Apple Scented Candles – Pure Integrity Candles

Apple scented candle review – Pure Integrity Candles

by Carolyn O’Conner

Scent Strength: Highly Scented

Introduction to my review of 5 Apple scented candles from Pure Integrity Soy Candles…

If you’re a long time visitor to CandleFind, you know I haven’t written a review for a while.  After finding Christina and seeing the awesome reviews she could write for your enjoyment, I let her take over the candle reviews so I could spend time on other important CandleFind things.  Anyway, I’m back and rarin’ to go!

Since apples and Fall go hand in hand to me, I thought an apple scent review would be really helpful for all of you.  When I was a kid, my mom used to take my sisters and I to an apple orchard in the Fall where we bought their freshly picked apples and their own homemade apple cider.  I just loved being outside at this place… we played in the leaves while the clear, cool Fall breeze whirled the smell of apples around us.  It was the best! Whenever we went, it just signaled the beginning of Fall to me.  Ok… enough of my memories… back to candles….

Lately, my favorite candles are from Pure Integrity Soy Candles. Any scent I’ve tried so far from this company has been very authentic and strong.  The candles don’t tunnel if you burn them correctly and most importantly, I don’t think they bother my allergies and asthma like some other candles do.Since I’ve been on a Pure Integrity kick, I was talking with Jeff, the president of the company, a few weeks ago.  He was telling me that his all-time favorite candle scent is apple, which is why there are so many apple scents available on their site.  They have 5 total apple scents! I’ve never come across so many apple scents on a candle site until now.  Anyway, when Jeff told me about his apple candles, a light bulb went off in my head.  I thought it would be fun to try all 5 scents and write one big old apple review for Fall.  So, that’s what I’ve been doing lately… my house has been smelling so “appley!”

Normally, I would never choose apples as my first scent of choice when buying candles.  I’m a big bakery fan and just love Vanilla and Cookie type scents, but I figured I should branch out so I can be a more well rounded candle expert… lol!  (I’m no expert… just a candle lover like you!)

The 5 apple scents from Pure Integrity that I’ve been burning are: Hot Mulled Cider, Macintosh Apple, Apple Crisp, Hot Apple Strudel and Apple Spice.  Do you think they offer enough apple scents? 🙂

What did my Apple scented candles look like?

All of my apple candles are in Pure Integrity’s 10oz. frosted jars with wooden lids.  You can see their 10 oz. jars in the photo to the left…the 10 oz is all the way to the right.  There are no labels on the jars.  I really like the simplicity of their candles… they’re very attractive and fit in nicely with my decor.  Each candle is double-wicked, which I just LOVE!  Double wicked candles look so pretty to me when lit.  Besides all the other pros, this is one big plus for me when it comes to candles from Pure Integrity.

How did my Apple Candles from Pure Integrity smell?

Hot Mulled Cider:

To kick off my first apple scent review from Pure Integrity, let’s take a look at the description of Hot Mulled Cider from their web site:

“A spicy bouquet of fresh mulled macintosh apples with a touch of cinnamon and clove. A wonderful warm reteat on a glorious, cool fall day.”

The most accurate thing in this description is the phrase “warm retreat.”  Ahh…this scent is SO comforting to me. It just warms me from the inside out.  It smells EXACTLY like a soothing cup of hot mulled cider.  The description from Pure Integrity says a “spicey bouquet.”  I can smell the spices a bit, but they do not dominate this scent by any means.

This candle has a strong scent throw.  To my pleasure, it filled my whole medium-size family room. The other day I was burning it for several hours before my husband came home from work.  He usually NEVER notices a scent that I’m burning unless it’s really strong, but he did notice this one.  He mentioned later that evening about smelling something good when he came home.  I was glad he spoke up because after being in the house all day with a candle, I start to get immune to the smell and it’s strength.  I was also happy about his comment because he comes home through the front door and I was burning this candle all day in the back of the house.  That just shows you how this warming scent can makes it’s way through the air!

Even though this scent is such a warm and comforting retreat for me, I was having a hard time picking out the individual “ingredients” in the scent, so I searched “hot mulled cider” on Google to see exactly what’s in it.  I noticed that the recipe includes brown sugar. Now that I know that, I can definitely pick it up in the scent.  I think the brown sugar contributes to the oh-so warm feeling I get from this scent.  To me, out of all the apple scents from Pure Integrity Soy Candles, this scent is best one for creating that cozy Fall feeling in the house!  This would be a very appropriate scent to have burning during any Fall or Halloween parties you plan on having.

Macintosh Apple:

If you want to try one of these apple scents from Pure Integrity, but you’re not really into bakery or cozy type scents, then I would definitely go with this one.  It’s SO strong and smells just like a bushel of crisp juicy, perfectly ripened Macintosh apples.  This candle stood out to me among the other apple scents as having the strongest scent throw of them all.  It packs a POWERFUL punch!  I lit this candle in a room adjacent to my kitchen, where I was burning their Hot Apple Strudel scent.  Hot Apple Strudel is strong, but Macintosh Apple just took over the air in my house! Pure Integrity definitely got this one right. Their scent description for Macintosh Apple is dead-on:

“The luscious refreshing scent of crisp, ever so fresh Macintosh apples. It is seriously like biting into a crisp, flavorful Macintosh apple. Brilliantly fruity!”

Apple Crisp:

I think this scent should be called “Apple Cinnamon” instead of Apple Crisp.  I’ve eaten my fair share of apple crisp and just love that brown sugary, crumb topping.  My nose just can’t find that part of an apple crisp in this scent and to me, that’s the best part! It might just be me, but I don’t think so.  Don’t get me wrong, this scent is really nice and strong, but it just doesn’t smell like an apple crisp to me.

The description of this scent of the Pure Integrity web site says:

“A lively, warm combination of oven baked apples with a hint of cinnamon.  Very soothing & appealing, especially on a cool fall day. Absolutely delectable!”

This description is totally consistent with what I’m smelling, it’s just the name that doesn’t fit.  This candle fills the air in my home with that naturally sweet smell of cooked apples… you know what I mean?  I hope so. It just doesn’t smell sugary.  This natural baked apple smell is the dominant part of this scent.

This is the second apple candle that I burned from Pure Integrity…Hot Mulled Cider being the first.  When this candle first filled the air in my home, I noticed right away that this scent smelled spicier than the Mulled Cider.  It’s not an overpowering smell of cinnamon though, just enough to compliment the apples.

As usual with all of my Pure Integrity candles, this scented candle is very strong.  It completely filled my family room and beyond.  I left the candle lit when I took my dog for a walk in my neighborhood (don’t do this at home folks!) and when I came back in my house, the scent greeted me in a big way.

Overall, this is a nice, strong scent for Fall that I’m sure a lot of you would enjoy if you like the combination of apples and cinnamon. Just be aware that you will not smell an apple crisp with that yummy crumb topping.  If you’re really after that apple crisp scent, this isn’t the candle for you.

Hot Apple Strudel:

As soon as I lit this candle for the first time and the scent started filling the air, I knew it was going to be one of my favorites among my apple candles.  At first, I thought it was sweeter than the other scents and that must be why I liked it so much.  Even though I thought it must be a sweetness I was smelling, this candle was still a mystery to me!  I was having such a hard time describing what I was sniffing every time I burned it.  I could tell it was obviously an apple scent, but it just had a totally different quality to it than the other apple candles I tried before this one.

I later learned from Teresa, at Pure Integrity Soy Candles, that Hot Apple Strudel has green apples in the scent.  That totally solved the mystery to me!  I realized it wasn’t a sweetness I was noticing, it was actually a tartness from the green apples.  I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on the tart quality of this scent before I talked to Teresa.  I guess with all of my apple candles, I just assumed that all of the scents were made to smell like red apples. I forgot about the other colors!

This is the only apple scent out of the 5 that has a tart note to it. I really enjoyed my Hot Apple Strudel… I think because it just smelled so different from the others.  If you prefer the smell of tart over sweet, I would go with this one.

Besides the green apples, Teresa also told me that this scent has cinnamon, nutmeg, a bit of dough/pastry and some kind of sweetener in it.  Ah-ha!  There is a bit of sweet!  I can pick up on a bit of spice, but not too much.  I can smell just a tad of the doughy, pastry part but it doesn’t stand out among everything else in the scent.  All the “ingredients” in Hot Apple Strudel just blend together in such harmony… making this a beautiful, tranquilizing experience for my nose and the rest of me.  🙂  I found myself breathing this strong scent in deep…over and over… I just couldn’t get enough!

Apple Spice

This was the last apple candle I burned from Pure Integrity Soy Candles. These are really nice candles, but I was so happy to burn my last one…after 4 apple scented candles in a row, by the time I got to this one, I was definitely on apple overload! 🙂 I’m so excited to try some other scents from this company just to give my nose a change from apples!

Ok…one more to go…I can do it!  (he he) Apple Spice is described on the Pure Integrity site as:

“Brilliantly fresh Macintosh apples beautifully combined with just a touch of cinnamon. A wonderfully subtle yet quiet fragrant choice.”

This scent stood out to me as the most authentic when it comes to smelling Macintosh apples from Pure Integrity candles….even more than their Macintosh Apple candle for some reason. I think what I like about it compared to their Macintosh apple scent is that it’s more subtle. By subtle, I don’t mean lightly scented. This candle really filled the air in a large room in my home with the refreshing scent of freshly picked Macintosh Apples. It’s just that this candle isn’t as forceful and as “in your face” as the their Macintosh Apple. It also just smells more real to me than their Macintosh Apple.

When I’m surrounded by this scent, my mind is transported to a clear, sunny Fall day. I envision being in the center of a beautiful apple orchard with a cool breeze blowing the refreshing scent of ripe, dark red apples around in air.

I can’t really pick up the dash of cinnamon in this scent. You might, but it’s obviously very, very light. I just love this candle… it just speaks Fall to me. If you love the fresh smell of Macintosh Apples, this is the candle for you. You won’t be disappointed.

How did my apple jar candles from Pure Integrity burn?

All of my apple candles burned very clean thanks to the soy wax Pure Integrity uses. They also burned even with no tunneling. Remember… to get an even burn each time you burn your candles, you should be allowing the wax to melt to the edges of the jar. I did this for all of my apple candles and got a level burn with no wax residue left on the sides of the jars. After wax cools with any Pure Integrity candles, it does crack and look “cratery” a bit on the surface, but that is just due to the natural soy wax. I don’t mind a bit since their candles smell so awesome and strong.

I did notice a couple times that my flames were smoking, but I think that happened when I forgot to trim my wicks. Be sure to keep your wicks trimmed to 1/4 of an inch and you’ll get no smoke from these candles. One of my favorite things about Pure Integrity Soy Candles, besides the awesome scents, is how clean they burn. I love that…no soot on my walls or in my lungs!

Overall opinion of my apple scented candles from Pure Integrity:

If you’re a fan of apples, I definitely recommend you try at least one of the apple scented candles from Pure Integrity Soy Candles. Even if you’re not a huge apple scent fan, like me, I would probably pick up one of these just because it’s Fall. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy them. I was! I’m really glad I broke out of my normal “bakery scent” habit to try these.

Out of all 5 apple scents, my favorites are Apple Spice and Hot Mulled Cider… they just spoke Fall to me the most. I also really enjoyed Apple Strudel a lot, but it didn’t smell like Fall to me as much as the Apple Spice and Cider scents did. It might to you though because Teresa told me it’s one of their top sellers for Fall.

Pure Integrity Soy Candles is without a doubt quickly becoming one of my all time favorite candle companies. The best part about my apple candles is that they all had a very real and strong scent. I just love how much their scents spread through the air in my home. I haven’t come across a candle yet from Pure Integrity with a weak scent throw! (I’ve tried a few of their other scents in addition to their apples.) The candles burn very clean, which I love, and they also just look so gorgeous when burning with the double wicks.

It’s so cool to me that Pure Integrity offers so many apple scented candles… especially since I know it’s because Jeff’s favorite scent is apple. As I said before, I don’t think you’ll find such a big selection of apple scents from most other candle companies. The only thing though that strikes me as odd is that none of my apple scents had that major bakery smell that I love. The Hot Apple Strudel did a little compared to the others, but not a lot. I think if Pure Integrity ever wanted to improve their line of apple scented candles, I would definitely suggest adding a true Apple Pie scent with that yummy crusty smell for the bakery fans out there like me… and maybe a touch of vanilla ice cream to top it off! 🙂 Ooooo… and maybe a Carmel Apple! Anyway, let me wipe off the drool and wrap this up…

To me, it just seems like the thing to do to burn apple scents in September when the air is getting cooler and you start getting the urge to bake some goodies and feel all cozy in your home. I guarantee if you burn one of these, your family will thank you for it. These scents just added such a beautiful, warm and comforting touch to my home during this exciting time of year when the season is about to change. So get to burning those apple scents from Pure Integrity Soy Candles… I hope you like them as much as I did. (On a side note, be sure to order one of their Vanilla candles… it’s amazing!)

Happy Fall!

~ Carolyn

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