Sea Salt Caramel, Cedar & Cimmanon and Lavender Sage – Candles by Laura

by Christina Rylan

Introduction to my Candles by Laura review:

Candles by Laura is a new company I’ve recently had the opportunity to try and happily review. I love trying candles from small handmade sites… they are so down to earth and there’s something so pleasing knowing you’re burning a candle that was made from scratch days before you receive them.

This site carries candles only, no melts at this time… I counted 57 fragrances to choose from. Browsing Candles by Laura site was like walking into a country Christmas store. Right now, it’s all decked out for the holidays in greens and Christmas reds. At the top of the site, you’ll find links to the various sections on their site… the “shop” link will take you to all the fragrances offered. Each fragrance is listed in rows of 5 with three pages of scents to scroll through. Click on the scent name or picture and it will open up a new window to another picture and scent description with a drop down menu to choose the size candle you’d like to purchase. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. Laura (owner) uses a soy/paraffin blend of wax to make her candles which are available in 3 different jar sizes… small, medium and large.

My scent choices for this review… Sea Salt Caramel (I had to get my one bakery scent in there), Cedar & Cinnamon and Lavender Sage.

What did my candles from Candles by Laura look like?

My candles were the 9oz medium size jars. The style was the cylinder metro style jars with thick flat glass lids that fit on the candles snugly. The wax color for Sea Salt Caramel was a medium brown, Cedar & Citrus a medium brown and Lavender Sage was a pretty soft purple. All three candles had one wick perfectly centered.

What did my candles smell like?

Sea Salt Caramel

My latest craving of late are caramel scents so this was an easy choice to pick. Have you ever had a salted caramel? Oh my gosh!! They are literally “melt in your mouth” confections that border on sinful. I’ve only eaten a few and savor every sticky morsel when I do have one. The salt adds a different texture and taste so I couldn’t wait to smell this candle. Here is the scent description from Candles by Laura’s site:

“Sweetened, creamed butter, caramel, vanilla and sea salt.”

Yummy!! Smelling this candle for the first time… it smelled very sweet and creamy. It didn’t really smell like the classic caramel I’m used to but it still smelled pretty good. I didn’t detect any chemical or fakeness to the scent… just a sweet and sugary caramel scent.

I lit this candle early morning and I would say it took a good 3 or more hours to get a nice melt pool… but only took about ½ an hour to start smelling the fragrance. That’s pretty good, as in, the scent starts to travel long before the candle even reached a full melt pool.

This is one sweet and sugary caramel fragrance! I could smell the sweetness the moment I walked into my bedroom so the scent throw was nice and strong. My bedroom is quite large and this candle more than held its own in that room. Does this candle live up to it’s name? – YES! This is one delicious scent! It smells like a buttery caramel with heavy doses of sugar and vanilla. I could even smell the salt notes blended in perfectly. You could almost taste this scent.  Highly recommend this candle if you’re after a super sweet scent to fragrance your home. This one was yummy!

Cedar & Cinnamon

Popping open the lid to this candle for the first time…. LOVE!! This candle smelled SOOOO GOOD!!!! All caps there to express how good I thought this candle smelled. It was earthy and masculine and so soothing. Cold sniff, I wasn’t smelling cinnamon at all. Here is the scent description for this fragrance:

“A blend of warm cedar and spice cinnamon.”

I was hoping for a little more to go on other than that description because I swear, this scent was much more than that… it was so different and didn’t seem as simple as just plain cinnamon and cedar. It had a bit of sweetness to it. The cedar notes were distinctive and the overall scent was just lovely. I don’t think I’m describing it well but I really liked it. This is just one of those scents you’ll have to experience yourself to see what I mean. The best three words to describe this scent… sweet, masculine and fresh.

Strength? On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this one a 6+. This scent seemed more subtle to me but it gave a nice steady throw that lasted all throughout the candle’s lifespan. Loved this scent!!

Lavender Sage

What a beautiful scent this was! So soothing and soft. Here is the scent description for this fragrance.

“Lavender and sage with hints of dill, pepper, moss and ginger.”

Cold sniff… this was unlike any lavender blend I’ve ever smelled. I really liked it! Boy did I luck out with this review… I loved all three fragrances I chose.

Lavender Sage was so fresh and a wonderful change from all the heavy bakery scents I’ve been burning lately. I could smell the lavender but the sage really toned down the floral creating a beautiful soft herbal fragrance. And let’s not forget the dill – I would have never guessed that had I not read the scent description but now that I know it’s there, I “can” smell a touch of that. Very interesting! This was a very unique floral scent and one I would totally purchase again.

Strength – I never really could gauge accurate strength with this candle. This candle never reached a complete melt pool no matter what I tried to correct it. I was really bummed and hoping that was an isolated event. My other two candles burned perfect.

How did my candles burn?

Sea Salt Caramel and Cedar & Cinnamon burned perfect… both achieved complete melt pools and were clean burning. Lavender Sage had some issues as stated above. Because of the great experience with the first two… I’m pretty confident the Lavender Sage was an  isolated event and not the norm.

Closing to my review:

I really enjoyed all three candles and would for sure purchase more based off this initial first experience. I can’t even tell you which out of the three I liked best… they were all great and I enjoyed all three equally… that’s actually a first. One or two scents usually stand out more but not this time. I loved all three.

Reading up some more on their site… you can also request your candles in any color of your choice… that’s a nice added touch if you love your candles a certain color. Not sure what shipping prices are… I couldn’t find that info on their site but if you’re curious… shoot Laura an email (sales@candlesbylaura.com)… I’m sure she can fill you in on her policies.

Happy candle hunting!

~ Christina

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Have you tried these fragrances from Candles by Laura? Review them with us. In the comment section below, review and star rate your experience… it’s easy!