Gorgeous Candles (Yankee Candle in General)

Member Name: Donnabroom

Product:	Yankee Candle in General
Date:	13/08/09 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Long Lasting, They Look Great, Gorgeous Scents

Disadvantages: They are expensive and the tea - lights aren't great

Yankee Candles:

On a recent trip to York, (truly the most terrifying experience of my life due to my agoraphobia and spaghetti junction - boy is that thing evil), I saw some Yankee candles on half price offer in a little gift shop. I thought "ooh I could get a few as Christmas/Birthday presents" but things didn't work out quite like that. I took one of the candles off the shelf to sniff at it and the lid, (which wasn't secured properly), fell off. The shop keeper was over in seconds and quickly found a broken jewellery stand and informed me that all breakages must be paid for before having a go at me and accusing me of picking up the candle by the lid. Needless to say I was peeved and so instead of spending a small fortune I paid the £5.00 for the broken tat and only purchased one candle.

The candle I chose was a Canary Island Banana scented one and is the medium, 14.5 oz size. Yankee candles always look very attractive in their thick glass jars which remind me of old fashioned glass sweetie jars. This particular scent features a map of the Canary Islands and some bananas and is more modern looking than a lot of the scents. The wax inside is bright yellow and the scent is truly divine, (if you like bananas).

Scents are something that Yankee Candles do well and in my experience they always smell like the things they are meant to smell like and not some cheap imitation. Obviously excluded from that are scents like 'Clean Cotton', (what on earth does cotton smell of, unless it smells of washing powder), and 'Beach Holiday', (I live in Weston-Super-Mare and I seriously wouldn't want a candle smelling of the seaside we have here)! Unlike cheaper scented candles Yankee candles keep their scent for ages and release it into the room when they are burnt. I think part of the reason the scent doesn't lessen over time is that they have an airtight lid so the scent isn't dissipating into the room when they are not in use.

There are literally hundreds of different scents of Yankee candles available including loads of lovely seasonal ones. One gripe with the Christmas ones is that a lot of them have cinnamon in and I am allergic so I only have a small selection come Christmas time but that isn't really their fault.

Yankee candles come in quite a few sizes. There are 'wax tarts', which you burn, using an oil, electric or tea-light burner, completely melt and release tons of fragrance and burn for approximately eight hours. The votive 'sampler' candles have an approximate burn time of fifteen hours but I find they last about eight. They also do the glass jars which come in small, (with an approximate burn time of 30-45 hours), medium, (with a burn time of approximately 45-90 hours) and the large size, (with an approximate burn time of 90-150 hours). Oh and they also do tea-lights which come in little plastic dishes instead of the usual metal which apparently have a burn time of up to five hours but I have always struggled to get them lit at all.

There are loads of other products too including tumbler candles, air fresheners, pillar candles, oils, candles in tins and scented gels for cars. There are probably loads more too but I haven't tried them all! You can get little shades for the candle jars too which make them look like little lamps and glass or ceramic trays to stand the candles in. I always love the ones they do at Christmas but I just know my darling little cat would smash them the first time I tried to use them!

Apart from the tea-lights I have always found Yankee candles to be excellent quality, (on a par with Prices which are another of my favourite candle brands), but that quality does come with a price. The large sized candles cost around £17.99, (you can get them a bit cheaper if you shop around) and the tea-lights cost around £5.99 for 12. In my opinion they are worth the high price tag because of the quality and how well they last but I just couldn't afford to buy them often.

Yankee candles are available in loads of shops and garden centres as well as from thousands of websites. If you search around online you can find good deals and even free postage, (which is good for heavy items like these).

If you are looking for a really good scented candle for yourself or a really lovely gift then Yankee candles are for you but of you are the kind of person who burns loads of candles on a regular basis you are probably better off with cheaper brands unless you literally have money to burn.

Summary: Worth the extra