Calling all Yankee candle devotees

[madaunty]

Think I be missing something here. have never succumbed to the hype until a couple of weeks ago, when they caught me at a weak moment and I ordered the "favourites small jar set" (they were on easy pay, so I though I'd give them a whirl.) Well, they duly arrived, and - my, they are SMALL aren't they.Took the lids of them all and got OH to have a sniff to see if he could I.D any of the smell. The only one he came anywhere near was the roses one, so not a great start.
So far I have tried 3 of them - the sweet pea hardly gives any aroma at all, had a little more success with the baby powder, but even that seems to have worn off. Currently giving the Clean Cotton a whirl and that doesn't seem to be doing much either. To be frank, I'm getting more of a whiff of fresh washing from the ironing pile.
Is this because they are small jars, do you get more "whiff" with the bigger ones?.
Nothing wrong with my sense of smell, live in a small flat and neither of us smoke.
Have also noted that on the literature that comes with them, it says not to burn the last 1.5cm of wax as jar may shatter! As these small ones only have about 4cm of wax in them, this means a third of them are going to go to waste.
Will try the other scents this weekend, but it looks like these will be going back.
I may try for a prepaid label as to my mind they've been falsely described - have never heard the presenters say you can't burn all the wax.
Normally buy the small "Glade" candles from the dreaded supermarket and they make the whole flat smell lovely.

 

[lilylurknomore]

Think I be missing something here. have never succumbed to the hype until a couple of weeks ago, when they caught me at a weak moment and I ordered the "favourites small jar set" (they were on easy pay, so I though I'd give them a whirl.) Well, they duly arrived, and - my, they are SMALL aren't they.Took the lids of them all and got OH to have a sniff to see if he could I.D any of the smell. The only one he came anywhere near was the roses one, so not a great start.
So far I have tried 3 of them - the sweet pea hardly gives any aroma at all, had a little more success with the baby powder, but even that seems to have worn off. Currently giving the Clean Cotton a whirl and that doesn't seem to be doing much either. To be frank, I'm getting more of a whiff of fresh washing from the ironing pile.
Is this because they are small jars, do you get more "whiff" with the bigger ones?.
Nothing wrong with my sense of smell, live in a small flat and neither of us smoke.
Have also noted that on the literature that comes with them, it says not to burn the last 1.5cm of wax as jar may shatter! As these small ones only have about 4cm of wax in them, this means a third of them are going to go to waste.
Will try the other scents this weekend, but it looks like these will be going back.
I may try for a prepaid label as to my mind they've been falsely described - have never heard the presenters say you can't burn all the wax.
Normally buy the small "Glade" candles from the dreaded supermarket and they make the whole flat smell lovely.

As a bit of a candle connoisseur :happy: yes I think it's because they're small candles that they don't whiff much. The bigger they are the more they smell, once the wax has spread right the way across. Those ones with two or three wicks smell the most. Having said all that, (now here comes the science bit), our noses only smell stuff (stuff being the technical term) for about 40 mins, after that we get used to it. If you go out the room for a while and then go back into the room with the candle alight in you will smell it again. So unless you're happy to keep doing that, the smell will 'disappear' after a while regardless of the size of the candle. Also some of them smell stronger than others. I have found the light colours or water ones don't seem to have much of a scent in the first place.

Also that spiel about not letting the candle burn right down, is probably more to cover themselves incase it does shatter. I've had probably hundreds of YC's and not one of them has ever shattered. If you do want to take note of their warning, you could always chop up the remaining wax and put it in a tart burner to get the most out of it.

Another tip, always have the wick trimmed as short as poss to avoid the smoking as it really knackers your ceiling and paintwork with sooty marks over time.

Phew... bet you wish you hadn't asked now. :happy:

 

[queenie]

I agree with above post,had loads of candles,none ever shattered,usually burn themselves out at the end
never had a prob not smelling them either!

 

[Beading Belle]

Another YC fan here and I haven't had any problems with the glass shattering or with their smell. I normally only burn medium or large jars so that could be the case.

 

[rosey]

I too only burn the medium and large ones as I find the small ones are not enough to scent a whole room.

Some scents are also stronger than others so it will depend on which you have. And also as said above you cannot always smell them whilst you are in the room but if you go out and back in again you can smell them.

I also burn them right till the bottom - till they won't light anymore and have had no problems.

 

[star234]

Also love yankee candle and agree with everything others have said. I only light the little ones if I sit near them in the conservatory, otherwise they are just a light ornament with the shade on they look quiet pretty I think.

 

[Catkins]

Whilst I have you Yankee experts here can you please help me with a problem (candle related I promise!!)

I love medium jar candles but I can NEVER get the wax to burn to the edge of the jar. I had a Stargazer Lily one and burned it for 5 hours and it still hadn't melted to the sides of the jar and now its tunnelling like anything. I have one more of these candles but an reluctant to use it incase the same thing happens again.

Any suggestions?

 

[star234]

sorry no idea at all. I occasionally get it where the wax does not melt quiet all the way down and I just sort of push it down a little so maybe I nip it in the bud before it starts? But that only happens towards the bottom anyway. Sorry catkins, not being any help at all here

 

[Dippy One]

Catkins I've got the same problem going on at the moment with a large Macintosh Spice jar I bought last week. I need advice too.

Think I'm going to just carry on using wax tarts from now on.

 

[silversequin]

I too sucumbed and bought this set as I wanted to try Yankee candles and was drawn in by the easy pay. I live in a little two up two down terrace and am finding that the fragrance is reasonably strong, so maybe it is to do with size. Like them but not blown away, so might try a larger one when I have worked out which is my favourite fragrance. I am burning them one by one, am on the sweet pea to start with.

 

[lilylurknomore]

Whilst I have you Yankee experts here can you please help me with a problem (candle related I promise!!)

I love medium jar candles but I can NEVER get the wax to burn to the edge of the jar. I had a Stargazer Lily one and burned it for 5 hours and it still hadn't melted to the sides of the jar and now its tunnelling like anything. I have one more of these candles but an reluctant to use it incase the same thing happens again.

Any suggestions?

A nice reply. :happy:

This is the reason why I've gone mainly over to tarts. Whenever they say let your candle burn for 2-3 hours so that the wax reaches the edge, it's baloney as it ALWAYS takes longer than that. I have found to be on the safe side, if you've got a med/large candle and you know you're going to be indoors all day, light it in the morning and that way you can be sure that the wax will hit the side. I know... not helpful, if you want to light it in the evening, but it can take 6-7 hours!

If you do start getting that tunnelling as it hasn't hit the sides, then once it starts it's really hard to get it to melt throughout so what I've found is if you wait for the candle to cool completely and get a shart knife and cut away all the wax from the edges so that you've got a flat surface again. Use the wax you cut away in tart burners and it helps to put the candle on a piece of paper or something when you're doing that as little wax pieces seem to get out!

It's a faff and easier with tart warmers IMO.

 

[Rebus]

This may seem like a silly question.....
Not having used tarts, does the wax ever 'burn' away or does the fragrance just fade over time and then you discard and start over? Some of the tart warmer TSV's look really pretty but I have stuck with twin wick candles from Boundary Mill - only £12.70 compared to QVC plus no P&P! Thanks folks.

 

[Dippy One]

Lilylurknomore that was a great response. Reading your post has made me feel mad towards the manager of my yankee store even though I never bought my large candle from her I went to her for advice on burn times and she told me 4 hours , I then purchased a small Sandlewood jar and she told me to burn that for 2 HOURS so it goes to the side , it only took 25 mins to reach the sides. I'm going to take the wax from the side of my large jar and melt that in my tart burner.

Rebus The fragrance from the wax tarts fades with time.

 

[Marzy]

Home Store And More have Yankee candles at 50% discount for the month of August.
The store near me(Dublin) always has a wonderful selection.

 

[lilylurknomore]

This may seem like a silly question.....
Not having used tarts, does the wax ever 'burn' away or does the fragrance just fade over time and then you discard and start over? Some of the tart warmer TSV's look really pretty but I have stuck with twin wick candles from Boundary Mill - only £12.70 compared to QVC plus no P&P! Thanks folks.

Nope they never burn away the scent just fades. Another reason why I'm onto the tarts, the candles seem to last too long, I get fed up with the smell after a while.

 

[boffy]

i have found that the candles vary in the time it takes for it to liquidify. some candles take ages to melt others take a few hours more. it depends on the colour of the wax and the candles its not a standard thing.

also some of the wicks are differing in sizes and this affects the burn time.:thinking:

 

[Beading Belle]

Whilst I have you Yankee experts here can you please help me with a problem (candle related I promise!!)

I love medium jar candles but I can NEVER get the wax to burn to the edge of the jar. I had a Stargazer Lily one and burned it for 5 hours and it still hadn't melted to the sides of the jar and now its tunnelling like anything. I have one more of these candles but an reluctant to use it incase the same thing happens again.

Any suggestions?

sorry no idea at all. I occasionally get it where the wax does not melt quiet all the way down and I just sort of push it down a little so maybe I nip it in the bud before it starts? But that only happens towards the bottom anyway. Sorry catkins, not being any help at all here

That would be my tip too! Different frangrances take different time to burn. It also depends on the size of the wick. Always trim it dowm befor lighting. I use back of a pencil to push the sides down if they haven't melted and have had no problems with tunneling.

But as Llk as said you can cut the excess wax off and use it as a tart too. HTH

 

[Akimbo]

Am I the only person who finds all yankee candles overpowering before I even light them? I have tarts in a drawer inside a cupboard and I can still smell them when I walk past I also have a couple of jar candles (varying sizes) which are still sealed and they smell strong to me. A couple of large jars (lavender and freesia) I couldn't bear to leave them burning long enough to avoid tunnelling (good top about poking the sides down while the wax is soft TY) and sold them at a car boot....(half burnt yankees seem to sell v well if you don't know what to do with scents you don't like)

The TSV is almost tempting if they're less powerful but I'm not going to risk the postage. Agree with SCW, it's nice to see something other than freshcut roses (migraine) or cotton (persil) or the other usual suspects.

Tarts work best for me - I can use a quarter of a tart for a few minutes and then unplug my tart warmer...my current v small stock pile should last me years!

Frugal Jude xx

 

[Catkins]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I think I'll stick to tarts in future as this seems to be the easiest way to go.

Liliylurknomore your response was very nice thank you, very well explained and both informative and humorous!!:cheeky::cheeky::cheeky:

 

[boffy]

a small dinner knife solution

anather way to make the candles burn evenly is to use a small dinner knife while the candle is burning and is quite liquid and cut small notches around the edge so it looks a bit like a pie. 1cm apart should do it. i wriggle the knife a little.

the liquid wax rushes in to the little channels and allows the stubborn edges to melt and blend with the central wax pool.

you will find that some wax is more firmer than others and needs this cutting along the edge as a last resort .hope this helps also.:wave: