Since I started reviewing, I've read many reviews on Yankee Candles, but to be honest I've never really understood what the fuss was about. During a recent lunch break, I walked past an official Yankee Candle shop, and as I was in the mood to spend money (dangerous!), I decided to have a look. Obviously, as soon as I saw and smelt their lovely products, I was jumping on the Yankee Candle bandwagon, and ended up buying a wax burner and some wax tarts to try.

==Price and Availability==

As I am lucky enough to have a Yankee shop within walking distance from work, I was able to see the wax burners in the flesh before deciding which one to buy, and was also a bit spoilt for choice with so many different designs. However, the Yankee brand is available from other stockists such as Clinton Cards, B&Q (although they stock more tarts and candles than burners), and online suppliers such as Ebay, Amazon, and yankeedoodle.co.uk.

I bought this from the shop and it cost me £11.25. It is also available at yankeedoodle.co.uk where it is currently priced £8.44 in their sale, although delivery costs also apply to this.

==Design==

I could have bought a basic burner for around £5, which would have done the job, and I still might get another one so I can spread the scents around the house. The reason I decided to pay more for this one, however, was the design. Our house is a 1930's house with traditional features including the original fireplaces. This wax burner looked like it would fit perfectly with our living room, matching the tiles on the fireplace and the general theme of the room which is browns and reds.

The design on the burner is made up from lots of little mosaic tiles, in different shades of brown and gold. It is lighter in weight than I thought it would be, as for some reason I thought it would be glass rather than plastic, but this is good as it makes it less prone to breakage. It does look sturdy and classy though, as if it is made from glass, and the yankeedoodle website describes it as an "attractive piece of mosaic glass" which is confusing as it's not heavy enough to be glass. Perhaps the mosaic tiles are just glass-fronted rather than being entirely made from glass.

There is a hole at the front which allows you to place the tealight inside, and it tapers in a cone shape towards the top where you place your wax tart. Most people are familiar with the Yankee brand, so I don't want to preach to the converted by telling you that the wax tart is placed in the top of the wax burner, and an unscented tealight is lit underneath to release the scent. That's it, preaching over.

==My Experience==

I absolutely love this wax burner, and although I primarily bought it for wax burning purposes (!), I have found it also doubles up as a decoration on our fireplace. It is sturdy, but light enough to move around from room to room, and looks very attractive in the evenings when the candle is lit as it makes the mosaic tiles sparkle. The colours are very warm being brown and gold, and this makes it look and feel really cosy on those winter nights when I like to hibernate with the curtains drawn.

The instructions that came with the burner gave some advice regarding care and maintenance. The main things I took from this were that I should be careful getting the wax tart out of the burner once it had gone solid, as using metal knives can apparently crack the burner. I have found that the wax tarts are very difficult to get out once they are solid, despite being told that they should just "pop out once you apply pressure with your palm". The instructions say you can pop the burner in the freezer to help release the tart, and I have done this each time to get the tart out. I only keep it in there for ten minutes, as I'm worried about cracking the burner, but this seems to be long enough to release the tart. I am always conscious if changing the scent, that I should wait for the burner to return to room temperature, in case the extreme temperature changes crack the burner. If you're short on freezer space, I'd probably recommend avoiding this burner, as it's a bit large to fit in to most freezers if you're well stocked with food. The entire burner has to go in as the dish at the top is not removable.

The burner hasn't really needed cleaning yet, and the instructions advise not to soak it in water, so I think just dusting it should be enough to keep it clean. The wax tarts come out in one solid block, so I don't get any wax or residue on the burner.

The burner is slightly larger than the smaller £5 burners I saw in the shop, being about six inches high by four inches wide. The gap at the front is just about wide enough to pop the tealight in, although my hands are tiny so this would never really pose a problem for me, and I imagine the primary users of Yankee products will be dainty females (gender stereotype alert!). I think if you were to place an entire wax tart on the top, it would take a while to melt, as there isn't *that* much space for it, but as I've read so many Yankee Candle reviews over the past year or so, I have picked up the tip to only use a bit of the tart each time, and this seems to melt perfectly.

Overall, this is a gorgeous wax burner which acts as decoration as well as using to melt wax tarts and bring lovely fragrances to your home. As I imagine I'll be using this for a good while, I am glad I spent that little bit extra to get something which fits in so well with our living room.

(Review may also appear on Ciao under the username Gingerkitty)