What I Am Burning Today - Lemon Zest

Wow.  Two posts in one day!  Go me!

I want to start a new feature called "What I Am Burning Today".  I'm mostly doing this as kind of a candle diary for myself.  And maybe a review for people who are seeking info for specific scents. I have a notebook of all the tarts and votives that I burn.  I like to write notes about how they smell and how strong they are so that I can decide if I want to buy that particular scent in a large jar.  I like to look back and see what was going on in my little world when I chose to melt that scent so it's like a diary. At the top of each page I put the label of the tart on the page so I will have a visual reference of that scent. Here I will just include pictures of the jars as I am burning them.

Today I'm burning Lemon Zest.  Yankee currently has this one back as a returning Treasure during SAS and I wanted to see how much I like it and if I want to buy another one.  My current jar is a 2014 pour and is about half gone.  I haven't burned it since last year.  I remember burning it a lot in January along with Blueberry Muffin and really enjoying both of them together.  Today I'm doing Lemon Zest by itself.

Pooling time - 4-5 hours without a cozy.  This one seemed to take a long time to pool.  I've been burning it since 7:30 this morning and it's just now getting a decent pool. (It's currently about  in the afternoon) I've added a cozy to it to see if I can get it deeper.  I think a deep pool makes a better throw.

Scent - is just okay.  I really don't think it smells like true lemon.  If I closed my eyes and didn't know what scent it was supposed to be I would be able to tell it was a lemon one, but to me it's got a lot of bakery notes in it. There's some cakiness in it.  The overall scent is robust and fruity but smells a bit like a bakery scented lemon cleaner.  I guess that would be an artificial lemon scent.  Like artificial lemon extract. I really don't feel like it's a true-to-life lemon scent. I think I prefer Lemon Sugar. That's also a bakery scent but it's much  more sweet and to me more enjoyable because it doesn't smell like lemon cleaner. As I said earlier this candle goes really good with Blueberry Muffin.come to think of it, my blueberry muffin I've never burned alone until last week. Last week I burned it alone and I noticed I didn't get much of a throw in it.  I was really disappointed because I seem to remember before that I really enjoyed it and I thought it was pretty strong. Maybe it was this Lemon Zest that I was actually smelling. I have purchased a back up Blueberry Muffin jar (because I thought I loved it) and also have two Blueberry Scone jars(because I actually do love it) so I might just get an additional Lemon Zest one to go with those jars.  But then again, my rule for purchasing dupes is that I have to love the scent, not just like it, and I really don't love this one.  So I'm not sure what I'll do.  Maybe I'll wait until next year to see if it comes around again.

Throw - Is medium. I originally had it on the dresser in our bedroom but I couldn't smell it at all after several hours.  I was very surprised by that as I remember being able to smell it in the living room when I burned it there last year, although it was light. I finally moved it to the table next to where I'm sitting in my bedroom and I can now smell it.  I've been enjoying it but it's still pretty light.  I think I go nose-blind for a little while and then if I leave the room and come back in, it's stronger.

Summary - out of all the lemon scents that Yankee makes it seems that people love this one the most. I have Meyer Lemon (got zero throw from that one when I first had it in a two wick tumbler and then was really stupid and bought another one because it was a glitch candle - now I can't decide if I'm to keep it and find out what a dud it is or if I'm going to return it for an exchange.) and Lemon Sugar (which was fabulous but also not a true-to-life lemon.)  They also make Sicilian Lemon and Lemon and Lime.  I've heard Sicilian Lemon is light and disappointing and that Lemon and Lime is one of the best fruity scents that Yankee makes.  I hope to get that one one day, but I'm still undecided if I will get a back up of this Lemon Zest.

SAS and What I'm Burning This Summer

What?  It's summer already??

I've been quite neglectful for the past six or eight months, I know.  Working full time has been quite overwhelming since I'm away from home almost ten hours each day, five days a week.  Work is stressful (I work with little kids, most of whom are special needs kiddos) but I love my school and have met some great people. During the school year I didn't have much time for shopping or burning and many nights I'd come home and barely had enough energy to push the switch to turn on my Scenterpiece or my wax warmer.  Most of my burning happened on the weekends and even then it was sporadic because if I had errands on the weekends I couldn't light a jar until I got back. Many times I'd have a coupon at Yankee or a voucher to spend and something I wanted to pick up and I'd drive home thinking I should stop in (since the store is on my route home) but I ended up not having the energy and I'd just finish my drive home.

On top of all the business of work we had one old dog die (rest in peace Kirby) and we acquired a new puppy.  She keeps us pretty busy.  Here is Bailey;

Isn't she adorable?

All I wanted to do was stay home with my new puppy so I was SO ready for school to be out for the summer.  I got really tired of forcing myself out of bed at 5:30 AM, I was tired of making lunches and then coming home and trying to dig up something for dinner and tired of doing things only for work and the house (shopping, laundry, cleaning) on the weekends and never having time for myself just to relax, play or read.  So beginning the second week or so of the school year, I started my countdown to summer break.  By the time I finally got there I was SO ready to start my ten weeks of vacation. I celebrated my first moments of freedom by stopping by the Yankee store to pick up my first SAS candles then I spent the first two weeks catching up on much needed sleep, cleaning and organizing and playing with the puppies. I also did lots of catching up with my Yankee Candle purchases because SAS started the same time school ended.  So let the celebration begin! More sleep, lots of time to do my fun activities and burn my candles.

Side note: Over the past year or two I've been on a mission to hoard as many Yankee Candles as I could.  Not because I have to have them but because I've learned how much I love them. When we first moved into our new house I had to pack and move boxes and boxes of heavy candles. I counted my collection at that time and it was at about 100 large and medium jars.  Those were jars that I bought a few at a time each season but there were times when I didn't visit my candle store at all.  It just wasn't a priority.  So sad.  I missed out on so many good candles.  So now, I've made it my mission to purchase the ones I missed when they come back during SAS or as seasonal Treasures.  I've basically trippled my stock and have about 300 candles by now.  My husband would die. I thought I'd gotten just about every scent that I haven't yet purchased by now but then SAS happened and they brought back numerous candles that I'd never even heard of.  Last SAS during the post Christmas season was a dismal dud.  I only bought about five or 6 candles the whole month and that was mostly because Yankee put candles online and most of them were sold out within the first 24 hours and they never restocked them.  They started at  21 pages of large jars and eventually dwindled down to 6 pages of large jars on their website in about five days.  It really sucked. But this year has been different and they've been adding new (old) scents to their website every few days which keeps people interested and keeps them ordering.  I myself have been to to the store two times and have ordered online twice.  I didn't really keep track but I would guess I added 20-25 jars to my collection.

Here are a few of what I added - starting with the fruity ones.

Berry Colada.  I love the label.  It's so beautiful so I decided that I could love a berry scent just for it's label. It had a pretty good throw too.  Normally I don't gravitate to the fruit flavored scents but as I've been picking up more of them I've learned to enjoyed them more. They didn't have any in the store when I bought my first set of jars so I had to order it online.  I purchased it due to all the buzz going on about it.  People were really excited to see it coming back. I'm so glad I did get it because it's got such a nice creamy-sweet raspberry scent. Even though it's got colada in the name, I don't pick up any pineapple notes. So far I've burned it once and its got a pretty good throw.



Mandarin Cranberry - I've been wanting to pick this one up since
last winter and I'm so glad I finally got my hands on it.  It was a little slow to get going but after four or five hours it filled up the room with a nice orange cranberry glow.  I was in and out this day so I didn't get to enjoy it much, but I did enjoy the fragrance of it whenever I went into my bedroom.  This is one that you can burn anytime of year.  It would be a good blending candle in the fall, Possibly mixed with a bakery or spicy scent.





Bahama Breeze - Pretty good.  To me it smells like an interesting combo of pineapple and peach.  I only burned it for a couple of hours so I will have to give it a longer go.  Had a nice fruity throw in the bedroom. Doesn't have any coconut in it. 

Margarita Time - Just "meh" for me.  The store manager talked me into it.  I wish I would have gotten something else. It's a bit to harsh on the lime scent. Kind of smells like some sort of cleaning product or one of those cheap air fresheners you put in old cars.  Blech.

 
Juicy Watermelon- This one is perfect for a hot summer day.  I didn't burn it long but I could smell it and I enjoyed it.  I've always resisted buying watermelon scented candles but I'm glad I got this one.  It's sweet and watermelon-y.




Kiwi Berries - Out of all the fruity ones I got, this one is my favorite. It smells so good in the jar - it smells just like kiwis and strawberries and a little bit of pineapple.  I burned it twice but both times were in the living room where my candles must be super powerful or else I will be sitting there enjoying only the glow from the flame. True to form, I couldn't smell it unless I put my nose right above the flame. I've been meaning to give it a nice long go in the bedroom to see how it does.  I will be so disappointed if it doesn't have any throw even in the bedroom because the cold sniff is so great,


Jelly Beans - I got this about half way through SAS when the Easter and Girl Scout candles went down to $7.  How can I resist a $7 Yankee? I've been considering buying it for the past two seasons but there have always been other things that I wanted more, This year as soon as they hit that price point I hit the store because I knew they wouldn't last long at that price.  Brought it home and lit it right away and man, the thing is juicy fruity jelly greatness!  It smells like grape jelly, not something that I really enjoy smelling but it's so good. I will go back to the store one more time before SAS ends and if they still have them there, I will pick up another one because it's that good!.


In my next post I will discuss the rest of what I bought.  There are several things that I'm so delighted that I was able to get my hands on and I can't wait to tell you about them!  But this post is long enough!