~~ Yankee Candle Christmas Tree ~~



I'm a huge fan of beautifully fragranced candles and own a large stash of products from two high quality brands, namely Shearers and Yankee Candle. Despite being extremely disciplined for a good few months where I vowed not to purchase any new ones until I'd used my existing supplies, I weakened during the January sales where I found several Christmas fragrances available at discounted prices. A number of purchases were made with this review discussing Christmas Tree, which I own in the wax tart format.

I must admit that it was the 50% off sticker that initially attracted me to the circular fluted 22g green tart and I cannot state that's I found its appearance particularly eye-catching. The coloured label displays a snowy scene where a family are collecting their Christmas tree. It was only when I arrived home with my purchase that it dawned on me that I had read a number of negative reviews on this fragrance on Dooyoo and as a result, I refrained from burning the tart for a few weeks.

However, I pushed my thoughts of the negative reviews to the back of my mind and peeled back the tightly fitting transparent plastic packaging and removed the wax tart. To say I was overwhelmed by the aroma that greeted me is an understatement as instead of the delicate uplifting pine fragrance that was evident through the packaging I was witnessing a very intense whiff of pine. Undeterred at my initial thoughts and as with all candle tarts that I have used, I snapped the wax in half and stored the remaining portion in a small polythene food bag for a later use.

Within a few minutes of placing the section of wax into a burner above a tea light a pool began to form as it gently melted. The initial aroma that whirled around my living room was very favourable as the pine created a wonderful Christmassy ambience, which I found warming and comforting. However, after approximately ten minutes I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with other Dooyoo members' negative comments as despite the label claiming the tart contains pure and natural extracts, they are far too concentrated and Toilet Duck sprung to mind. Whilst pine is a wonderful fresh fragrance, Yankee Candle have seriously messed up with this one and I had half expected Kim and Aggie to burst into my home brandishing feather dusters and mops!

The Yankee Candle website states that the wax contains eucalyptus, which I generally associate with those times when I am suffering with a cold where I will use Olbas oil to assist in clearing my bunged up nose. I have to admit that I could not detect any eucalyptus, particularly as the pine fragrance totally took over. It is very rare that I speak negatively of any of the products created by Yankee Candles and whilst the tarts generally live up to their claims of delivering eight hours of fragrance, unfortunately, I didn't burn this for long enough to find out. Christmas Tree was very disappointing and for the reasons discussed I cannot recommend and and it pines me to award it only 1 star.

The fragrance is available in a variety of formats with the wax tart costing £1.10. However, as this belongs to the Christmas range, which was discounted, I managed to pick it up for just 55p.