Wax Notes | February 2014

Wild Honey (Ten Digit Creations)
This is such a beautiful scent. The cold throw doesn't prepare you for how amazing the warm throw will be. The honey is a major note and so true. My mum smells roses. After she mentioned that, I began to pick up more floral. This tart is crazy strong! I popped the whole tart into my ceramic bowl/11w hot plate warm and it has been burning for more than 16 hours. The throw is also amazing. It floated out of my room all the way down the stairs to our living room! Definitely on the re-order list!

Mandarin Cranberry (Yankee Candle Co.)
A very old tart that I got on sale at the Yankee counter at Takashimaya Department Store a year or so ago. It's just a pleasant sweet fruity scent. If I have to quibble, I think the Mandarin is a little stronger. The initial throw was strong enough to waft out of my room which in my books is medium-strong.

Wild Raspberry & Rhubarb (Dusk)
Gifted by a friend who visited Australia, I did a little research online and Dusk seems to be the Australian equivalent of Bath & Bodyworks or Yankee Candles. It has a nice raspberry scent but has a very weak throw. I had to get right up to my warmer to sniff it. Switched it out after about three hours.

White Candy Apple (Luna Bleu)
I think this was a freebie from my 2009 order. I hunted around the internet but I couldn't find a scent description. On cold sniff, I get mostly Winter Candy Apple (a scent I love!). Upon warming it up, I also get a chocolate scent. Unfortunately, these two scents doesn't blend that well together. I am glad to finally use it up!

Rejuvenate (Dusk)
So far my favourite and the strongest of the Dusk melts. This one has notes of rose and tangerine. The rose is strongest on cold throw but when its starts melting, the tangerine becomes more apparent. It's actually quite a nice blend together.

Island Spa (Yankee Candle Co.)
My first whiff on warm, I caught a laundry scent. The throw and scent is very very weak, it's also a very old tart. Only when I sniff very hard do I catch a faint citrus scent. It's probably a very scent when fresh.

Blueberries & Cherries (Front Porch Candle Co.)
This is my last tart from a free 4-pack that Front Porch used to give for orders above $25. I remember being so thrilled with the scent that I got, I popped it first into my warmer. It's a sweet, candy fruity scent. The cherry scent is stronger but here and there, I will get a whiff of the more sour blueberry note.

Nature's Bounty (Front Porch Candle Co.)
I can't seem to find the scent description for this tart. It smells spicy on cold sniff. And on warm, just as spicy. Do not like. Also, very weak scent throw. Oops, I forgot to take a picture of the tart itself so we will have to settle for the packet instead.

Caramel Corn (Lasting Scent Candles)
I don't remember liking this so much the last time I melted it. This is such a true to life scent, I can actually smell the popcorn kernels. Isn't that ridiculous! I might have to search out a few more caramel corn scents to figure out how much of this do I like. I am getting a medium throw with half a tart.

Lemon Curd & Rose Milk (The Bathing Garden)
I was so excited with my The Bathing Garden order that I immediately popped this into my warmer to try out this new-to-me vendor. I melted one cube in my tealight warmer and the throw is very direct and very strong within a medium range. The rose is the primary scent, and the tartness of the lemon counters the rose in a very pretty way. The milk gives it a creamy dimension, no sourness at all! My Mum also gives this the stamp of approval.

Haul | Two Timing Tart (1)

I ordered from Two Timing Tart during a clearance sale when Becky was clearing out stock to bring in a new wax formula. However, I did get Hello Sweetie in the new formula which was indicated on my invoice. I ordered on 26 January, received my Click & Ship on 29 January and it reached my Portland box on 31 January! That's really fast, considering TTT isn't even Becky's full time job!

I really like Two Timing Tart, their scent descriptions are witty and full of personality, the blends are complex and great-smelling, TAT is fast and customer service friendly and efficient. And Becky (the owner) has Doctor Who-inspired scents! Before this, I didn't realise that fandom could infiltrate the wax world, what choice did I have but to scoop them all up and dump them in my cart.

Hello Sweetie (new wax formula)
Who doesn't want to celebrate Valentine's Day with our favourite feminine psychopath? River Song always brings her mix of gunslinging and hallucinogenic lipstick kisses with her iconic phase - sprinkled throughout time and space, she is the one smartass that endures. A sheer wash of fruits, violets, and sandalwood masks the violent sociopathic nature of her love.

I smell a fruity-floral blend of sweet citrus and violets, without any sandalwood for now.

Madman With A Box
Anyone who hangs out with me more than five minutes knows that I have incurable love of Doctor Who. So what better way to salute my favourite show than a mix of blue agave, blueberry, lime, and freshly crushed peppermint candies? It's a little fruity, a lot crazy, and totally sonic. Who looked at a wax tart and thought it could be a bit more sonic? This Whovian.

I can't discern the blue agave and blueberry separately but they are strong together, drowning the lime out. These three scents are then pitted against the sweet peppermint, making it a really refreshing scent! Definitely one for a hot day.

Still Not Ginger
What is the Doctor's fascination with gingers, anyway? Redheads aren't any better than - oh wait. Yeah, nevermind. I forgot that gingers are mutants and abnormalities are what the Doctor thrives on. Duuuuh, silly me. Get your non-ginger self perked up with this shamefully delicious mix of fizzy gingle ale, orange peel, and pink sugar.

For me, the gingle ale and orange citrus tops the pink sugar. Loving the faint hint of fizzyness too! Yum!

The Sound of Drums
When you look into the time vortex, it looks into you. And sometimes, you'll go mad in the process. This is the scent of something so very familiar and yet slightly unhinged with insanity; serendipity touched with the depravity of dragons blood resin.

This is one strong blend, the musk from dragons blood and coconut from serendipity being the strongest scents I can discern. Very sexy.

Daydreamer (discontinued)
Lose yourself in the clouds and zone out to the scent of citrus musk, sandalwood, and a warm rush of cassis, lemongrass, and kiwi.

A citrus, herbal musk scent. Again, the musk is very strong!

Drunk Photography
Because everyone wants to see your boobs - or your junk. Especially when it's sepia-toned. Wait, hold on, how about a random shaky shot of that ceiling fan? Have another one - a three olive gin martini with a twist of yuzu.

I really like this one, sour-sweet citrus!

Drunk Texting
It's difficult to understand QWERTY keyboards when you're drunk. Damn autocorrect - I didn't really mean to text my dad...crap. The scent of a cucumber mojito that tipped the scales in favor of drunken textual mayhem.

Mmm, I smell the freshness of the cucumber. I can definitely see this being melted in a spa/resort setting. Must be that mojito!

Drunk Tweeting
140 characters, alcohol, and a QWERTY keyboard...what could possibly go wrong? This is the scent of a coconut-mango mojito, and a hella possession of the ability to crunch down words into nonsensical letters.

Another mojito scent but this one is very fruity, that mango is amazing! Another hit!

Captain Tightpants
Let's hear it for Malcolm Reynolds, the only Firefly captain out there who runs around in fake buckskin breeches. Earth That Was would be so proud, Captain Tightpants. Rice flowers, sandalwood, patchouli and seasalt.

Wow, another strong scent! The seasalt is strong and made powdery, soft and feminine by the rice flowers.

This One Time at Summer Camp
Formerly known as Suck It, BBW, this is the warm delicious scent of a fireside marshmallow melting party: twigs, leaves, berries, smoke, and toasted marshmallows. This is what Marshmallow Fireside from BBW wishes it could be.

All I can think of is this is sweet. I compared it with the candle of Marshmallow Fireside and this one definitely beats it in terms of cold scent throw!

Silk Sheets
Forget silk stockings - any woman with a penchant for love knows that silk sheets are the way to go. The feeling of silk on bare skin is almost as sexy as this mix of musk, vanilla, and the most exquisitely soft cherry blossoms.

I love this one so much, it's so pretty and feminine. Can't get enough!

Tease
Make a good cup of tea - vanilla tea and Moroccan mint - and show a little knee, ladies. Just don't get caught winking and blowing kisses at the married men.

I want this in a tea cup to sip for the afternoon! I actually smell a little lemon in it too!

I was really surprised that Becky included 3 free scent shots as part of my order. It's so generous especially when I bought from her during a clearance sale! These scent shots are all Blue Sugar blends and are tester scents because she labels them with their scent notes rather than a name. I have never tried Blue Sugar or its blends before so these are totally new to me.

Blue Sugar Gin Martini
A powdery, sour citrus.

Blue Sugar Lavender Martini
I smell the same base as Blue Sugar Gin Martini but the lavender really amps up the blend. The lavender is leaning towards laundry spectrum for me.

Blue Sugar Toddy
Yucks. The toddy is the more powerful of the two scents. only upon further sniffing do I discern the blue sugar base. Not my thing.

Shipping with comGateway

So I mentioned in my Hello! post that I was testing out a shipping company called comGateway because less and less wax vendors are offering international shipping and if they do, shipping fees are really expensive and generally charged at USD25 per package for Priority International. What comGateway does is that it gives me a US shipping address (in Portland, Oregon) to shop at US-only retailers and provides the option of repacking and combining packages to save on international shipping fees. Registering for the US shipping address is entirely free and I am only charged for the international shipping of my packages (by DHL) according to volumetric weight, fuel surcharge and insurance.

The last of my three packages finally arrived in Portland last Friday and I immediately set about combining my packages and getting them out for shipping. For this first shipment, I applied a complimentary coupon code for Express Shipping (est. 3-5 days).

The Bathing Garden

Order: $35

Shipping: $6.5 (International - $24)

Two Timing Tart

Order: $14

Shipping: $8.98 (International - $24)

Front Porch

Order: $25.20

Shipping: Free (International - $24)

CGW shipping fees: $34.85

Total with individual international shipping: $146.20

Total with comGateway shipping: $124.53

Savings: $21.67

As you can see, the savings are rather substantial which makes this a win-win situation for me. The more packages I ship together, the more I save, which means ideally I should always plan for 3 orders to maximise my shipping savings. Not going to complain about that! Delivery was facilitated by DHL and the shipping info was constantly updated, I was tracking my package from Portland to Cincinnati to Hong Kong and finally Singapore! Now, it's time for me to go roll around in my new wax!

Scored Some Super Tarts

I can't believe how lucky I am, I managed to score some Super Tarts during their Thursday night restock! I had been warned that Super Tarts' items fly off their virtual shelves very quickly so I tried to keep my expectations low. This was my first time participating in a limited-RTS stock opening and I went in without any strategy whatsoever.

I logged onto their website as Brandy (the owner) began loading the website with the products. I started opening up separate tabs for the scents that I wanted, thinking that I would refresh each tab and add the scent shot to my cart. I missed the moment when the store opened so by the time I went through my tabs, I only managed to get about 4 scents from my wishlist. I went through the website again for more scents to add onto the order and finally checked out with these 8 scents.

Citrus Explosion
Cucumber Mint
Honeydew Ya?
Pina Colada
Sugar Cookie
Sun Ripened Raspberries
Sweet Lolli
Vanilla Spearmint

On hindsight, I probably should have been a little calmer and waited for items to be released from carts or to have gone back into the site after the first 10 minutes to get more because Brandy allows shipping to be combined so that I could have made my shipping a little more worth it. In any case, I am still really excited that I managed to order from such a popular vendor, their tarts are so adorable looking and I am looking forward to getting them!

Catching Some Crabby Candle Co.

Crabby Candle Co. was one of the new vendors that caught my eye when I re-entered the world of wax. In early January, I wasn't sure whether they were opened, the Facebook page stated they were preparing for an opening but no date or announcement was provided after that. But they must be properly opened now because yesterday, they posted a sale for 15% off all products (discount code: TeamCrabby) and free shipping over $25 (on-going till Friday, 21 Feb!), and I immediately clicked onto the site to plan my order.

Apple Clover
Bird of Paradise
Brandied Pear
Cactus & Sea Salt
Cherry Pez
Coconut Lime Verbena
Cookie Madness
Farmer's Market
Fruity Rings
Honeysuckle Pear
Ice Cream Scoop Bread
Lemon Squares
Macintosh Apples
Pink Dunes
Pink Peppermint
Raspberry Lemonade
Serendipity
Southern Iced Tea
Sugar Cookie
Vanilla Lavender

Crabby has a nice range of scents and I got 20 scent shots in all, a mix of dupes like Coconut Lime Verbena and Pink Dunes, new-to-me scents like Apple Clover, Bird of Paradise, Ice Cream Scoop Bread and Serendipity. I can also never resist ordering Fruit Loops (or Fruity Rings) and Cactus & Sea Salt in my quest to find a regular vendor for them.

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Anyone planning any orders? Because I am! I am hoping to catch the Super Tarts restock on Thursday evening (Friday morning for me). I am also looking at Tiffany Candles, Sweet Fixations, Nene's Kitchen Melts or L3 Waxy Wonders. All opinions and thoughts on these vendors are appreciated!

Haul | Bath & Bodyworks (1)

The first Bath & Bodyworks store opened in Singapore last weekend, and as a scent fanatic, I had to visit as soon as I could! Luckily for me, it happened on the following Tuesday. My aunt introduced me to BBW 7 years ago when we were holidaying in the US. We visited the store at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and it was during the semi-annual sale, needless to say we went crazy. At that time, I mostly bought bath & body and lipbalms (loved those C.O. Bigelow lipglosses!)

This time round, I bypassed the bath & body and headed immediately to the candle section! I spent a scent-tastic 30 mins in there sniffing every single candle and every wallflower bulb tester in there. There were three collections of candles available, Signature Collection, Sweet Shop and Fresh Picked. Wallflower and home fragrance scents were mostly from the Signature collection. As I sniffed my way through the candles, I decided that I am really not a fan of cake scents, they are too cloying for me and in this constant tropical heat, it's just too much for me. Scents I did like included Merry Mango, Sweet Clementine, Sugared Lemons, Lavender Marshmallow, Eucalyptus Mint and Moonlight Path.

But beyond the candles, I was most excited to pick up some Wallflowers plugs and refills. And I was so glad that they are priced affordably at $10 each. For the opening week, the Wallflowers were on sale at $9 each, and 4 for $35. I picked up a White Wedgewood Gate (designs are limited to basic conicals and the wedgewoods) and three refills in Sweet Pea, Paris Amour and Renew & Refresh. I have the Sweet Pea switched on right now and it has a really good throw! I can't wait to pick up more scents soon!

Back on the Front Porch

Because I wanted to test out if consolidating packages with comGateway would save me money rather than individually shipping the packages, I wanted to find another vendor with a reasonable turnaround time. Each package that arrives at my US address can only remain for 30 days and I can consolidate up to three packages.

At first I considered Vintage Chic Scents because they had a V-day themed restock but the current system doesn't allow for non-US billing addresses. In the end, I went back to Front Porch Candle Co. (first order in Dec 2011) to take advantage of their free US shipping and 10% off over $25.

I had a long list of scents that I wanted but most of them weren't available. I was hoping for Fruity Loops and Apple Orchard to be available in 4-packs but they were out. Still, I managed to order 16 tarts in various fruity combinations and snag two Fruity Loops.

Apples and Peaches
Blackberry Lemon Ice Cream
Butterfly Kisses
Cherry Limeade
Cotton Candy Apple Bread
Clover and Aloe
Fruity Loops x 2
Granny Smith Green Apple
Lavender Noel
Lemon Mallow Strawberry Bread
Loopy Marshmallow Bread
Margarita Marshmallow Noel
Pear
Pink Sugar
Sweet Dreams

The one thing about Front Porch is that its scent list doesn't seem to be complete. There are many blends that are offered for sale but not described. I find that doesn't help when I am trying to select alternative scents even if they are very generic like Apples and Peaches.