**Please be aware that this review is for the Votive version of Mulled Wine, Dooyoo only add 1 entry per fragrance to their catalogue**

Introduction

Back in November I stocked up on a number of Yankee's Seasonal range of candles, wax tarts and samplers after taking advantage of a number of offers and deals available on Yankeedoodle, the website I make the majority of my Yankee purchases from. I'd already bought a number of Christmas themed candles in the summer months of this year when they were out of season and available at a reduced price so knew which ones I wanted to buy but at the same time I decided to try out a few which were new to me and Mulled Wine was one that I'd not tried before.

Samplers

The sampler, or votive as it's also known, version of Mulled Wine was available for just 60p from Yankeedoodle, a great price when you consider they normally retail for at least a pound more if you were to buy offline at a Yankee stockist and whilst I often find samplers lack the intensity of fragrance a wax tart usually offers I still thought its purchase price made this an offer too good to miss. Yankee's samplers are uniformally the same size, roughly 2 inches in height, circular in shape and come complete with their own wick. A sampler is a fragrance and essential oil infused scented candle which has a burning time of around 15 hours and is designed to be placed into a votive holder, depending on which fragrance you choose you can expect to receive around 6-10 hours worth of scent from a single candle and as many regular readers of my Yankee reviews will know by now there is a massive choice available to suit anyone's own personal taste.

Mulled Wine

Deep red in colour, Mulled Wine is a seasonal, winter fragrance definitely suited to this time of the year. It has a combination of different scents which blend together to produce a spicy, warm aroma and from my sampler I could detect individual elements of Orange, Clove and Mixed Spice. I'm not normally a great lover of Clove as I find it can be quite sharp but in Mulled Wine it seems to be tempered by the sweetness of the Orange to dull its intensity a little and rather than overpower it adds a bright highlight to the overall scent. It's not a flat fragrance which sits in the background, instead Mulled Wine is a rather dominating scent that even in Sampler format delivers quite a spicy punch, often I find that Yankee's samplers can be quite disappointing in terms of how much scent they deliver and I have tried out a number of different variations that lacked any intensity and longevity. In my experience the more subtle the fragrance that Yankee produce the weaker they are in sampler form and it's probably worth going for a stronger scent if you're wanting to get something that can fill a room with fragrance. Mulled Wine is a fragrance that works as a sampler and for the 60p I paid for mine I can't complain about its strength, intensity or value for money as I got at least 8 hours worth of fragrance from my single candle and it produced a noticeable amount of aroma which was perfect for the time of year it was used.

That said, Mulled Wine isn't a favourite of mine overall, I do prefer the sweeter fragrances that Yankee produce and this was a little too spicy for me in all honesty. I can see its appeal though and I do think that many other people would appreciate the fragrance this one produces and as I always mention in my Yankee reviews I think that this is the best thing about being able to try out the scents available in these cheaper formats. I've discovered that this isn't a scent that I would buy again but only had to pay 60p to find this out for myself, Yankee produce a number of different formats for their fragrances and some glass-jarred candles can cost up to £19.00 which would make some choices a considered purchase. I've made mistakes in the past by assuming I'm going to like a scent and paid over the odds only to be disappointed so would definitely recommend either buying samplers or wax tarts as a way to become familiar with the fragrance on offer before deciding to pay more for something that lasts longer and costs considerably more.

Conclusion

Mulled Wine should appeal to those who like spicy scents and whilst it wasn't something that I would buy again I would still recommend this particular sampler especially if you can find it on offer at less than a pound. It offers a good deal of fragrance, lasts a good few hours and produces a strong, noticeable aroma and from me gets a very good 4 star rating. Widely available at this time of the year from Yankee stockists online and off it is a Winter fragrance that has plenty going for it. Thanks for reading my review.