I love this time of year. It gets dark early, I come home from work, close the curtains and light one of my many candles and settle down to relax (after doing the washing, hovering, putting clothes away and feeding the cats and fish) and forget about work for the evening.

As I had used up all my Yankee Candles and have to wait and see if Santa will be bringing me any when he visits next month, I decided now would be as good a time as any to try something new. So I have tried a few of the Lily flame candles and really liked those and I also decided to try some of the candles on offer from Bomb Cosmetics, whose products I have always enjoyed using. For anyone who doesn't know who Bomb Cosmetics are, then take a look at their website and see for yourself, for me they are my Lush alternative and I use them when I fancy a change of product. Like Lush they have Bath Bombs, shower gels, soaps, Lip Balm, Lip Scrubs, massage bars, foot creams, hand creams and bath salts to name but a few of their product area and you will also find that many, if not most of them, all have eye-catching names such as Parma Chameleon Bath Blaster which smells of Parma violet sweets you might have eaten as a child and when it come into contact with water it changes colour slightly. Things like this make chuckle and more inclined to try them.

Chilly Willy, which I have to hold my hand up and say I bought just because of the name and the fact it made me cackle, is a candle in a tin, similar to the Lily Flame ones. When it arrived with two others I wasn't surprised to find that it was similar in size to the Lily Flame candle I had just finished using and at around 299g this candle cost me £7.99 which is cheaper than Lily Flame and it had the same burn time of around 35 hours. Whenever they say around 35 hours it depends on how long for and how often you choose to have your candle lit.

The Chilly Willy tin is gold and blue in colour and looks quite festive in that around the middle of the tin around the words 'Chilly Willy and Let it glow' are some snow flakes and it has the exact same design on the lid. To remove the lid, you simply twist it to loosen it and then you grip it and remove it with relative ease. Inside the tin is the candle itself which is a bright white colour and it is surrounded it are 4 love hearts, which are a deeper shade of blue and they are also made of wax and as you burn the candle they melt into the candle. The wick is also present and sit's a few cm off the candle to allow the opportunity to burn quickly and then there is a few sprinkles of blue glitter across the candle which makes it sparkle.

Whenever I have candles, I always ensure they have something to stand on, because once they have been burning for a few hours they become quite hot. As I have mentioned in other reviews, a few years ago I was given some mats upon which to place my Yankee Candles so they were not stood directly on my carpet or my glass table and most candles come with a warning reminding you to stand your candle on a heat resistant surface for safety anyway and this candle came with that reminder on a piece of paper. So once lit this candle becomes very fragrant and it is such a lovely fragrance, but better than I thought it would be. The blurb with this candle tells you that "A fruity fresh apple crunch with a spicy hint of ginger and Christmas fragrance". I'm not really a fan of spicy ginger aromas and having only bought the candle because of the name, I wasn't really expecting to like it, but I did and do love it because whilst there is a hint of spicy ginger it isn't over-powering the main fragrance is the fresh apple which reminds of some soap I used to buy from Lush called Demons in the Dark and I loved the fragrance, anyway for me this is what it reminds me of.

Whenever I light one or two candles, I find that it creates such a relaxing atmosphere as I sit and watch the flames dance about, it just so happens that this aroma is also relaxing and with these candles you only need to burn them for an hour or two maximum to get the full delight of the aroma which lingers, with ease, around your home and lasts for quite a while after you distinguish the flame.

For a product like this you can expect to pay around £7.99 and there are 42 different ones to try! I have been using my candle, every other night for around 2 hours for the last 3 weeks and looking at it I think I will get another 4-8 weeks usage out of it if I continue like I am doing as I interchange it with another candle from the same range. If you use it more it will last longer, if you use it less it won't last that long, 35 hours is quite a good estimation as to the total burning time you will get from this candle. Having purchased this candle and looking online, I was surprised to see how readily available they are. You can buy them from places like Amazon and EBay to name though do look at the difference in price before purchasing.

I am now glad that I have tried these candles, especially because like the candles from Lily Flame I love the fragrances and it is a good, cheaper alternative to Yankee Candles and a change every now and again is a good thing, if only for my bank balance!