I'll Stop The World & Melt With You



Words alone cannot describe my love of Candles By Victoria!

     Hello again everyone! Today I'm going to be talking *cough* OBSESSING *cough* about my new found love of a family candle company by the name of Candles By Victoria. I first heard about them a couple of years ago while I was watching one of my favorite youtube beauty gurus (Leesha from xsparkage). She did a haul and review of some of the company's famous scent shots. What is a scent shot? I will get to that in a minute, but back to the story. Anyways at first my feelings were kinda "eh, no big deal" about it all because where I live there used to be this really cute country home that was converted into a candle and country knicknack store and me and my mother used to shop there all the time. They had some really nice candles and products there for cheap. It was always a treat for me growing up whenever my mom took me there and let me have a field day smelling every single scent they had and letting me pick some of my favorites to take home. My mother has always been sort of OCD and so growing up the house was always clean and she always had candles and poutporri strewn about the house. My friends always used to come over and tell me how good it smelt. Naturally I inherited her need for a good smelling home. Going to that store sort of became a ritual for my mother and me so a few years ago we were both absolutely devastated when the owners told us they were closing up shop for good. 

 

 
    After the first initial emotional breakdown that we both had, panic set in knowing that all our lovely candles would eventually be no more. So we took total advantage of their out of business sale and in a mad dash we loaded up on every fragrance we loved like it was the Cold War and we were preparing to live in an underground bomb shelter never to see the light of day again. Seriously we had candles pouring out of my mother's Longaberger baskets for a couple of years. It took us about three years to finally windle the collection down. Now we maybe only have about one basketfull left. So in the beginning of July we both realized we were finally ready to move on and start trying our luck with different brands. We tried a few that were so less than steller that they don't even deserve mentioning. That's when I remembered all the reviews for Candles By Victoria that I had seen popping up everywhere on all my other favorite beauty gurus's sites. So on a whim I decided to try it even though I didn't really know all that much about them.


Don't know about CBV? Let me inform you my friend...

   For those of you not familiar with Candles By Victoria let me give you a little overview. CBV is a semi-small (compared to big franchise chains like Yankee) candle company set in Texas and owned and ran by Victoria and her husband the Candleman. They sell candles (in all shapes and forms) and candle accesories such as oils, reed diffusers, tart warmers, and probably their most famous product scent shots. A scent shot is a small plastic container filled to the brim with just pure wax in whatever scent you choose. It is only $2.00 for one; trust me that is cheap since these little babies pack a powerful punch! They are completely wickless and are meant to be burnt in a tart/candle warmer. These little guys are the perfect solution for the conundrum of buying candles online without being sure of their smell. Since they are so cheap and small you can just order a handful of them to test before spending any more money on a scent you aren't sure you would care for. And trust me with over 700 fragrances to choose from these are quite handy to have to help narrow down the field. Plus they also allow for you to cut them up and mix them with some of Victoria's many other scents to create your own new ones!

    At the time we placed our first order we sadly did not have a tart warmer so we just decided to buy 4 packs of there votives. They come in a bag with 3 votives of one scent. And let me tell you after reading all 700+ scent descriptions it took forever to narrow it down to just 4. CBV also throws in a random free scent shot with every order. I had really high expectation for this company since it was so hyped up on the net and let me tell you when I received my order a week and a half later I ripped open that box like I was a drug addict and there was crack coated candy inside. I ran up stairs immediately and crawled into her bed waking her up like a kid on Christmas morning screaming, "It's here!!" Luckily my mother is used to such outbursts from me. So at first when we smelt them 2 smelt delicious the other 2 not so much, but we did like the free scent shot. A little dissapointed with the 2 not so good smells I looked back online to reviews of the scents that I had chosen and saw that since these are all hand poured (and shipped in the heat) they have to have time to "cure". Basically meaning they have to be left alone for awhile so the oils can set with the wax and the final scent will come out. After letting them cure they smelt devine and I have to say that was the fateful day I turned into a CBV addict.

Votives in Witch's Brew, Amish Quilt, and Leesha

       I also have to say that CBV use different wicks than the usual lead wicks and I prefer CBV's because they are so much easier to trim (litterally you can just gently break it off) and that keeps your candles burning evenly without "canyoning" and turning into an uneven hot mess. Overall I love this company and have even become a member on their forum "The Pouring Pot" to share in my love with all the other CBV addicts. I've already had 3 other orders which I will review for you all after this one and I'm in the process of plotting my next order. So I hope you guys find this helpful and I hope I've converted some of you into the candle cult. So here for you all is my little review of the scents that we had chosen in case you are interested. I was sure to write down what it smelt on "cold throw" (how it smells before burning) and on the "warm throw" (how it smells after burning).

Monster Mash: Color: Dark forest green
First impressions: I’ll be honest; I just bought this because of the name at first. I love all things Halloween based and when I saw the name and found out the candle was going to be green I couldn’t resist trying it and I’m so glad I did. Blueberries are the first thing I smell, but not the crisp tart fresh kind, more like candied blueberries. Then as you smell more you can smell the “bakery” element, like sweet pie crust and creamy butter. Didn’t really pick up on the granny smith apples that are said to be in it though, but that’s okay, I’m sure they add to the sweet element.

After burning: It burns true to the cold throw. This one is going in my top favorites! The scent is very yummy and it filled the entire house not just the room that it was in. My aunt walked in to pick up my nephew and instantly said “It smells sooo good in here”. When she asked me what it was called I got a silly kick of satisfaction when I told her with a straight face, “Monster Mash.” She looked at me like I had two heads. Lol. I loved this one so much that I went back and bought the scent shot and I can see myself buying more of this in a bigger candle very soon.


Amish Quilt: Color: Is a bright burnt orange
First impressions: The scent of this one is really just cinnamon with some other underlying spices that I can’t readily identify. I'm guessing there is probably some clove and maybe a dash of nutmeg in there, but the cinnamon stands out the most.

After burning: Burns the same as the first initial smell. The scent fills the room and it is a nice country spice kind of scent. My mother picked this one out on the list and she really enjoyed it. So if you like cinnamon, but want a bit more variety in the room than just that then you should check this one out.


Witch’s Brew: Color: Dark olive green; really looks like something you’d find in a witch’s cauldron.
First impressions: Another one I bought just for the name. You can really pick up the apple cider element in this fragrance. However the accompanying fruits all blend together so well that it’s hard to just pick out one of them individually. If you smell it without knowing what fruits are in there you could tell that it has a fruity undercurrent underneath the cider, but I doubt you would be able to pinpoint exactly what the fruits are.

After burning: The scent is the same as the cold throw. It makes the room smell good without being too obtrusive. When you walk in the room it’s a nice steady scent instead of the kind where you feel like you are engulfed in a tidal wave of aroma. I liked this one a lot. It wasn’t a real stand out fragrance of the bunch, but it is truly a great and unique scent and I can see myself buying it again.


Leesha: Color: Dark red. It reminds me of the color they paint barns. (Clearly I’m from the Midwest)
First impressions: It smells like a baked apple dipped in cinnamon and spices. That’s really all I pick up. I don’t really smell any of the caramel said to be in it on the cold throw.

After burning: After walking into the room I actually picked up the caramel smell over the apples. It was really rich and buttery smelling with just the faintest hint of some baked element like a pie crust or maybe a crisp, not really sure, but I think it’s where the "crunch" comes from. I actually couldn’t really smell any apple. If there is any I detect then it’s a really crisp fresh Macintosh type that is heavily overshadowed by the caramelized butter scent. This one was actually one of the "softer" burning scents. It filled the room nicely, but didn’t spread to any other area of the house.


Butter Brickle: Color: Golden yellow
First impressions: This actually happened to be the first scent shot I ever smelt and it was the free sample with my order. I was a little turned off at first just by the name “butter”. I was thinking it was going to smell like a tub of Country Croc. Thankfully though it smells nothing like that. It still has a buttery scent, but it’s more like a bakery scent. The best way I can describe this is if you were baking and you took a stick of butter and melted it down and added cooking vanilla, and cream. At least that’s the image I had in my head when I first smelt this one.

After burning: Burnt true to the scent in the container. This one was strong and filled the room. It smelt sort of like butterscotch candies or for those of you familiar with the alcoholic drink a Buttery Nipple, it smelt like that. I didn’t so much like the way this smelt burning by its self, but I think this would be a great scent to add to others in your tart warmers if you wanted to add a bakery element into something.