Fragrance: Orchard Cider, Nana's Apple Pie, Harvest Moon & Country Lemon Squares
Cost: $12.95
Scent Strength:Varies with each scent but for the most part, strong.
Introduction to my review:
Royal River Candle Co. are a fairly new company based out of Freeport Maine. I was approached several months ago by one of the owners (Todd Green) to sample a few of their candles for review.
This company is small but quant and the site is pleasant to browse. I liked their home page... very classy and simple. One thing I found odd though is when you enter their site to look at their candles from the home page, it takes you to a different website address which confused me but it's definitely the right site. Not sure why that is and I didn't ask them to clarify... but, no big deal.
Royal River Candle Co. offer 3 size jar candles, no melts as of yet but I did see a picture of clamshells in their site somewhere so maybe they're in the works. Their scent selection is pretty small... 15 fragrances but I'm sure with time will grow as the company grows. I can say that the fragrances I sampled were pretty good.
The scents I received were, Orchard Spice, Nana's Apple Pie, Harvest Moon and Country Lemon Squares.
What did my candles from Royal River Look Like? The candles I received were 9.5oz square style jars with flat glass lids. There is a Royal River label that surrounds the face of the candle... very tastefully done. These candles had one wick. Orchard Cider was red, Nana's Apple Pie a brownish/orange, Harvest Moon a ivory, Country Lemon Squares yellow.
How did my candles from Royal River Candle Co. Smell?
Orchard Cider
Let's start off with the scent description from Royal Rivers website:
"Ground cinnamon and fresh clove sprinkled over hot apple cider, fresh from the orchard."
I was pleasantly surprised with this scent. I've kinda burned myself out on apple scents lately but I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. I found it to be a nice spicy apple scent and could detect all the elements mentioned in the scent description. What surprised me the most was the scent throw... for such a little candle, it threw pretty darn good. I burned this candle in my bedroom which is quite large and this little dude held it's own quite well. The moment I walked in the room, the wonderful aroma of spicy apple cider hit my nose. Nice cozy scent for those cold and chilly winter days.
Nana's Apple Pie Scent Description:
"The perfect mix of crisp, tart apples, cinnamon, allspice, and brown sugar in a scrumptious crust."
Apple Pie to me is the perfect smell of home and warm memories. Sniffing this candle cold, it smelled like the perfect apple pie scent. This is actually one of the better apple pie scents I've sniffed in awhile. A few I've tried don't have that spicy crust smell... this one did.
The scent throw on this candle gave a medium throw which is decent. I started burning this candle in my bedroom and soon found the room was too big and the candle couldn't keep up. I ended up moving it into a big bathroom where it did much better. When I walked into the room... the yummy smell of warm baked apple pie hit my nose and it was very nice. The scent throw wasn't as strong as I would have liked (I would have liked "in your face" strong with this one) but the scent was more subtle... you could smell it when walking in the room but it didn't have that "oomph" some apple scents do.
When I did smell this scent however, it was wonderful... it had all the elements of the real thing and I could smell everything in the description. If you like the fragrance of your candles to be moderate ... this would be a good one to try and I bet the larger jar throws better.
Harvest Moon This was a mega-strong scent. Here's the scent description:
"Mysterious and provocative, this late Summer night is sure to surprise you."
I don't know about you guys but under normal circumstances, I would have passed on this scent simply because the description was a little too vague for me. I like to know beforehand what type of scent I'm gonna buy. Call me finicky but it's how I am. When I sniffed this candle however... my nose twitched as in... I was intrigued. It smelled very fresh and cologne-ee and I was actually looking forward to burning it...
... and now that I have... dang! This scent was super strong and actually gave me a wicked headache. It smelled just like a man's cologne or aftershave and boy is it a room filler!! I burned this sucker in my bedroom and it was so strong, you could smell it all throughout my house. Not a pleasant thought when you're burning bakery scents everywhere else and the scent of men's cologne intermingles with it. Now, had I been burning this on a hot summer day, it would have been refreshing.
To analyze this scent just on its sheer scent performance, it gets a 10. I bet this would be a killer scent in Spring/Summer for sure. I liked it (when it wasn't gagging me with its strength) and think people who like musky/cologne type scents would absolutely love this scent. That it gave me a headache is not this candles fault... any scent can do that at any given time and I think the strength of this candle had a lot to do with that. One just never knows.
So, to close this... I totally give it two thumbs up and I think if you plan on ordering from this company and you like fresh scents, you should totally get it. Just plan on burning it in a nice big room. :-)
Country Lemon Squares
Aahhhh.... Lemon... sweet delicious and fresh lemon!! I think I can safely say I am THE ultimate "lemon" connoisseur. If I'm shopping on a site and they have a lemon scent, you can bet the bank I'm probably gonna order it. I love all lemons... sweet, tart, tangy... bakery, you name it, I love it. When Royal River sent me this one, I was quite happy.
I lit this candle in my bedroom and the little 9.5oz candle did fine there. So, the scent is strong and easily fragranced the room and beyond. Here is the scent description from their website: "A zesty lemon filling in a butter cookie crust topped with whipped cream."
This was a deliciously lemon scent and I liked it a lot. To me, this lemon scent was sweet, not so much zest or crust though. But even so... I really liked it.
My only issue was how this candle burned... it tunneled a lot and I had a devil of a time getting it to burn right. Other than that, great scent!!
How did My Candles from Royal River Candle burn?
I had problems with 3 out of 4 of my candles. It was a little bit of a challenge getting complete melt pools. The wicks in two of the candles were off center making it more difficult to get a good melt pool going. The other two were better. Overall, I found I had to be really careful with wick maintenance on these candles.
What did I learn? After the initial burn, never trim your wick before you light it... wait till it's going, THEN trim it. I found a few times after I trimmed, (visually looking like the right trim height) the flame was too low and then it was really hard getting the thing to burn right.
Overall opinion of my Candles and Royal River Candle Company:
I enjoyed the candles I tried with the exception of how a few of them burned. They've got the scents right as the ones I tried were pretty delicious and strong. Maybe the ones I received were flukes? Not sure.
The gentlemen that run this company seem to be very nice and love candles! I think it's great when you find guys who love candles just as much as we do. I wish them luck and think they're on the right track.
from the orchard."
The scent throw on this candle gave a medium throw which is decent. I started burning this candle in my bedroom and soon found the room was too big and the candle couldn't keep up. I ended up moving it into a big bathroom where it did much better. When I walked into the room... the yummy smell of warm baked apple pie hit my nose and it was very nice. The scent throw wasn't as strong as I would have liked (I would have liked "in your face" strong with this one) but the scent was more subtle... you could smell it when walking in the room but it didn't have that "oomph" some apple scents do. 
wicked headache. It smelled just like a man's cologne or aftershave and boy is it a room filler!! I burned this sucker in my bedroom and it was so strong, you could smell it all throughout my house. Not a pleasant thought when you're burning bakery scents everywhere else and the scent of men's cologne intermingles with it. Now, had I been burning this on a hot summer day, it would have been refreshing. 
scent is strong and easily fragranced the room and beyond. Here is the scent description from their website:
