My Favorite Candles from Personalization Mall and Amazon

I can definitely call myself candle aficionado. I love scented candles any time of the year and keep an eye out for them anywhere I go. For example, when I visit Home Goods or TJ Maxx, I have to either close my eyes while walking by or have somebody with me to take me away from candle section.

My husband and my kids know that our house will smell like Frasier Firs for 2 months before, during, and after Christmas, like lilacs and peonies at the end of winter and through spring, like sea salt and lavender during summer months, and then like apple cider and pumpkin spice from September to November. This obsession needs to be constantly fed and not with just something simple, but fancier and fancier candles every year.

This fall, right at the end of apple spice season I stumbled on an article about best smelling candles on Amazon. See, I should never look at articles like that because then there is no end to searching and shopping. Long story short, I read the article, looked at prices, went on Amazon and went to town with it, so to say. I restrained myself and got only 3 candles though, so no serious damage was done.

Our breakfast table was already loaded with pine tree scented candles from Home Goods, our bathroom and two guest bathrooms also were stocked with pillar candles, but kitchen and my work desk were candless and that situation had to be rectified right away.

This is what I got from Amazon:

• Chesapeake Bay Scented Candle, Water Lily Pearl, medium - $10.99
• Yankee Candle Large 2-Whick Tumbler Candle, Midsummer’s Night - $14.44
• Yankee Candle Large 2-Wick Tumbler Candle, Beach Walk - $24.99

The candles came in 2 days. They all looked good and smelled good when opened. We were going to a party at a brand new house of our friends, so even it wasn’t a house warming event, I decided to give them one candle as a small gift and chose the Chesapeake one. I still had both Yankee Candles left for myself though.

This is what I have to say about them – I totally don’t understand why people love Yankee Candles so much and why do they agree to pay top dollar for them. The candles smelled good, yes, but the jars were very plain and not stylish at all. That would still be fine, but one of the candles had trouble burning. The Beach Walk was burning fine and it lasted a long time, but it would produce some serious black smoke upon blowing it off. I always had the smoke contained by the lid, but because of that, the glass walls of the jar became dark and not clear. The Midsummer’s Night candle has very strong perfume, which I like, but despite strong looking wicks, it doesn’t burn anything more than a little, almost not visible, drowned flame. So after a couple of months, I still have it almost full, because watching the struggling flame is very frustrated, so I just don’t use it.

Come January and I decided to get a candle that’s not only scented, but personalized too. For all my personalization needs I go to Personalization Mall. This time I went through Groupon, tried to get the best deal possible, wasted a bunch of time, and still didn’t save more than a few dollars. As a result I got my personalized lilac candle delivered today. It came in a glass jar, has a picture of my kids on it, and smells amazing. I did light it up and the flame is strong – I was really nervous about that after my Yankee candle experience.

The candle from Personalization Mall was $21.65, which is almost as much as Midsummer’s Eve. But for that money I got amazing scent, my kids’ picture on it, and a much better burning flame. Not all candles are equally good at Personalization Mall, I am sure, I just haven’t tried many. In the future I will visit Personalization Mall for my candle needs before going anywhere else, because with their frequent sales and coupons, I am sure I can get good price on good candles. And one more thing – I think I’ll give Yankee candles a rest for a while, because there are so many other candles on Amazon to try that don’t cost much and can’t be worse than Yankee candles.