by Julia, added 3/29/10 

Page 2 of Julia's Easter Scented melt review

Country Home Scents

Etsy is where you’ll find Country Home Scents. They have a exciting and colorful storefront in the shopping Mecca for all things handmade – Etsy.com. Country Home Scents has got many scents to choose from and the melts are each little works of art. Many are colorfully layered or specially decorated on top. I’m no stranger to Country Home Scents products. Each time I have ordered, I have gotten quick shipping, fast responses to every question, and lots of really fun and unique melts. They can be purchased individually, in themed sample packs, or in a mix ‘n match sampler.

April Showers

“A refreshing aroma of hyacinth and lily of the valley; rounded out with notes of fresh green ferns. Smells clean and fresh!”

I wasn’t going to write this but I can’t stop myself… so here goes… April Showers bring May flowers. There… I’ve got that out of my system. With April Showers, I was expecting more of a wet, ozone type of fragrance, but it really didn’t have showers. What it did seem to have was sweet Spring or Summer flowers. I walked in the room and thought I smelled honeysuckle. Even though honeysuckle is not in the description, each time I smelled April Showers my nose kept telling my brain honeysuckle. This is a Springtime scent for sure with tiny blossoms and lots of green freshness… a simple yet beautiful scent. I liked it and would order it again.

Spring Bouquet

“The most beautiful floral fragrance! Smells of roses, magnolia, gardenia, tuberose and iris blossom. Just like a fresh cut bouquet!”

I totally get this scent. I can sense all of the fragrance notes listed in the description and that’s sometimes hard to do in a floral blend. The rose and magnolia are more noticeable from a distance. Up close I smell the gardenia, tuberose combination. The iris was much more fleeting. This scent made me want to fill any available surface with fresh cut flowers of every variety. Even though it’s called Spring Bouquet, it would certainly be nice all year round for a fresh, floral fix. It was quite strong right from the start, filling my main rooms and lasted for hours.

Morning Dew

“Take a deep breath! A clean, pure scent of refreshing fruity tones enhanced with hints of floral and spices. These tarts are handcrafted in a soft sea foam green with crystal sparkles!”

How nice to see morning dew on the grass instead of snow? A true sign of Spring, morning dew promises new beginnings and a rejuvenation of fresh foliage. Flower buds just peeking out of dark earth, green buds on the tree branches… and the grass dampening our slippers as we hunt for the morning paper. This Morning Dew scent from Country Home Scents, however, was different than I had imagined.

I expected Morning Dew to be a light fragrance, but it had plenty of power. Instead of taking my imagination outdoors like I expected, this scent kept me snuggled up in my fuzzy bathrobe, enjoying a few quiet moments before my family wakes up. It’s a soapy clean fragrance that smells like a bathtub full of bubbles. Morning Dew is soothing and relaxing. It was very spa-like and a definite stress reliever.


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Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts

All of the particular scents I tried from Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts for this special Easter review were strong and long lasting. As my first experience with this company, I was impressed with how long these scents lasted. Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts has a huge scent list and an extensive variety of products to choose from. The website for this company is big and almost overwhelming, but I found the scents I wanted easily enough and once I decided on the ounce tart cups, I simply emailed Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts with my selections and she worked out all the details for me. Cheryl was very knowledgeable about her scents and was able to offer suggestions based on what I was interested in. I look forward to ordering again from this company that is dedicated to customer service.

Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts also has several Easter and Spring specific items for sale in their very own categories…one more reason to give them a try this Spring.

Angel Food Cake

“Light and fluffy. A delicious white vanilla cake scent.”

Angel Food Cake is a tasty treat any time of year. Top it with fresh strawberries and whipped cream… who needs a meal… just skip straight to the dessert. Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts has a good, strong Angel Food Cake scent. I thought I smelled some almond in this vanilla cake blend. It smelled different than a regular white cake. It smelled like the best part of an angel food cake… the browned bottom edge… you know what I’m talking about.

Did I mention that Angel Food Cake was strong? Actually all of the scents that I tried from Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts were big throwers. It was hard to believe so much scent was coming from the little one ounce tart cups.

Jelly Beans

“Sweet, fruity, and colorful, just like the Easter candy”

For this Jelly Beans scent, I felt compelled to do some research… Jelly Bean research… I’m just that dedicated. I picked up a bag o’ J-beans with the excuse… ahem, purpose… of needing them to compare scents… I can talk myself into just about anything. I sampled every single color and flavor of bean… more than once… and I can tell you with certainty, that this Jelly Bean scent smells just like the purple ones taste. Not the red ones or green ones…. definitely not the black ones, to be sure… only the purple jelly beans. If you want to find out what this scent smells like before you order, pop a purple jelly bean in your mouth and enjoy… that’s Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts Jelly Bean scent.

Easter Bunny

“A soft powder floral scent that lets you know Spring is in the air” – Custom blend"

Cheryl’s Candles and Gifts blended up this Easter Bunny scent specially for Spring. It reminds me of a powder puff on the vanity in a Victorian manor, or perhaps Beatrix Potter’s nightstand. It’s quite powdery, almost entirely a baby powder fragrance with a little extra note of Spring flowers. This may not be for everyone, and I must admit, powder is not one of my personal favorite scent note, but for those baby powder scent fans, this is a must-have for Spring.

Clouds of Sweetness

“Nothing better than cotton candy and marshmallow to put off just the right amount of sweet scent”

The name Clouds of Sweetness caught my attention. When the slate grey skies of Winter make way for fluffy white cotton candy clouds in a bright blue sky, that’s when Spring officially arrives. Clouds of Sweetness was a dreamy, sugary custom blend. It had more marshmallow than cotton candy, which was interesting. Even though I prefer a straight cotton candy scent, this blend was a good variation. It smelled sugary and mega-sweet… as sweet as an afternoon spent imagining shapes in the clouds. – Look, I see an ice cream cone in the sky. This was another strong scent that easily filled my main living area.


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The Spotted Hog Candle Co.

Have you see The Spotted Hog Candle Co.’s new Whippets? They are the newest fun melts from The Spotted Hog and I’ve never seen anything like them. They are puffed up wax nuggets, decorated and colorful, and infused with strong, cheerful fragrances. I had to try some, and I’ve found some new favorites to share here.

Even though the Whippets are the newest addition to their website, The Spotted Hog has plenty of other melt styles and candles to choose from. There is a broad scent list and some generous tart samplers for trying a bunch of new scents all in one package. The candle jars have a cool arts and crafts style label that is as decorative as the candles themselves.

The Spotted Hog Candle Co has a well organized and well established website that reflects their experience in making candles and melts.

Happy as a Pig in …. 

“We were feeling a little nutty when we designed this whippet, we blended our Piggy Munch with rich caramel, toasted pralines and pecans. The end result equals pure heaven.”

This scent is fantastic! It’s the best of everything bakery, nutty, and buttery all wrapped up in one powerfully strong tart. I held out on melting this whippet as long as I could because the melt itself was so cute with a little wax pig in a bright green cloud of fluff. Once this tart started melting, it filled my biggest room with the best bakery scent! I’d never smelled The Spotted Hog’s renowned "Piggy Munch" scent before but whatever was mixed in there with those pralines, pecans and caramel made "Happy as a Pig in …" an accurate description of myself while I melted this. The scent name may not be Easter like, but the wax color screams Spring and the scent will be a year round winner.

Teddy Grahams

“We combined our Honey Graham Cracker supreme with a dash of vanilla frosting to create this adorable whippet.”

Too much candy in that Easter basket? How about some Teddy Grahams instead? This was another cute whippet from The Spotted Hog. It was light tan with little wax teddy bears stuck in the fluff. It smells just like cinnamon graham crackers dipped in vanilla frosting. Cinnamon isn’t listed in the description, but I smelled a good dose of the spice and was happy to have it. I’ve always liked the cinnamon graham crackers best…they always seemed more special that the plain kind.

This scent filled my bedroom nicely and stayed steady for a long time. It was hard to see the cute little teddy bear embeds melt away… really hard… but if you’re going to smell Teddy Grahams, you’ve got to melt a couple of bears.

Jelly Bean Cupcakes

“~ A Spotted Hog Custom Blend ~ Sugary, fruity-sweet little jelly beans, on top of vanilla buttercream frosted cupcakes!”

Here is a different twist on a Jelly Bean scent. This smells like a vanilla cupcake with white icing and jelly beans on top. I thought I would smell one thing over the other, either all cupcake or all jelly bean, but this scent is pretty evenly blended. The cupcake gives it a good dose of bakery yumminess. This melt was a regular two ounce cup style and didn’t seem quite as strong as the Whippets, but it still held its own in my kitchen.

I liked the added bakery note in this scent. The vanilla and cake added a nice layered dimension to the scent.

Doodle Bug

“Doodle Bug is a blend of cream soda, fresh watermelon slices, hubba bubba bubblegum, with a hint of new born baby.”

If the Doodle Bug whippet didn’t have those sweet jelly beans on the top, I probably wouldn’t have given this scent a chance. I think the deal breaker has been the hint of new born baby in the description. It sounds good up until that point. Well, what a fool I’ve been. Doodle Bug had me jumping in delight. It’s quite possibly my new favorite from The Spotted Hog. I smell bubblegum! Sweet, soft Hubba Bubba from when I was a kid. I smell the watermelon too. I didn’t get the cream soda directly, but the scent had a little zing like soda. I didn’t get any hint of baby, which I think might be a powder scent note. I just smelled a wallop of sweet bubblegum scent and equally sweet memories of my school days… the last day of school in particular.

Doodle Bug was strong and lasted a long time in my main living area. I was happy to let this one go for as long as I possibly could… a definite reorder.


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