Type: Décor Glass Pillars – Trio of 6”, 9’, 10.5”

Fragrance: Winter Wonderland

Cost: $20 - $30

Introduction to my review of beautiful glass Decor Pillars from Village Candle:

A winter wonderland doesn’t have to mean a snow covered landscape. It hasn’t snowed in South Florida since back in 1977. Miami Beach saw snow flurries for the first and only time in recorded history in January of that remarkable year. No matter how much wishing I do for a stray snowflake to land on my nose one winter’s day, it simply isn’t going to happen. Knowing this has never stopped me from enjoying brisk winter fragrances. I like the clean, icy, fresh air scents… the pine boughs and crackling fireplace scents… all that good stuff.

As if reading my mind, Village Candle introduced their new Décor Glass Pillars this winter with the choice of unscented, Christmas Tree, or Winter Wonderland scents. Sure, there are lots of different candle styles to choose from at Village Candle and a whole slew of scents to sniff our way through, but these Décor Pillars were something special. I couldn’t wait to see them in person and bring a touch of winter to my home.

Village Candles website is easy to navigate and has loads of information including photos and scent descriptions. There are occasional sales, which you know I like, and I’ve even found a limited selection of Village candles at my local supermarket for that quick candle fix. For this review, though, I had to get my hands on the Décor Glass Pillars. Nothing else would do.

What do my Village Décor Pillar candles look like?

One word… gorgeous! Let me first tell you how they were packaged. They were unbelievable. Each glass pillar was gift packaged in its own cardboard tube. The tube was a shiny holiday red with Décor Village Candle elegantly printed on the side. The lids were shiny silver. My husband said they looked like shotgun shells, but what does he know? These looked wrapped and ready to gift, but they weren’t going anywhere except on my shelf.

The Décor Glass Pillars come in three sizes, or heights. The circumference is the same with all three sizes. The small size is 6” tall, medium 9”, and large is 10.5” tall. To call these candles pillars seemed a bit confusing to me. I think of a pillar candle as freestanding without a container, but these tall columns of wax were more closely akin to container candles. The pillar part would be the strikingly tall glass containers and each one had a ½ inch strip of silver shininess gilding the top edge. The wax was a natural white color and each candle was double wicked.

How did my Winter Wonderland Décor Pillars smell?

“Frosty evergreen garland is blended with sweet Siberian Balsam and white cedar wood.”

Sans snow, a winter wonderland brings to my mind a calm serenity, a peaceful quiet, the twinkle of starlight or sunshine dancing along the water of the Gulf. See? Anyplace can have a winter wonderland. This scent was enchanting. It smelled of sweet pines, a touch of berries maybe, and the outdoors. My first impression before lighting these candles was that the scent would be light and that I could at least enjoy the beauty of the candle display. They looked so beautiful that I would have been mesmerized even by the unscented version of the candles.

As the candles burned and melt pools formed in each “pillar”, I was able to enjoy the fragrance wafting around the area where the candles were displayed. The scent wasn’t knocking any doors down, but it was certainly present and I liked the way these candles smelled. The scent reminded me of a fresh winter’s morning.

How did my Décor pillars from Village Candle burn?

At first it was hard to bring myself to actually light these because they were so beautiful to begin with. I wanted to burn them, but I wanted to keep them pristine at the same time. Anyone who’s ever held a favorite candle knows this dilemma. I even kept the containers on display all through the holidays. However, I couldn’t very well review these without lighting them so with no more hesitation… I lit them all. Lighting them all at once was the only way to go. I had the three different sizes lined up side by side in dramatic fashion and the effect of seeing them all lit was absolutely breathtaking. I mean, I took pictures. That’s how gorgeous they were. I emailed a friend. I invited people over to see them. It was ridiculous. One friend had me going online to show her exactly where I got them from.

Okay, so they’re stunning, but the question of the month was how did these super tall columns burn. Did they burn well from top to bottom? Large containers can be temperamental at times, and I had some serious trepidation because of the jar height.

These were some big candles, so I had many hours of burn time and many relights during the course of the month. I had to plan ahead and I only lit these when there was a good chunk of time to keep them burning. Getting a partial melt pool was NOT an option… it was all or nothing. For the most part, I had little incident with the burn quality… something I find commendable. There were a couple of times when my flames were small and I worried over them. The first time was after I decided to trim the wicks and clipped them too close. I actually poured off about ¼” of wax and the flames perked back up for me.

Another time was on a day when my house was unusually cold. Yes, we do occasionally get cold days here, even though there’s never any snow. I think the house temperature was a factor that day, but I don’t really know. I did stop trimming the wicks altogether. I’d rather have a large flame over a small one any day. Basically, the less I messed with the candles, the better they performed. I relit these candles dozens of times over the course of the month and mostly I had good flames with complete melt pools.

Occasionally between burns I would wipe down the interior of the glass. There was a residue that disappeared on its own when lit, but I wanted clean glass even when the candles were not burning so I wiped the insides with a paper towel.

As the candles burned down to the bottom, the glass became quite hot. I recommend burning them for only a couple of hours at a time once the wax gets low in the containers.

Closing to my review…

Would I buy more Décor Glass Pillars from Village Candle? Absolutely! I already want another trio. Getting all three together is somewhat pricy but oh, they are so worth it.

Happy candle smelling!

~ Julia

Visit Village Candle

And now, here are Village Candle savings for Candlefind visitors.

1) All of the Décor Pillars are now priced at an additional 20% off regular retail price with this promotion, no coupon required. All prices listed are 20% off regular retail price. (Web Only) (Not the shop now button on village Candle Facebook Page)

2) Village Candle® Dual Wick Candles Make perfect "scents" for that Valentine on your list!

Shipping specials:

Now through Midnight Sunday, 2/13/2011

5 dollar FLAT RATE SHIPPING FOR ORDERS UNDER $100 use code: Flat5

FREE SHIPPING on orders $100 OR MORE use code: Free100

Code Restrictions: *Valid only on orders shipping to the contiguous United States* (shipping charges are one per recipient)

Village Facebook page contest!

Like us on Facebook.

Beginning now until 2/13, share with us your fan photos. We would like to see how you will decorate for Valentine's Day with your Village Candles, and what message you would attach to your photo! We will pick the top 3 creative photos including the comments, quotes or phrases depicting the "Theme or Mood" presented in the photo. Each winner will receive a 4 pack of all the NEW spring fragrances in the 16oz size! Good luck to each of you, and the Village People cannot wait to see how creative you all are! There is no limit to the number of entries an entrant can make, each pic entered will be considered an entry to the contest. Contest Limited to contestants in the Continental US participants only.

All 3 winners of the contest will be announced on 2/14/2011 by 12 noon!

• All 3 winners of the "Valentine's Picture and Phrase or Quote Contest" will have their winning pictures and quotes placed in the highlights section of our Website at villagecande.com. All 3 winners will need to send they jpeg file to cs@villagecandle.com for uploading of the images and quote to the website.

Good luck everyone!