by Christina Rylan
Brand: Unwined Candles
Type: 11oz wine bottle containers
Fragrances: Eastern Amber
5 O’Clock Somewhere
Cost: $20.00
Scent Strength: Medium to soft
Introduction to my Unwined Candle review:
This is a really cool site with such an interesting name. Unwined… once you understand the concept, it’s really rather ingenious, especially if you are the ultimate recycler. How so? All their glass containers are reused wine bottles. No lids, just simple sliced in half recycled wine bottles. Is that cool or what? Sounds weird but it works and 
the style is very natural and rustic.
Now for the site design… love it!! It’s straightforward, sharp, simplistic and very easy to navigate. And I love their pictures, super sharp, crisp and totally stand out.
Their candles are all soy and are only offered in one size (for obvious reasons) – I’m not sure on the exact ounces since it’s not listed on the label nor on their site (that I could find) but I’m guessing around 11-12 ounces. They offer 15 scents total with special seasonal scents as well. It was really hard deciding which scents to review but I finally decided on Eastern Amber and 5 O’Clock Somewhere. Eastern Amber came highly recommended by the owner Dave Neith and 5 O’Clock Somewhere because that name was too cute to pass up.
What did my candles look like?
The pictures pretty much say it all but just to fill in some more space… the glass container is a cut off (varied colored) recycled wine bottle. The top edge is smoothed out and polished. You can tell it’s been cut with a teeny bit of rough edges but I didn’t mind that at all… it just adds to the whole rustic/natural look. The candles have one thick woven cotton wick perfectly centered. My Eastern Amber had creamy white wax…. 5 O’Clock Somewhere was a pretty dark peach color. The candles have two craft colored labels wrapped around the glass. The main label has the company logo and scent name… the back label goes into a little description on the company as well as some burning tips and warning info. My candles came very well packaged and insulated for shipping. Each candle sat inside a thick craft box with peanuts surrounding it for protection and then placed inside a bigger shipping box with a ton more peanuts for insulation. Love that! Nothing worse than receiving an order with poor packing materials. No chance of that here. A+ on shipping for sure.
What did my Unwined Candles smell like?
Eastern Amber
I’m usually not into the exotic type scents. I’m a bakery/fruity gal all the way but I also like to jump out of my comfort zone when reviewing and decided to give this one a try. Verdict just on cold sniff? Amazing! I don’t even know where to begin describing this scent but just based on the initial cold sniff, it’s unlike any Amber scent I’ve ever smelled.
When I received my package and unpacked this candle, I had it sitting on my desk till I was ready to begin this review and just the lingering aroma from the candle (unlit) kept distracting me. I would get whiffs of a sweet cloying vanilla and I kept picking up the candle to smell it deeper. I was sold and hadn’t even lit it yet.
Description from Unwined Candles site:
“Experience the enticing and complex herbal aroma of Eastern Amber. A rich base of Vanilla, musk, and 
sandalwood is livened up with a subtle hints of jasmine, lavender and orange.”
I love reading scent descriptions first before lighting my candles so I can compare what is described vs. what I’m actually smelling. The description is pretty accurate. Eastern Amber is a smooth, sexy and creamy vanilla, heavy doses of the sexy. Vanilla definitely dominates this scent which I LOVED (I am a huge vanilla fan)… the musk and sandalwood added an exotic and sensual dimension to the overall scent so it’s definitely not a boring fragrance. It’s very alluring. I couldn’t really make out the jasmine or lavender – which was fine by me since I’m not really a fan of either but I could make out a subtle touch of orange. Mmmm, very yummy scent and think it would be incredible in bath and body. (Dave – hint hint) I’m sure this one is considered unisex but I really think women will go crazy over it more than men. (in B&B anyway)
Scent strength? This candle gave a soft to medium throw so if you’re after strength, try burning this one in a smaller room. I had it burning in my large master bathroom and the scent was perfect. Not super strong but you could smell it the moment you walked into the room. Smooth, sexy and very enticing. Highly recommend Eastern Amber, especially if you’re a vanilla lover.
5 O’Clock Somewhere
This one I had to try just from the name alone. Not to give excuses but I have kids, a teenage girl and 2 rambunctious and mischievous boys… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “it’s 5 O’Clock somewhere” to justify a glass of wine (or 2). ((((shrugging-smiling)))) Scent description 
from Unwined Candles site:
“5 O’Clock Somewhere is just what you’ll need after a long day. Classically tropical pineapple, orange, and cranberry mix perfectly with subtle yet enticing notes of peach schnapps and vodka for a candle that is bold and sweet.”
This scent smells amazing cold. Totally amazing! Sweet orange and pineapple with a bit of fizz or something. It almost tickles your nose when you smell it up close. Not sure about the peach schnapps or vodka, to me, this is a super creamy/fruity sweet orange smoothie kind of scent. The hot throw smells exactly as it does cold so the scent doesn’t change at all burning. I LOVED this scent. My only complaint is that I wish it were stronger. This candle gave a pretty soft throw so it performed perfect in a small room. I would have been swooning if it were stronger.
How did my candles burn?
Both candles started out perfect and I had zero wick maintenance. A great tip for you if you purchase these candles, every morning when I would relight them, I had to hold the flame to the wick for a long time to get it to catch so don’t get discouraged if you think your candles aren’t lighting. They will, you just have to give it a bit to get the flame to catch hold. So forget matches, you need a long lighter for these. Once lit, they burned great. Clean burns.
Overall opinion of my candles:
I had a great experience over all with Unwined Candles. I thought it was a neat experience to burn candles from reused wine bottles. I’m not much of a recycler but even I thought that was pretty cool. Reading up on it more, they have a link on their site on “recycling partners” so you can see where they get their wine bottles for their candles. I think that is SOOOOO cool!!!! And aside from the cool factor, I really enjoyed both fragrances I tried. Eastern Amber was by far my favorite and gave a nice steady throw – very soothing scent, loved loved this one. 5’Oclock Somewhere, awesome as well – but I wish it would have been stronger. This was a 
scent I would have loved super strong saturation and to me the throw was pretty mild.
I’m sure I’ll be back for more… I’m intrigued enough to try some of their other scents and with Christmas around the corner, we’re talking perfect giftables. I already have a few wine and candle loving friends lined up who’ll be getting some of these beauties.
I do recommend this company and think their candles would make awesome gifts. Just keep in mind, I have a feeling these candles are not room fillers so try burning these candles in smaller rooms at first and then go from there.
Two thumbs up for sure.
Happy Candle Burning!
~ Christina
Have you tried candles from Unwinded Candles? Review them with us. In the comment section below, review and star rate your experience… it’s easy!
