I was wanting to stock up on some Yankee wax tarts to use over the Christmas period and so on a recent trip into town, I visited branches of Clintons and Collectables to see what was available. I had already decided I would only purchase tarts from the large festive range available and use this as an opportunity to try some I had not bought before.
And so staying away from my favourite couple of wax tarts which I always buy when I am in town, I concentrated only on the festive fragranced wax. There were a few of these particular wax tarts in stock in Clintons, but I found there was more to choose from in Collectables. The prices were the same in both shops, £1.20 per wax tart.

I think it was the photograph on the sticker on the packaging of this 'Christmas Tree' wax tart, that caught my eye, as it depicts a lovely traditional scene of children pulling a Christmas tree along in a snow covered forest. It certainly looked very festive along with the pine tree coloured dark green wax which also gave off a pine and woody scent when I held it to my nose. I decided this would be one of my purchases.

I was looking forward to trying this one and so I opened it the same night and placed it in the top of my burner, lighting a tea light underneath.
It was only a matter of minutes before I could smell the fragrance from the melting wax beginning to fill the room and I immediately thought the pine fragrance seemed a lot stronger than I imagined it would be when sniffing the tart in the shop. Although pleasant enough at first, I soon began thinking it reminded me of toilet cleaner. I mentioned this to my family and whilst they agreed it was a strong pine smell, they said they quite liked it. I was expecting it to be more subtle and maybe other woody, spicy scents would come through and blend with the pine, but all I could smell was pine and I couldn't get the thought of toilet duck cleaner out of my head.

In terms of longevity, this tart held its scent well and it exceeded the approximate 8 hours of fragrance you can expect to achieve when burning a wax tart, which is good, although I did find myself pleased when the time came to empty the wax and use a new tart. It wasn't unpleasant, it was just too reminiscent of toilet cleaner for me and not really the fragrance I wanted in my living room.
If you fancy the strong smell of pine in your living room then I can recommend this particular wax tart as it lasts well and offers value for money in terms of fragrance. I must add that it was only me that didn't really care for this one, as my family thought it was ok and it didn't bother them at all that it was smelling like toilet duck in the living room.

I was disappointed as I didn't expect the pine fragrance to be so strong. Whilst I could detect the pine scent when I held it to my nose in the shop, I also thought I could detect another woody fragrance which would come through and blend with the pine when burning. Sadly, all I could smell whilst it was burning was pine.
In terms of longevity, Christmas Tree offers good value and also the colured wax and packaging is very attractive too, however, this one just didn't really appeal to me as a scent to have burning in my living room. I don't think I'll be buying this one again, but that is the beauty of buying Yankee's wax tarts and votive candles as they are reasonably priced and this is an ideal way to sample the fragrance before spending a lot of money on their expensive glass jars, only to find out you are not keen on the fragrance.

Yankee candles are available to buy from card and gift shops such as Clintons and Collectables, as well as online direct from Yankee stockists and Amazon.