isn't overpowering but strong enough to overpower any cooking smells. This would be a lovely wax tart to melt at Christmas time or when you are expecting visitors as its so welcoming. I always melt my wax tarts for a couple of hours at a time, I find the fragrance lingers for a long while after the wax has solidified and this in my opinion is the best way to get the best value from the tart, we could still smell this after the burner had gone out. Yankee state their wax tarts will give you up to 8 hours fragrance and I agree. I just leave the set wax in the burner dish ready to re melt the next day. Once the wax has run out of fragrance I leave it to set then remove the wax from the dish. You can melt the wax tarts whole, break them in half or even mix them to create your own fragrances. Personally I don't mix mine I just melt the tart whole without mixing fragrances, in my opinion Yankee mix the fragrances perfectly well. Yankee use only natural ingredients in their scented wax and their fragrances do really smell genuine. Yankee wax tarts can be found in many independent shops and also some major department stores as well as many online stores such as Amazon UK and Yankee Direct. They are great value for money and a lovely way to fragrance your home for a small amount of money, also a good way to try different fragrances before you spend more on a larger candle jar which are quite a lot of money to lay out if you then decide you don't really like the smell. . I like Warm Spice although I'm not keen on the colour of the wax the fragrance is lovely and bought back memories for me. With my home being open plan I can smell this all through downstairs and also upstairs. I would personally use this one either daytime or evenings and although it does smell festive I would use it all year round as its such a lovely warm fragrance. If you like using scented wax particularly sweet spicy fragrances then I would certainly recommend Warm Spice. Read the complete review |
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Yankee Candle Nature's Paintbrush
by supersonic75 **Introduction and reason for purchase** I'm a member of many online survey sites and when I get paid in vouchers I always end up treating my family, but when I redeemed a £5 Amazon voucher recently I decided to replenish my waning stock of Yankee wax tarts. I opted for a mixed batch of 5 tarts for £5 which I deemed to be a bargain ... as the P&P was free, so I just hoped I would like the selection they were to send me. Luckily when my parcel arrived I was really pleased with the choices and this review will discuss 'Nature's Paintbrush' as it is the most recent one that I have just finished burning.. **Price. packaging & availability** Nature's Paintbrush comes packaged as all do all of Yankee's wax tarts; being in a transparent plastic wrapper with a 'directions' sticker on the underneath whilst on the top is a circular sticker which normally depicts an image to correspond with the particular fragrance. On Nature's Paintbrush there is a rather artistic looking painting of a meadow with an autumnal feel to it with trees full of red/ brown leaves and whilst the picture is eye catching it wouldn't normally appeal to me by the packaging alone. The wax tart weighs 22g and as mentioned in an above paragraph I purchased mine as part of a mixed bundle, though the general RRP is around £1.20 though this varies depending on where you choose to shop as I've seen a difference of at least £1 in prices from one shop to another. There is a factory card shop relatively close to my home which sells 'old stock' of Yankee candles and tarts every now and then from as little as 50p, but generally I buy mine online though if buying one blindly that you haven't tried before it can be a bit of a gamble. Availability wise, Yankee products can be picked up from various outlets such as card shops, garden centres, gift shops as well as an myriad of online stores. Nature's Paintbrush is available in wax tart form, votive sampler as well as glass jar format of different sizes. I do like the candle versions of my favourite Yankee fragrances, but when testing out a new fragrance I prefer the wax tart format as it's not only cheaper but tends to give off a stronger scent. **How Yankee describe this** "..A perfect autumn day captured in radiant, aromatic strokes of brisk air, spicy woods and warm musk.." **My thoughts on Nature's Paintbrush** When I placed my order with amazon I had no idea which fragranced wax tarts they would send, but it did promise to send a 'varied selection' and luckily when my parcel arrived and I inspected them all I was really pleased. I'd been planning on buying Pink Lady Slipper and Paradise Spice singularly so I was thrilled to receive both of these in my collection and wasted no time in burning these first. I still had a few of my firm favourites left over and used these up before testing out another of my latest purchase. As well as the two I've just mentioned along with Nature's Paintbrush there were two fruit based fragrances (Mandarin & Cranberry and Citrus Spice) which though gave off a nice enough aroma whilst still ensconced in their packaging they didn't excite me enough to want to use them there and then which is why I opted to try Nature's Paintbrush next. Whilst still sealed the wax tart emitted a rich and musky aroma and I have to admit I really liked the scent it gave off and it wasn't like I imagined it would be. As pretty as the sketch is on the front of the packaging it wouldn't be enough to entice me to buy it had I seen it online and the saying 'don't judge a book by it's cover' couldn't be more truer as this seemed just my cup of tea. Once released from it's cellophane wrapper, I decided to break the tart into two halves to burn it, though generally I tend to burn them whole for a few hours over the space of a couple of days. Having placed the wax tart in my burner and placed a lit tea light underneath I awaited the musky aroma to infiltrate my home.. I live in a small cottage on one level and though I move my burner from room to room now and again it tends to take up residency in my kitchen. This is because my kitchen is my most central room so when burning candles/ wax tarts the aroma equally wafts through to the other rooms, and also when the burner is placed on my kitchen window sill it's out of harms way and has very little chance of being knocked or spilled. Once the wax tart was in place in the burner I could already detect the rich musky scent that was very noticeable whilst it was still sealed in it's wrapper, though once the wrapper had been removed the scent didn't seem any stronger so I did wonder what the strength would be like once the wax had actually melted. I didn't have to wait too long luckily to find out as after around 10 minutes or so the rustic orange/ brown tart had melted and began to pool into a very dark red/ brown liquid and the fragrance quickly intensified. **Recommended?** I admit that if I saw this online I probably wouldn't have given it another look and even if I saw it in a shop I wouldn't have been drawn to, it but because I was sent it in a mixed lot there was no way it was going to get wasted. As soon as I inhaled the deep musky aroma that this wax tart gave off I knew it would become a favourite and whilst I may not buy it on a regular basis I would most certainly be buying it again, and soon. Once burning the tart reaches it's peak strength wise after around the 2 hour mark and starts to lose it's strength from then onwards. Yankee state that this will give at least 8 hours worth of aroma and I would say all in all it probably gives slightly more - around 10 hours though obviously the longer it is burned the weaker the scent becomes. I found that after about 30 minutes of burning each time the musky aroma became a bit too overpowering and even after extinguishing the tea light the scent was noticeable in my home for at least another hour afterwards. The fragrance was much stronger in my kitchen where the burner was positioned of course, but it still filtered through to each room and scented it accordingly even after the tea light had been put out. I would highly recommend this if you are a fan of strong musky aromas as this is really lovely and though the musk features predominantly it also offers a strong earthy/ mossy undertone which for me is ideal though may not be to everyones taste. It's also worth noting that once lit it really does need to only be burned for around 30 to 5 minutes as the aroma is very strong and if left longer it may be headache inducing for some, but it's up to the individuals preference to test it out I suppose. This isn't my favourite fragranced Yankee wax tart but it's certainly struck a chord with me and I'm extremely glad I got a chance to sample it. I will definitely buy it again in the future though wont go out of my way to hunt it down, but I would certainly be more than pleased if I were to receive it again as a mixed batch. Read the complete review |
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