Review of All Natural Palm Wax Candles from Clean Glow Candles

by Julia, added 2/8/10

Brand: Clean Glow Candles

Type: Palm Wax Container Candles

Fragrance: Snowy Pin,
Black Currant & Nectarine
Grand Vanilla

Cost: $18 – $20

Scent Strength: Varied

Introduction to my Clean Glow candle review:

I recently had the pleasure of trying three scented container candles from Clean Glow Candles, a company based in Williamstown, New Jersey. Their full line of candle products are available in-store, but their container candle collections are currently available online as well.

Clean Glow Candles’ website has a clean, modern appeal, done in shades of powder blue and nut brown. It looks professional and welcoming… the perfect place to spend some quiet time browsing through all of the appealing scents. There are plenty of colorful photos of their candles with clear descriptions listed for each scent. Having the scent descriptions right there next to a photo of each scented product made choosing my candles online effortless…it was as close as one could get to actually picking the jars up for a test sniff.

The Jewel Collection caught my eye immediately. The rectangular container shape was one I hadn’t used before, so I was especially looking forward to trying it. I like when a candle maker offers something a little different…a little out of the ordinary…and this Jewel Collection was just the thing I was looking for…You’ve got to see these beauties. The Signature Collection, while a more standard shape, was interesting as well, with a sleek, elegant beauty all their own. I noticed that other collections were coming soon so I’ll be checking back in often to see what new products and scents are added to tempt us.

What do my candles from Clean Glow look like?

Happily, my candles all looked exactly as they did in the website photos… I liked that. All of my container candles had the distinct crystalline appearance of palm wax. The wax had interesting feathering throughout that caught the light and seemed to twinkle.

It is noted on Clean Glow Candles website that their palm wax supplier is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. I was pleased to see that the environment, and the issue of harvesting only sustainable palm oil is important to Clean Glow Candles.

My Clean Glow candles arrived neatly packaged and individually cushioned and boxed in form fitting white cardboard boxes that would make these candles easy to gift. The boxes looked tidy and had a Clean Glow label on them.

The two jar candles from Clean Glow’s Jewel collection, Snowy Pine and Black Currant & Nectarine were double wicked and poured in uniquely shaped rectangular jars. Each heavy glass jar had a snugly sealing glass lid. The jars are keepers and would be great for storage. The labels were smart looking, understated, and though not easily peeled off, they did not detract from the candles overall appearance.

Snowy Pine was a deep, forest green color and Black Currant & Nectarine was a cheery orange color.

The Grand Vanilla jar candle was from Clean Glow’s Signature collection. It was a more standard, but no less elegant, round metro styled jar with a brushed metal, tightly sealing lid. The candle was double wicked, which I liked, and had the same small Clean Glow label affixed to the side. The wax was cream colored, just right for Grand Vanilla.

How did my candles from Clean Glow smell?

Snowy Pine

“A forest full of scent. Freshly fallen snow lightly covering towering pine trees.”

This was a beautiful scent. It was only slightly sweet, but more noticeably had a cool, almost minty smell. Mint is not listed in the description, but my nose detected the hint of fresh mint and maybe even some eucalyptus mixed in with a woodsy, outdoorsy pine. I can’t say if these subtle notes are officially part of the fragrance, but this is what my nose detected.

This scent was dreamy. It smelled so good close up that I wished it were stronger. I had to be right up on it to enjoy the fresh pine Winter wonderland. I moved this modern looking jar around the house and tried it out in all different sized rooms, but the scent just didn’t carry far from the jar. My favorite place to burn this scent was directly in front of me, wherever I happened to be. When I was right next to this scent, it smelled divine. Viva la Snowy Pine!

Black Currant & Nectarine

“Nectarines ripe from the sun infused with a suggestion of black currant berries.”

This scent was definitely more nectarine than black currant… It smelled fantastic! It was bursting with fruitiness, and that fruit smell was something more unusual than I expected. As I smelled the nectarine in this candle, I wondered why I haven’t seen this fragrance note more often. It’s a wonderful, succulent fragrance. Similar to an orange and peach mix, yet all together different really.

The black currant hangs back, but I do smell it in this blend and it’s a surprisingly bright, perky scent.

This candle scented a medium sized room well. The scent carried well in my home and smelled the strongest of the three scents I tried. I really liked this scent and would recommend it to anyone looking for an out of the ordinary, sweet, fruity blend.

Grand Vanilla

“A bold, sweet scented French vanilla with smooth overtones. A favorite of vanilla lovers.”

This was quite a nice vanilla. It was just what I would expect from a standard vanilla, which actually makes it all the more unique. With all of the different versions of vanilla, and vanillas blended with other scents, this simply, pure smelling vanilla was a welcome change. It didn’t smell particularly bakery-like, nor was it perfumed or sexy. Grand Vanilla is a straight up, solid, basic vanilla, and was welcomed with opened arms around here.

This scent caters to the vanilla purist, and that is just fine with me. It was refreshing to smell a true vanilla with nothing added.

I found Grand Vanilla to be a light to medium scent. It was never overpowering… not bold enough to carry a large room , but lovely in my smaller rooms.

How did my candles from Clean Glow burn?

I was concerned about some tunneling at first with my candles. Considering the double wicking, I expected a strong melt pool to form right from the beginning. When the Grand Vanilla jar candle didn’t melt to the edges by the first hour, I wised up and put a standard jar topper on it. That worked beautifully so when the same thing happened with my rectangle jars, I fashioned some tinfoil around the outside top edge…worked like a charm.

After about fifteen minutes with a jar topper, each of my candles continued on to form perfect ½ inch deep melt pools that reached the edges and left the jar sides clean. My home was unusually cold during my first burns, which may have contributed to the very slight tunneling. I don’t know for sure…but this was my experience with these candles.

After the initial burn, each and every re-light gave me a great melt pool with no need for a topper. I had no further issues… in fact, the candles burned exceptionally well overall.

Closing to my review of Clean Glow Candles…

The Jewel and Signature collections of candles that I tried from Clean Glow Candles were absolutely gorgeous. It was so gratifying to try this candle company for the first time, and to be thrilled at first sight with the products… oohing and ahhing as each jar was pulled from the box. The labeling was smart looking… the jar shapes were interesting, the colored palm waxes looked amazing and the candles burned quite well overall. Everything was packaged with care that went above and beyond my expectations.

I enjoyed all three of the scents that I chose. There’s no denying that Black Currant & Nectarine was my favorite of this bunch, but all three offered something special and I am very curious about Clean Glow Candle’s other scents. As much as I enjoyed the scents, it was the way the bright, sparkly flames danced around the jars that really set these candles apart. I was drawn to these double wicked stunners like a moth to a flame.

Happy candle smelling!

~ Julia

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