Busy Bee Candles

I stumbled across Busy Bee Candles on twitter a while ago when someone re-tweeted a comp they were running and as I like candles, I like bees and I like Wales, I gave their website more than a cursory glance!  But it's fragrance, how much can you tell from a written description, is it really worth taking the risk without having a good old whiff in person?  Well when they had a 30% off promotion some time ago I decided the risk was worth it and possibly went a little overboard.

I ordered eight of their mini me candles.  When I started trying to choose scents it became very difficult, and since the postage was a standard price I didn't want to order just a couple and pay almost as much in postage.  This was a good decision.

The candles smell fabulous, and they look pretty cute in their hexagon jars I shall definitely be ordering some larger versions of some of the scents.

Here is what I ordered and (after finally trying out all of them!) my thoughts on the scents.

Bramley Apple
Open the jar and it is just like chopping these wonderfully tart apples, the same fresh tart scent continues while the candle is burning, found it a bit too much after about half an hour, one to burn in short bursts I think.

Bluebell Wood
A very strong heady flowery scent, a little overpowering for my tastes, reaffirmed when I lit the candle, this one definitely not for me, too flowery.  Has been given to a good home, will wait to see what they think of it.

Pink Lemonade
Childhood, sunshine and sugar in a scent with a wonderfully bright pink colour.  An absolute winner!  Loved it before smelling it really, pink lemonade is one of the biggest things I remember from my first trip abroad when I was about 11 and brings back all sorts of wonderful memories.  Only downside, the wax that melted when burning has re solidified a funny brown colour, much less attractive than its bright pink origins!

Odd brown layer of re-solidified wax at the top

Watermelon Explosion
A little too sickly sweet when unlit, a fake smell, there used to be some watermelon flavoured sweets like dweebs or nerds, and this smelt a bit like that, but when lit its a much softer smell, much more real.  The scent wasn't very strong, but it was far reaching the candle was lit downstairs and I could smell the faint watermelon upstairs, a pleasant scent.

Violet Lime
This was one of the scents I was most excited about from just the name and when I gave it an unlit sniff it smelt great, very hard to describe both citrus and flowery.  When lit this was lovely, a really soft smell not too intrusive but definitely there, would buy this again.

Black cherry
Yum yum yum, if I had a spoon when I opened this jar I might have dug right in, it smelt amazingly edible and really strong fruity smell.  Unfortunately it didn't seem very strong while burning, I could smell the wax more than the scent.  Oddly enough the strongest scent I got from it was when I blew it out! The burst of fragrance lasted for a good few minutes after the candle stopped burning and was definitely stronger than when lit.  Not sure about this one, the scent (unlit) was my favourite of the lot, but really what's the point if you cant smell it while its burning?

Orange and clove
A nice warming smell, wasn't as strong an orange smell as I might have liked, was a little overpowered by the clove but still a lovely smell.  Gave off a good strong scent while burning and lasted for a good while after it had gone out.

Sun Kissed Raspberry
I very sweet smell when you first open it, not far from the chewy raspberry millions sweets, but not too sweet, I looked forward to burning it and it didn't dissapoint a lovely sweet happy smell.

One thing that I did notice was that given the small size of the mini me jars, the flame is very close to the glass and causes quite a lot of sooting, for this reason I wouldnt buy this small size as a display candle but they are a really good way of trying out different scents without too much commitment!