Last Christmas I received a beautiful box of Yankee votive candles (also known as samplers) from one of my daughters and inside was a collection of festive scented candles, some of which I had tried previously, but some were new to me and I was looking forward to trying them. Home Sweet Home was one I had not tried before and having read good things about this particular scented candle, I was excited about using it.

Yankee offer Home Sweet Home in various formats: wax tarts (as pictured above) votive candles, tea lights and the more expensive glass jar candles. By purchasing a wax tart or votive for around 99p - £1.75 on average, this is an ideal way to sample the fragrance before purchasing the more expensive glass jars.

My Home Sweet Home votive looked very festive indeed with its deep green wax and festive label featuring a Christmas Eve scene of a roaring fire and Christmas tree, with socks hung ready for Santa to fill.
Yankee describe this Home Sweet Home fragrance as a familiar, welcoming seasonal blend of cinnamon, cloves, pine, cedar, smoked firewood and vanilla. Based on the description alone, Home Sweet Home did not sound like a fragrance I would really like for I am not keen on Yankee's pine scented wax, as some of them smell like toilet cleaner in my opinion, nor am I keen on clove, cinnamon or vanilla. However, when all these scents are blended together as they are here, I was surprised to find it did appeal to me. Touches of cinnamon, pine and clove are indeed evident, but the overall fragrance was a woody scent with a hint of those spices blended with a touch of vanilla. I was able to detect all the different scents included here, but the overall scent was surprisingly nice.
Many scented candles which include the scent of cloves I tend to find overwhelming and far too strong and so I was pleased there were no overbearing scents of clove or pine released here as the wax melted.
There are others I prefer, but it is one I would always be happy to buy, based upon my experience here.

Yankee votives are designed to burn for around 15 hours once lit and placed in a suitable holder. Whilst I do find that all the votives I have used thus far have provided me with the 15 hours stated, the strength of fragrance varies depending on which fragrance it is. Usually, I tend to find that those which smell the strongest whilst still in their packaging, tend to be the ones which give off the stronger fragrance when burning and are therefore the best when it comes to fragrance longevity.

After lighting my Home Sweet Home votive I noticed after around 4-5 minutes I could begin to detect the fragrance slowly appearing. It was the cinnamon scent which I noticed first, closely followed by pine, but this soon blended with the other spices and vanilla to create an inviting spicy scent.
Having been a little disappointed in the past with one or two of the votives and their strength of fragrance, I can honestly say that Home Sweet Home is one of the best votives I have experienced thus far. It gave off a strong fragrance which filled the room and hung in the air for quite some time after I extinguished the flame, which doesn't always happen when burning votives.
My votive lasted me just under a week when burning it for 2-3 hours each evening and each time I noticed no weakening of the fragrance, until the last 3 -4 hours of use, when it was still evident, but not as strong.

I actually prefer to buy wax tarts instead of votives as these tend to offer a stronger 'throw' when burning in comparison to their votive counterparts. However, the Home Sweet Home votive appears to be just as strong as any wax tarts I have used and so offers great value for money.
As I mentioned earlier I have experienced a small number of votives which don't match up to wax tarts in terms of strength of fragrance, but this is one which I am more than happy to recommend.
Another bonus is that the wax burned evenly all the way to the bottom and so I wasn't left with a well in the centre. Therefore the quality is far superior to many candles on the market.

Home Sweet Home is one I shall purchase again in either wax tart or votive format. It is ideal for burning during the cold dark winter nights and over the festive period, which is just around the corner!

You can purchase these candles from branches of Clintons, Collectables and department stores such as Debenhams and John Lewis, but they are also available online from Yankee stockists such Amazon and www.yankee.co.uk.