**REVIEW** ScentSationals (scented wax)

If you ever wanted a simple way to brighten, enhance or lift your mood, you have to try ScentSationals wax melts. This one is my all-time favorite right here:

I've also tried some others and this is another fave:

The Iced Lemon Sugar Cookie (ILSC) scent is so fresh and calming that I have driven across town to other Walmart locations to stock up. I told a friend of mine that the fragrance is better than a Valium. I'm not kidding. I am beginning to think that I might be addicted to the scent.

Not long ago, I tried one of the Burt's Bees wax melts. What a disappointment. First of all, like most things from Burt's Bees, the item was overpriced. The scent was amazing though. Until I tried to use it. I still can't figure out how something that smelled so good in the container could lose every hint of fragrance as soon as it started to warm. I mean, there was NOTHING fragrant coming from that wax once you moved your nose more than half an inch from the warming pot.

If you think I'm being harsh about Burt and his bees, I'm not the only one who was underwhelmed by the wax melts. The next time I was in the store to pick up some more of those fabulous ScentSationals, another customer and I discussed our disgust with Burt's wax melts. She said that she'd actually bought more than one scent, and had even bought one of the candles. In her opinion, the candle was slightly better than the melts - but only very slightly. She had returned all the unused items. Like me, she was sticking with the more affordable lines. (By the way, her favorite are the melts from Better Homes and Gardens. They are about the same price as my faves so I tried out one. Not bad, but I haven't seen a lemon scent to match the ILSC!)

(NOTE: I have no idea what's up with the Better Homes site.)

I used the ILSC in my room and in the trailer because that's where I spend most of my time. I have used the other fragrances in the family bathroom. It's nice that the bathroom always smells pleasant (without anyone having to call attention to themselves by spraying away odor or running the fan), but it's tricky to choose a scent. The guys in the family don't want anything "girly" (seriously, this is what they'd say), but none of us want anything too strong or pronounced. What I ended up doing was choosing from the line of "Refreshing" scents. Tea, Fresh Air, and Rainy Day are the light fragrances we can all enjoy. Those are the kinds of scents that they guys in our family would use in their cars.

One of the things I love most about ScentSationals (other than the wonderfully affordable price) is that the fragrance lasts and lasts and lasts. If I melt three of the cubes on High, I can get a good 2 full days use at full strength. The fragrance does start to wane a bit after that and I've learned to use the Low setting if I want to get another couple of days use from the melts. I used to just dump the depleted (and cooled) wax in the trash basket to freshen it. Lately, I will save some of the used wax in a spare jar. When I'm at my monthly budget limit for household things, I will stick a tea light candle in the scented wax. There's usually a little bit of scent left and tea-lights are nice for setting a relaxing mood. (By the way, I was going to take a photo, but I am also out of tealights. Dangit!**)

Another way to use these wax melts is to store the unopened containers in your dresser drawers. Basically, use them as sachets until you get ready to use them in a warming pot, My mother used to give me little powder sachets to put in my dresser when I was starting to mature. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

This next tip for freshening your car can be tricky so try it at your own risk. I'm just sharing my experiences and yall now that I have had some blips in life...  Put one of the wax melts in some kind of small container (preferably glass or thick plastic) with a lid and leave it half open in your car. Of course, this works well on warm summer days. In cooler weather, you'll have to rely on the car's running heater/warmth. It's still nice. For containers, I have cleaned out some makeup jars and such.

One of the highlights of my life is going to the store with DJ to pick up our ScentSationals. I make it part of my monthly grocery shopping routine. DJ likes to pick out at least three or four scents to smell. His verdict is either"Eww! NO!" or "\Yum. I like this one." He doesn't even care that I mostly only get the ILSC scent. We can spend a good fifteen minutes on that aisle, testing different scents. Last month, the closest Walmart was out of ILSC so DJ chose these from Better Homes to try instead:

Nice but not lemony enough

I told him I didn't like it, but he said we should try it. Okay. Turns out, it wasn't anywhere as lemony as our favorite. When we went back to the store a couple weeks ago and saw that scent, DJ goes, "You were right, BooBoo. That one... No, no, nooo." LOL (You have to see now why it so NOT sad that spending time with this kid is a highlight of my life.)

By the way, don't forget that the Better Homes and Gardens wax melts are just about the same price (at Anchorage Walmarts at least) as the ScentSationals. The local price is about $2.30 for the pack with 6 cubes.


Now, I have to mention that the website doesn't make it easy to find your favorites but once you do, there is a nice comparism feature. When I first checked the site for my ILSC scent, I had to use the Search function. Before that I was checking under the wrong categories: Tropical, Garden, etc. The Iced Lemon Sugar Cookies is actually under "Delectables". Okay.

I got extremely frustrated when I added a ton of scents to the "compare" list only to have them disappear. Guess what? I forgot to set up an account. Actually, I don't want an account. I don't want to order online and wait for deliveries when I can just pick items up at the store. Grrrr... Okay, so I established an account only so I could use the Compare feature.

Turns out the Compare feature is pretty useless. I loved the description of the Iced Lemon Sugar Cookies:

"Deliciously baked lemon, lime blend of pure sweet coconut milk and sugar with light notes of vanilla extract."

Yum, right? So I wanted to compare other scents to see what I might like in the same range. This is what I get from the description of Red Velvet Cake:

"Red Velvet Cake
2 oz"

Yeah. That tells me all of nothing.

The site might be useless for anything other than getting a list of scents but, hey, I'd rather follow my nose anyway. I can always ask local stores to order the scents I like

Other than the categories of fragrances (Tropical, Romantic, etc), there's also something called "Fusion" for mixing and matching. By the way, I usually get the 6-cube item (and you can see from the photo that they are a good size for smaller warming pots), but both the Scentsationals and the Better Homes melts come in larger amounts ("value packs") and in con sets:

Finally, I noticed that the scents are cheaper at the local Walmart than they are from the website. Just saying.

Peace
--Free


** If you want to know why I'm out of tealights & can't get more.... Wait for my next review! LOL