by Andrea Haskins
Company: Randall’s Candles
Type: Glass Jars
Clamshell melts
Scents: Pine Forest
Holiday Wassail
Captivating Currant
Scent Strength: Varied
Introduction to my review of Randall’s Candles:
Randall’s Candles & More is one of those places that’s been on my ever growing ‘to-try’ list. A family-owned business in North Syracuse, New York. They offer a variety of soy wax products to entice the nose. Here you can find jar candles, travel tins, tealights, tarts, and votives… even a soy candle making kit! How cool is that?!?
When first visiting the website, you are greeted with a serene blue banner with several lit tapers on display. You’ll also find photos of some of the products available… a nice tease! The website is not cluttered ”“ more simplistic for a calming type of atmosphere. This puts you in the candle shopping mood right away. You can navigate the website easily with the left-hand side menu. Looking for the scent list? You’ll find the link on the left-hand side, which opens up a Word document. This is not something I was expecting, but it did make saving the scent descriptions I was interested in a lot easier. There is a nice selection of scents from which to choose ”“ most should find something to tickle their fancy.
What did my candles/melts from Randall’s look like?
My Pine Forest jar candle was a large sized (18oz?) apothecary jar with a heavy lid. My jar did not have a store label on front, but the candles shown on the website show an oval label with store & scent name identified. The bottom of my jar had a small clear label with the scent name and also the typical candle warning label. This jar had two wicks, which was really good for this size jar. The soy wax was creamy and hunter green in color.My Holiday Wassail candle was also the large, two-wick apothecary jar. There was an identification label on front of this candle ”“ just as appears on the website. The label was not easily removable, but I believe the label could be removed with a little elbow grease if that’s important to you. The wax color was a pretty holiday red.
The clamshell tarts I tested were scented in Captivatingly Currant (burgundy). The clamshell cavities were filled to the top which was very nice to see. There was a white sticker label on the outside of the clamshell package, identifying the company and scent name. There was even a cute graphic of currants overflowing on a tablespoon ”“ a nice touch.
What did my candles/melts from Randall’s smell like?
Pine Forest
Pine Forest had a strong pine scent on cold sniff… a nice, authentic smell without any artificial notes. Here’s the description from the website:
“A very woodsy and heavy, green pine odor.”
When burning, it gave off a pure pine scent ”“ very woodsy, earthy, and clean. Almost like putting your nose right up to a bunch of pine needles. The scent was fairly strong as it completely filled the room I was burning it in. I wanted to see what would happen if I burned it for several hours at a time…ok, reality is I fell asleep… but after several hours the candle scent was permeating the air in other parts of the house. The only downside was I noted a weird undertone that I could not put my finger on. It did not keep me from enjoying this candle, but I certainly could have done without that underlying scent.
Holiday Wassail
pleasant scent for my nose. The scent description given is:
Oh boy… this is a scent I really love and crave year round. The festive holiday punch with just the right mix of fruits and spices makes for a“A warm and zesty punch popular during the Christmas holidays. A fabulous blend of mulled apple cider, touches of pineapple with a pinch of sweet orange citrus totally engulfed with spicy cinnamon and cloves!”
Another great cold sniff for this candle… fairly strong and a fruity kind of sweetness. The actual burn for the candle gave me similar results along with the mix of spices swirling around. Clove and cinnamon are scents that can be overpowering, but not so with this mix. I should note that I got a similar undertone with this candle. Not enough to make burning the candle unpleasant, but enough to make me notice it was there.
Captivating Currant:
I usually find this to be a strong, sweet scent and this version from Randall’s was no exception. From the website:
“True sweet and tart red currant! SUPER STRONG.”
Well, what can I say about that description? True, true and TRUE! The cold sniff was more sweet than tart and reminded me somewhat of a sugary bubblegum. But it was in the melting that the true scent came to life ”“ wow! As this melted, I thought immediately of yummy currants ripe for the picking. The scent throw was amazingly strong and remained so for several hours. I was very pleased with this scent and I’m happy to report there was no underlying tone here.
How did my candles/melts from Randall’s perform?
The Pine Forest jar took a little while to form a complete melt pool, but I’m not surprised given the candle size with the wide mouth. After it burned for a couple of hours, I did get an almost complete melt pool ”“ there was a
small rim of wax hugging one side of the jar. I did not have to fuss over the wicks with this candle ”“ I could leave the candle burning for hours and not have smoking or sooting. Gotta love that!! There was a similar performance for the Holiday Wassail Candle.
The wax melts melted well in both a tealight melter and in an electric (14W) burner. The wax is fairly soft so it completely melted each time. I did not have difficulty with wax removal when I was ready to change ”“ I either poured out the wax while hot or popped it into the freezer for a few minutes. Then viola!
Final thoughts:
I’m happy I was finally able to try Randall’s Candles and satisfy my
curiosity. There is plenty available here – product wise and scent wise. Enough to keep most scent addicts such as myself busy for a while. While I enjoyed the scent authenticity and throw of each of the products I tested, I was most pleased with the wax melts. I would suggest you head on over to Randall’s and check it out yourself. Just noticed they’re now offering free shipping with $30 or more… that’s a great deal!
Until our noses meet again!
~ Andrea
