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A Winter Scented Candle Review from an Ebay store called Lakeside Candles & Incense
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by Lisa, added 2/9/09 Brand: Lakeside Candles & IncenseType: 8 oz jar candles & .75 oz wax tarts
Fragrances: Cinnamon Pine, Cornucopia and Patchouli Ylang Ylang Cost: Approximately $8.50 for the candles (sold in bulk lots of 2, 3 and 6) and $6.50-$24.00 for the tarts (sold in bulk lots of 12, 24, 36, and 48 tarts; average per-tart cost is about $0.50 to $0.54 each)
Burn time: Approximately 50-60 hours (jars); 12+ hours for the tarts Scent Strength: Strong
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 Introduction to my Review of Lakeside Candles & Incense:
This time around I jumped a little outside the box and tested some candles and tarts from an Ebay vendor, Lakeside Candles and Incense. This company is based in Forked River, New Jersey, and not only offers 100% soy jar candles but also features a line of crystal palm and soy wax tarts, tealights, soy votives (both scented and unscented), travel tins, potpourri oils, and incense. In short, Lakeside is one-stop shopping for almost everything you might need to scent your home or office!
Lakeside Candles and Incense is owned by Kimberly Sonn, who is super-responsive to any questions you might have and clearly takes a ton of pride in her work and in serving her customers. It was a pleasure communicating with her about this review.
Being an e-Bay store, the Lakeside site is set up a little differently than the standard website that most of us are used to ordering from. To begin with, items must be purchased in bulk lots rather than in single quantities, you commit to buying each item individually (no filling a cart and then dumping it if you change your mind on something), and once you finish your shopping you need to request an invoice with a combined shipping total before making the final payment. But for those of you who don't or won't use Ebay, Lakeside is in the process of developing a regular website with secure checkout, www.lakesidecandles.com. This site looks really pretty and professional so far (I peeked) and seems like it will be easier to use than the e-Bay shop. It'll be open for business sometime in January or February 2009.
Before I move on to the meat of my review, I wanted to make an observation about my experience with the current Lakeside Candles and Incense site. Ebay structure and limitations aside, I found this store difficult to shop for a couple of reasons, the primary one being that there were no scent descriptions available. (The other reasons included not having the option to buy single items in all categories and text that is written in all capital letters.) To me, not having scent descriptions is a really big drawback (though totally and easily fixable). Since I and other customers are taking a chance by buying things online "sight unsmelled,"... it's extremely difficult to make an informed decision about what scent to pick when there's no description. This isn't too much of a problem with old standards like Pumpkin Pie and Strawberry, but what the heck does a scent called Anomoly smell like? Or Mona Lisa or Luck of the Irish? Hopefully the new website will include scent descriptions for all scents carried by Lakeside once it's complete.
Now, on to the wax review! |
 What do my Candles from Lakeside Candes & Incense Look Like?
My candles were beautiful and designed to fit in with any decor. The jars were square with rounded corners and flat glass lids, the labels were placed on top of the lids rather than on the side of the jar. I love jars like this, particularly when they contain soy wax with its easy clean-up, because once the candle is finished I can wash out the jar and it makes a great container for other things (like tarts!) The wax in the jars matched the scents chosen: a creamy light brown for the Cinnamon Pine and Cornucopia scents, and a dark sage green for the Patchouli Ylang Ylang. The melts were made of crystal palm wax and came packaged in bags of four for each scent. All in all, a great presentation. |
How did my Candles from Lakeside Candles & Incense smell?
Since my last few reviews have featured scents that are generally in my comfort zone, for this review I wanted to try something a little different. With this in mind (and hampered a bit by the lack of scent descriptions), I picked three fragrances that I thought might be good for fall and winter scenting but that were also not the food and drink aromas that I usually lean toward.
 Cinnamon Pine
This scent was the first that I picked from the list, the first that I burned, and my hands-down favorite. It's an excellent mix of both cinnamon and the fresh scent of winter pine. It's a creamy fragrance rather than a spicy one, since the evergreen notes and perhaps a touch of vanilla take the edge off the cinnamon, and yet it didn't scream Christmas tree either. I think those of you who don't like pine or spruce types of scents would like this one - it's definitely not the standard pine tree air freshener aroma that can get so obnoxious.
Cornucopia
I liked this scent quite a bit, although it's difficult to characterize it without the scent description - I'm relying completely on my own nose for this. Although I've smelled a version of this scent elsewhere, Lakeside's Cornucopia was quite different. This fragrance was predominantly floral, with a strong undertone of fall fruits like pear and apple, and a hint of autumn leaves. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what the floral type was - it didn't smell like quite like mums, but it definitely was not a spring floral like jasmine or lilac. Even though I'm not a big fan of flowery types, I did enjoy this scent - it was quite different from the usual spice/bakery/pumpkin aromas that are so prevalent for fall and winter.
Patchouli Ylang Ylang
This scent was unfortunately the only one of the three that I truly did not care for. Normally I enjoy patchouli scents and blends, but Patchouli Ylang Ylang just didn't do  it for me. The ylang ylang really overwhelmed the patchouli, which became kind of a sour bottom note to the fragrance. Maybe it's a personal thing since the few florals that I do like tend to be the simpler, more herbal types like lavender rather than the exotic combos. But in all honesty this scent smelled kind of like old lady perfume to me, and I had to turn off the tart warmer after a while.
To be fair, Patchouli Ylang Ylang was much better in the candle version than in the tarts - it was a lot less overpowering and thus easier for me to handle. And just to prove that everyone's nose is different, my husband loved this scent, and he normally thinks that all my candles and tarts smell like chemical solvent (or worse). I'm not sure if you can trust his perception, since he thought I was burning a vanilla candle, but he did like the scent itself, which is saying something. So if you're an exotic floral lover or in the mood to try something very different, please don't go by my reaction - this may be a scent that's just right for you. |
 How did my candles from Lakeside Candles & Incense burn?
All of my candles and tarts from Lakeside Candles performed very well, and were among most consistent in performance of any of the wax products that I've tested for Candlefind so far. Each candle burned cleanly to the edge of the jar with no smoking, canyons or sooting, and established melt pools quite quickly. Regardless of scent, the candle throws were also consistently excellent across the board - the 8 oz jars filled my powder room completely and drifted out and down the hallway. And as for the tarts, well, oh my goodness...
If you like strong tart throws like me then you have GOT to try Lakeside's tarts. All of them filled my entire downstairs level, and the Cornucopia, which seemed a hair stronger than the other two, also drifted upstairs and into the basement as well - a house filler. They also seemed to last forever. I got at least 12 hours of scent from all of them and Cornucopia was still scenting after 24 hours. I liked the palm wax too - after cooling it slips right out of the melter, with no need to freeze or ice the bowl or chip the wax out with a plastic knife. I haven't melted much palm wax in the past, but my experience with Lakeside's was great, with absolutely no throw or longevity issues. |
Closing to my review of Lakeside Candles & Incense:
Overall I have to say that I enjoyed my candles and tarts from Lakeside Candles and Incense (the Patchouli Ylang Ylang incident notwithstanding) and I would  definitely recommend trying this company. Their candles and tarts performed very, very well, and I was quite impressed with Kimberly's customer service. At some point I'd love to try some different scents from Lakeside, especially after those killer strong tarts. And as I mentioned earlier, the issues I encountered with the Ebay site are easily fixable. I think this company has the potential to really take off once the new website opens up.
Happy scenting!
~ Lisa
Visit Lakeside Candles & Incense Ebay store |
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