OS Candles Review by Orchard Street Designs
By Avery Jordan
Brand: Orchard Street Designs
Type: 2 and 8 oz sizes
Fragrances: Kurant, Sand and Black Coconut
Scent Strength: Moderate (strong for votives)
First impression of Orchard Street Designs:
One of the many joys reviewing for Candlefind is the opportunity to explore new to me candle companies I would never normally try. One such company I’ve had the pleasure to experience – Orchard Street Designs. They offer two sizes to keep shopping simple, 2 or 8-ounce vessels, small and large. The candles themselves are simple in design but have a sleek luxury feel to them so they’re perfect for everyday burning as well as gift giving.
As for me, I do love the style of these candles! The OS logo is a little whimsical in appearance with the “S” reminding me of a candle flame – clever! As a huge fan of candlescapes, I can already picture a grouping of these candles together –the black logo fitting in to both an elegant display as well as a seasonal arrangement at Halloween – dare I say the “OS” logo could also look a little mystical in this setting? Sold! See how easy I am to please? Lol!
In this review, I’m testing 3 of their votive “mini” size soy-based candles. We normally don’t like reviewing super small sizes like this since it can be difficult to test and gauge candles this small but I’m giving it a go anyway. The problem with small candles is they often don’t give the serious throw we scent addicts require, especially when reviewing. Simple science, right? You can however use smaller sizes such as these as testers before investing a lot of money in a bigger size, so they do have their allure.
Okay, time to move on to the three fragrances I picked. Here we go!
First thing I noticed right away, the votives emitted a mild scent (as expected) so in my small powder room they went. Once burning, the strength stayed light for about an hour but when I went back to check at hour 2 – WOW! What a change! I decided to extinguish these lil’ guys and move them to a little bigger space (my laundry room) to see how they would do, a room twice the size as my powder room. They were giving off more scent that I expected. How did they do? Great! The added benefit – the scent lingers after they go out!
The fragrances:
Kurañt
Scent description:
Red Currant, Raspberry, Strawberry, Jasmin, Rose, Green, Woody, Herbaceous, Lilac.
I’m a big fan of red currant. While the description lists a pretty complex scent blend, I mainly smelled the red currant. It was maybe a tad sweeter to me than the typical red currant, (I’m guessing with the help of the strawberry,) and some woodiness with a deep inhale, but the other fragrance notes really did not leap out at me. Overall, I liked it. It is a keeper!
Sand
Scent description:
Fresh clean scent with a hint of a beach sand fragrance.
Hmmm… I was totally expecting a suntan lotion type smell, I guess because I saw the word “sand.” Once burning, I realized they really nailed the fragrance description! Smelling the aroma throughout the day, it was a nice blend and a definite ocean fragrance but with just a nice hint of that suntan lotion note I initially thought about. Coconut maybe? Although what I smelled wasn’t really “sand,” it was still bright, fresh and beachy. A hard scent to describe and one I recommend you trying yourself to see what I mean. All in all, this was another good one that pleasantly surprised me!
Black Coconut
Scent description:
A warm sensual coconut scent with a hint of Heliotropin, blended with Vanilla beans from Madagascar and Tonka Beans from the valley of Orinoco.
I’m not generally a fan of tonka beans but I’m always game to try something new, so here we go. The rest of the description sounded interesting so why not?
This candle starts out as a soft, light coconut fragrance. After it was burning for a while, the scent developed more, and I really started to smell the tonka bean and vanilla. It’s funny how the fragrance changed with a little time. It started out a little powdery and doing a little research, I found that Heliotropin can have a powdery note. After a couple hours of burning, the coconut was strong, and it was not a buttery coconut – more like a toasted coconut. I really, really liked this scent after it had been burning a few hours, and the dreaded Tonka Bean was not obvious to me at all! I highly recommend this one.
How did my little candles burn?
No problems at all! No soot, no tunneling! Perfect in my book!
Wrap up!
Score! These OS candles were wonderful little surprises and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to try a few. I picked three fragrances and ended up enjoying them all. That doesn’t happen very often, and with that said, now I’m looking forward to trying more. This company doesn’t carry a plethora of fragrances but what they do carry seem to be well thought out and I can appreciate that. 
Care to give this company a try? For stronger scenting, I would do a grouping of several minis, or if you want to keep it simple – just go for the larger 8 oz. size! I think that’s what I’m going to do next time. The mini’s however are perfect for smaller rooms so don’t discount those when you’re shopping. I burn candles in my bathrooms all the time.
Happy candle shopping!
~ Avery
Presentation: 5/5
Authenticity: 5/5
Burn Performance: 5/5
Strength: 4/5 (Rated in a small room)
Overall Rating: 4.75/5
