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Review of Candles & Melts from Melissa's Primitive Wicks in the scents Summer Splash, Indian Summer and Spiced Caramel Kisses
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Brand: Melissa's Primitive Wicks
Type: 7 oz square Mason Jar Candles and 1 oz scent-shot Melts Fragrances: Summer Splash, Indian Summer and Spiced Caramel Kisses Cost: $7.00 for the candles; $1.25 each for the melts Burn time: Approximately 40-50 hours Scent Strength: Strong
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 Introduction to my Review of Melissa's Primitive Wicks:
As an incorrigible candle junkie, I get such a kick out of trying candles from small vendors that I've never heard of before. I've found that many of the "mom and pop" operations have some of the best products and customer service around, with a personal touch that you just can't get from the big guys. My experience with Melissa's Specialty Soaps & Primitive Wicks has definitely confirmed this impression!
Melissa's Specialty Soaps & Primitive Wicks (for this review I'll call it MSS for short) is owned by Melissa Frano and is based in Pennsylvania. In addition to a huge range of container candles, MSS also offers bakery candles, grubby votives, a wide variety of pillar candles (I love the hatbox pillars), prairie cakes, and wax melts that come in regular tart shapes, crumbles, and fun bakery shapes. There are also décor items, room fresheners, and tart warmers. Finally, Melissa sells handcrafted soaps, lotions and foot scrub products too, for those of you who are also addicted to bath and body goodies!
The overall style of both the site and the wares is primitive/country, but Melissa is willing to accommodate those who prefer a different look. I liked the website - it follows the same format as many of the country-themed e-tailers and I found it to be well-designed and easy to read and use. My only quibble is the lack of descriptions under some of the items, making you rely on the picture for an idea of what you're getting, but I'm sure a quick email to Melissa will resolve any questions you might have. |
 What do my Candles from Melissa's Primitive Wicks Look Like?
My jars were absolutely adorable (can you tell I'm excited about this vendor?)... small square masons with rusty lids and a bit of homespun ribbon tied around the neck. The wax for all three scents was a uniform chocolate brown color, and the candles were all single wicked.
The matching melts were packaged in one-ounce plastic oval "scent shot" containers, and the wax color for these varied - a bright lime green for Summer Splash, off-white for Indian Summer, and a creamy brown for Spiced Caramel Kisses.
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How did my Candles from Melissa's Primitive Wicks Smell?
In a word, fabulous! I loved all three of the scents I picked. Here are my impressions of each:
Summer Splash
 This scent is described on the MSS website as:
"A wonderful blend of sugar, summer berries and sweet ripe pear."
This description actually doesn't do the fragrance justice - to my nose, at least, it seemed to be a lot more complex than that. I could smell the berries, the pear and the sweetness, but there were also hints of honey and spice as well that gave it an unexpected bit of richness without making it overly sticky-sweet. Summer Splash is a gorgeous fragrance and complements other berry scents, as well as offering a nice break from all the super-sweet scents that are so popular in the summertime. I loved the way the fruits, sugar and spice blended together, and like all of the scents I tried, the candle gave a good, strong throw. Despite the name, Summer Splash is a scent I'd burn year round, not just in the summer.
Indian Summer
It's almost impossible for me to pick a favorite scent out of the three MSS candles I tried, since they all were so good, but if you insisted... I think I would have to choose Indian Summer. It's the one I kept coming back to, again and again, to sniff cold even before I burned it. I was totally intrigued! Melissa describes the scent as:
"A delightful gathering with strong top notes of strawberries, green apples and pears enhanced by a floral heart of mums and geranium over a bed of fresh greenery, moss and oak."
What I smelled evoked a warm Indian summer day perfectly: fall fruits and spices, the sharp smell of mums, turning leaves, and a touch of sun-warmed hay. It's definitely not a floral, a food or spice aroma, or even a fresh scent - although it has elements of each - but a wonderful, well-blended combination of all three. Indian summer in New England is a beautiful time of year - it usually occurs in October with summer-like days after the first frost - and this scent captures that time flawlessly.
 Spiced Caramel Kisses
Another winner! This is a strong and fabulous dessert fragrance - perfect for all you bakery lovers out there. It's warm, buttery  and sweet, and unlike many similar fragrances you can really pick out both the caramel and the spice notes. My daughter thought there was a cake baking in the oven when I burned this scent, and it was an instant hit in my house! Melissa describes Spiced Caramel Kisses as:
"A lively blend of caramel, buttery brown sugar, hazelnut, vanilla and whispers of cinnamon and nutmeg blended throughout."
This is a wonderfully creamy concoction with hints of spices you won't be able to resist." She's certainly right about that - I want more! It's definitely going to be a permanent addition to my candle stash. |
 How did my candles from Melissa's Primitive Wicks burn?
All three of my candles from Melissa's Specialty burned very well, edge to edge with no wax tunnels and no soot. The only flaw was that a couple of the wicks were off-center, but this didn't seem to affect the performance, and a gentle nudge to the center after they had been burning awhile took care of the problem.
The throw on each candle was excellent - these are very well-scented candles! Even though my relatively small jars only had a melt pool of a little less than 3 inches, they filled my living room and drifted into the family room, the kitchen and the hallways. It did take a little longer than usual for the candles to get going. At first I was afraid that they were duds, and it took about an hour before the throw fully established itself. But once it did I couldn't have been happier, and it was definitely worth the wait! The matching melts I tried also did quite well - strong throws, and the scent lasted between 8-12 hours, which is standard for melts. |
Closing remarks to my review of Melissa's Primitive Wicks:
If you haven't already guessed, I am totally delighted with my candles and melts from Melissa's Specialty Soaps & Primitive Wicks. I can get pretty picky when it  comes to wax, but these candles are definitely tops in my book, and I plan on going back for more. Equally important, dealing with this company was great too. Customer service is very important to me - if a vendor fails to respond to emails, has overly long turnaround times or just lousy customer service in general, I'm not apt to buy from the vendor again even if I love their product. Absolutely no worries here, though. Melissa is really friendly, answers emails quickly and her turn around time is lightning fast. I'd definitely recommend giving her company a try!
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