Over the last year or so I've read many glowing reviews about Yankee candles on here. I'd been tempted to try these for a while but was a little put off by the price of the full sized candles. It seemed a huge investment in something that I may not like. Through the reviews I learnt about wax tarts that are also produced by Yankee, which priced at around £1.20, seemed a lot more reasonably priced. However, when I went to my local Clintons to buy some I was a little puzzled as to how these were used. The tarts are basically small, circular blocks of wax, with fluted edges, rather like a tart you would bake in the over, hence the name. The puzzling thing for me was 'how do they burn?' as unlike a conventional candle they contain no wick. After a little further research online I learnt about tart burners and how these were used to burn wax tarts. I have quite a few Yankee candle stockists near where I live and when comparing prices for tart burners online against the shop I found one on Amazon to be significantly cheaper so I decided to enter the world of Yankee candles and see how good these were for myself.

Tart burners come in various styles and the one that I went for was the Yankee Candles Petal tart burner which was priced at £4.99. The tart burner consists of a small ceramic flower shaped bowl which is perched on a metal stand. The bowl comes in various colours and I opted for a fairly neutral magnolia coloured one as it would fit in with the décor of any room in my flat. The metal base is elegantly designed; with four metal curved pillars leading up to a hollow metal base onto which the ceramic bowl is placed. My first impression when I opened the box was that it looked really elegant and rather pretty.

To burn a wax tart, simply place the tart in the ceramic bowl and then place a tea light beneath the ceramic bowl. There is a metal base on which the tea light should be placed. Due to the fact that this can get quite hot I tend to place the tart burner on a small coaster before lighting the tea light so that the surface it is placed on doesn't get too hot. I should point out here that this is an official Yankee product and the instructions recommend using only Yankee tea lights with this product. I didn't really bother with this and just used ordinarily tea lights that I'd picked up in a local bargain store. I really can't see how using Yankee tea lights would make a difference here apart from burning a bigger hole in your pocket! When in use the base and the burner do get rather hot so it's best not to touch these when in use and to wait for these to cool down before moving the burner.

Within a few minutes of lighting the tea light the wax that is placed in the burner starts to melt and the scent soon starts to waft around the room. Usually it is possible to get around 8 hours of burn time out of a wax tart and when it comes to changing the tart to a new one I let the tart cool down and solidify again before placing the ceramic bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes or so. This causes the wax to contract slightly and then it is a question of a gentle tap and the tart just pops out of the burner, leaving a clean bowl behind ready for the next tart. I do find that when burning a tea light that black deposits appear at the bottom of the tart burner but this is easily removed with washing up liquid and a little gentle scrubbing.

Overall I am really pleased with my purchase and am enjoying experimenting with the huge array of wax tarts on offer in the shops at the moment. The tart burner looks elegant and stylish and would fit in well into any room in the house. I have no hesitations in recommending this - in fact I have since ordered a couple more as presents for friends!