**INFO** Site Slinging for Fragrances & Oils

A neighbor asked me something the other day and I referred her to a website I know of. She commented that she never would have found the site herself. True or not, it occurred to me that I do often run across some interesting and random sites when I am writing, blogging, or just looking for something myself. Why the heck have I not been sharing these sites with you guys? Dunno. So... here goes the first list of sites. (Understand that I can't endorse the quality of these sites so... use your noggin.)

Oh, and I came across most of these when I was looking for a fragrance oil featuring Tonka Bean. Now, down the rabbit hole we go:

• Scent Split is where you can check out buying decants of perfumes. Good idea for those who want to test a scent first, or already like a fragrance but can't afford the whole bottle. Their shipping speed is iffy. It can take at least a couple of weeks for items to arrive and, in the case I know of, the tracking information wasn't available. On the Plus side, they have a HUGE selection and they use glass vials/bottles for the fragrances which is better than plastic.
• Candle Science is where I landed next while looking for the Tonka oil. If I ever decide to make candles, this is going to be the first stop.
• Fragrance Buy is in Canada, but they offer "hard to find" and "niche" scents. They didn't have my Flori Roberts Gold, so...
• Lucky Scent caught my eye because they offer not just perfume but all types of fragrant items - bath stuff, candles, etc. IMO, the perfumes I checked on were pricier than I liked.
• Fragrance Original carries discontinued scents as well as current items. The site reminded me of the fragrance offerings at Burlington's Coat Factory. Prices were fair.
• Root American Made Candles is to candles what the other sites are to fragrances. The prices ranged from impressive to the out-of--my-range range. I like that they have smaller sized options in case you can't spend lots.

I'm adding a note about The Fragrance Shop because I have used them for years to buy fragrance oils. I love their original oil scents. At first, I was crazy about the Shalimar mimic oil that I got from them about 6 years ago, but the oil will degrade over time so I don't count on using it after about 6 or 7 months unless it's very well stored. Customer service is excellent and you can get very affordable sample bundle.

If anyone knows of any other relevant sites, do let me know. And if you know where I can find some Tonka Bean oil, really do let me know!

I will be back to do a review of Scent Splits once I receive my order from them...

Peace

--Free

Candle Love and Candle Hate

I'm taking a break from writing to vent about my recent experiences with some candles I ordered.

First, let me say that I love a good scented candle. I've got a thing about fragrance and scented candles are a cheap therapy for me. No matter how sick or depressed I feel, a nice fragrance can help my mood.

Now here's the thing: candles can be so expensive! I'm not 'fancy' like that. I don't need a candle that, ounce per ounce, costs more than my food for the week. That's a real thing. This one looks gorgeous, but is a 2.5 oz, single wick candle for thirty four dollars. 

Eek, right? I knew this was going to be pricey because the description reads like it's for a rare 'House of Somebody' perfume. It has notes of "black-currant leaves and Bulgarian roses". For that kind of money, it ought to have 'notes of the only flower of its kind'. On the Plus side, it is made in France. Oh, well, that makes all the difference except I'd be paying with Made In the USA dollars that I can't spare. If anyone would just like to send me one of these, though, I wouldn't be mad.

Truth be told, I can't even afford a large sized Yankee Candle candle because they cost almost as much as Frenchy up there!

Just $27.99

Yikes! It's a candle, people! I know it says "Vanilla Cupcake" but you can't actually eat it and, even if you could, that's more than I want to pay for one meal...

So... $30 candles are crazy out of my price range. I don't see myself spending that kind of money on a candle even if I won the Powerball. But I will sometimes spoil myself and go as high as $10 for a large candle. I will and I recently did.

This candle had great reviews on Amazon and I loved the idea of trying a Baby Powder scent.

The product description (obviously written by the Seller) made me oh so hopeful.

 And just in case I had second thoughts, the "highly scented" teaser was reiterated.

As a product reviewer, I like to trust other reviewers because they have (usually) no incentive to exaggerate, right? The reviews stacked up as all positive. One review was even titled "Make your friend weep with joy". I wept all right. I cried over my wasted $10 while I ate tuna and noodles for a week.

After I finished crying, I went back and checked reviews again.

 Oh, by the way, I'm the only 1-star reviewer...

(I won't go back into my whole rant about Amazon tightening up the rules about compensated reviews. I mean, at least I never rated a lousy item as something to weep over. Maybe they ought to crack down on non-comp reviewers...)

So anyway. I basically stuck this candle in my bathroom and only burn it with the door shut just before any company arrives. If I let it burn for about half an hour, it covers the smell of any cleaning products I've used.

Next,going back to my lemon-based scents, I tried this candle:

It smelled exactly as described but, again, they were stingy on fragrance oil. It smells strongest and best if I use it on a warmer so that's what I do. My apartment is small so, after about an hour, you start to notice that something smells delicious. This one also at least comes in a great looking jar that I will be able to reuse later for holding something decorative. Still, it's ten bucks for something that I could only give a 2-star review. Too bad that after that other candle I wasn't more trusting of reviews since more buyers agreed with me on this one about the too-light scent.

I have decided to never buy another candle without knowing the brand. I don't need to. I always have my favorite scent in affordable wax melts.

The smell is heavenly! Also, even though the price for a $10 5-pack of these is right in there with those other candles, this is still the better value. For one thing, the scent is stronger and lasts longer so I only need to use 2 of these in a warmer. They will last at full strength for about 3 days before I have to add another single cube. In winter, I will put the used cubes in a glass jar and set them near a heating vent in the bedroom for a light fragrance. Finally, I will toss the old cubes into the bottom of my trash cans under the trash bag. Yeah, I'm frugal and will get all the juice out of these! Another plus is that, if I don't want to spend ten dollars, I can get 1 pack for two dollars.

You get 5 o these packs for $10 delivered to your door!

I can't even begin to describe how delicious this scent is. When one of my nieces visited Alaska and came in my room, she fell in love with the fragrance. I ran right out and bought her a pack to take back home with her. Now that I live here, I order most of my home goods (including groceries) from Walmart.com and the delivery people always tell me how good my apartment smells. One of the delivery people said they were going to look for the same "candle" the next time they were at the store. They were a little surprised when I told them I can get these at the local Walmart for two bucks.

By the way, I have tried a couple other Scentsationals scents. This is my all-time favorite, of course, and I like one called "Egyptian Cotton" which sets a romantic mood. My niece likes the duo packs from Scentsationals. That's where half the cubes in a pack are of one scent and the other is another compatible scent. Me, I will just stick with my lemons!

By the way, while I love Amazon, I would never buy my Scentsationals there. Walmart has the best prices so..

If any of you know of any other wonderful lemon or lemon-vanilla candles or melts, please let me know. They must be affordable and accessible.

Peace
--Free