Candles

[Magic199]

As far as I know, there is not already one of these... so, lets talk about candles!

 

I have candles all lit in my house at the night-time to save energy. I love scented candles, unless they're in a jar, because, uh, they're ugly in jars. My favorite flavors are cinnamon-y ones... whenever I go to Walgreen's I head to the candle isle and smell all the jarred candles, then choose which one I like the best. I mean, I don't BUY them... I just open the lid and smell them. Nothing is wrong with me.

[TwilitProphet]

I love candles. Once I get a job I'm going to buy so many candles.

 

When I was little my grandparents took me to a candle shop and it blew my mind. It was at that point I decided I would love candles forever. Tea lights, votives, scented candles, I love all kinds!

 

I even have the cutest little blanket with candles patterns on it that my grandparents bought from that candle store.

[catstaff]

One of the things I miss most about living in New England is going to the Yankee Candle Company in Deerfield, MA. Rooms and rooms of candles, plus massive quantities of other stuff... and if you're not fussy about how your candles look, you can find incredible bargains in the "seconds" area. These are jar candles that maybe didn't get properly filled, or candles that somehow didn't get enough coloring in the wax so that they look faded or maybe they're mottled from a dye spill that got into the wrong batch or something. There's even a spot where you can color-dip candles yourself.

[TwilitProphet]

^That sounds like heaven~

 

I miss that candle store I mentioned. It vanished from the mall about 10 years ago. I was so sad. They had beautiful candles. Even some that were non-scented, but the looked amazing. We used to have an orb candle from that store that looked like stained glass!

[Dimar]

I love candles! Whenever I'm in a store, I love smelling all the different scents. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to have any in the dorm I live in, so I don't buy them. I just smell. I'm like that with shampoo too, for some reason.

 

I just can't stand cinnamon scents. I used to like it, but I had an accident once in which my cooking attempt failed miserably and ever since then I can't stand cinnamon in any form...

Edited February 18, 2014 by Dimar

[Bex]

I have so many candles! I like to shop at flea markets and thrift stores a lot and I always come home with tons of candles!

 

A friend of mine is a bee-keeper and is going to show me how to make candles out of the beeswax so that I can do it when I get my own bees next year. I'm so excited!

 

I've always wanted one of those gigantic pillar candles that's the size of a person!

[shadowgrr]

I make sometimes candles from wet wax -not paraffin- to give them as gifts. They are pretty and easy to make.

[babybluefire]

I adore candles. I only have a scented wax warmer that won't cause a fire if knocked down, covered or otherwise spilled. Dh has a huge fear of open flame. His mother has burned down whole rooms in their house on three separate occasions. She has nearly every Yankee candle made.

[azila]

My love for Yankee candles can absolutely not be contained. I was in one of their stores and they were having a sale on a scent that they were putting out of production. They let me smell it, and it was absolutely heavenly. I do wonder how they even make candles so that they smell exactly like the real thing, though. My favorite scents of theirs have to be Vanilla Cupcake and Macintosh.

 

Gotta say, candlelight is a fantastic source of light to read by and everything, and it certainly adds a lot of warmth to the room. (Of course, this effect can turn rather eerie if you're in a dark room with no other light sources, as I've had to turn to when the power goes out at my house.) But I get a strange enjoyment out of scented candles and the scent of candle smoke and.....I love them, what can I say?

 

As long as you use them cautiously, candles can be a brilliant thing to use.

[Annatjie]

Anyone a fan of Glasshouse Candles? They're my favourite favourite - their vanilla caramel triple scented candle makes me salivate, it's delicious. I also really like their fudge brownie triple scented one, you can almost taste it. Ugh...

[TwilitProphet]

I have a triple scented candle from Mainstays. It's black cherry, plumberry, and wild berries and cream. My grandparents bought it for me while they were out buying candles to replace the old ones they've had for a while in case of power outages. It smells absolutely amazing on it's own. I haven't lit it yet because I've been waiting for a Mainstays warm apple pie candle (also heavenly) to be used up.

 

My new candle is also purple. One of my favorite colors!

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

I'm a candle nut when I can afford to be (which lately isn't often) and I love to have several lit at once when I'm, er, under the influence. I also burn a HUGE amount of incense - anyone like incense too? I love getting those huge packs of little candles from IKEA, they come in packs of 3 scents and they last a while if you pace yourself. My mom likes those wax warmers too, she has 3 different burners and tons of scents. The only downside is that you can't really detect the scent in the room after the first 30 minutes or so.

 

Forgot to mention, my favorite candle I ever had was caramel apple-scented, and it was so potent that it stunk up the entire house for like 2 months. The smell of it was on all my clothes and my jacket that I wore every day. It was heavenly to me, but the smell made my mom sick and to this day she refuses to let me purchase another caramel apple candle unless I promise to keep it from wafting out of my room.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Koroshiya-Ichi

[TwilitProphet]

I love incense sticks and the scented wax warmers as well. I'm also a fan of liquid potpourri.

 

My favorite incense are floral scents but I also really like Dragon's blood. *several members of this site gasp in unison* Relax it's just named after a plant resin!

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

I'm actually burning some dragon's blood incense right now, have a whole pack of it left as well as about 5 other kinds. My numerous 'burn sites,' as I like to call them, see so much action that there's always piles of ashes around them that I have to vacuum up constantly, and I've accidentally had stuff get covered in layers of soot in the past if they're too near the smoke. My only beef with incense is that most brands burn down WAY too fast, and the more cheaply made ones sometimes have to be re-lit 2 or 3+ times because they won't burn all the way down the stick.

 

The only incense scent I avoid like the plague are the more robust brands of patchouli; sometimes it's barely tolerable (but still only as a last resort), but the really overpoweringly strong patchouli sticks are absolutely disgusting to me. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it, ew. :S

[Sister_Psycho]

My family actually makes candles as a hobby of sorts. I love making gel candles. I find them to be easy to make.

[Koroshiya-Ichi]

My family actually makes candles as a hobby of sorts. I love making gel candles. I find them to be easy to make.

What are gel candles, how do they differ from regular candles? Walk us through the process of making them, if you don't mind. Same question to shadowgrr - would be cool to hear different takes on candlemaking. Is it something that can be done on a limited budget or do you need to spend more to make a quality product? I'd love to make some as a hobby since I use so many.

 

I assume it's possible to make new candles out of leftover wax from previously burned ones, yeah? Right now all I use leftover wax for is to fill up empty glass soda and beer bottles, just for fun. It's strangely satisfying when you manage to fill up a whole bottle. In the 70's my mom had a few of those long, drippy candles you stick in the necks of bottles to let the wax drip down the sides to create a quite beautiful wax 'sculpture' of sorts. Not sure if there's a proper term for those things, but I'm sure someone knows what I'm talking about. It's a hobby that seems to have died with the decades though, I haven't heard anyone talk about making them recently, and they're super fragile when finished, so they aren't easy to store.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Koroshiya-Ichi

[Fortune86]

I buy scented tea-lights sometimes, but that's about it.

 

My mother keeps buying those Yankee Candles, but won't use them because they were too expensive.

[Thorn]

HUBWJENE FRE candles are so pretty. <3

I wanted to get some for Valentine's, so pizza could be eaten by candlelight.

But I then realised that it gets dark too late this time of year....

(I live in N.Z).

[shadowgrr]

What are gel candles, how do they differ from regular candles? Walk us through the process of making them, if you don't mind. Same question to shadowgrr - would be cool to hear different takes on candlemaking. Is it something that can be done on a limited budget or do you need to spend more to make a quality product? I'd love to make some as a hobby since I use so many.

Gel candles are these candles that they are transparent and you can put decoratives inside them. They last more than common (paraffine) candles but unfortunately in the city I study, the art shop's gel, is a little expensive so I take it from my home-city. It's really easy to make them.

1)Find a glass or a bottle (I love using ouzo bottles that I paint)

2)Put no flamable decoratives inside (glass sobjects, seasells, sand, chernit objects, clay objects, rocks, etc.) and the tinder (put it under something heavy, because the glue melts and it floats to the surface)

3)Put the gel into a coffee pot and open the stove. Put the coffee pot on the stove and whem the gel warms enough it melts and it looks like water.

4)Put the melted gel into the glass (or bottle) and wait it to cool. (You can create different layers and pu objects on them and make them look like floating, but you have to be careful with the bubbles)

5)Decorate the glass (or bottle)

You can also use colours or essenses but these are the basic steps.

About paraffine candles, I've made them only a few times, because they need a lot of time and is much easier to fail, so it's better to speak someone who knows better.

About the remains you said I've heard of that too, for paraffine candles but I've no idea how to do them (I think it has something to do with reheating). As for gel candles there are no remains to reuse, but youcan use again the decorative you putted inside. I hope I helped.

[Ansela Jonla]

I love Yankee Candles. I've got 5 large jar, 1 medium jar and 3 small jar candles. Three of the large jars are their ScentBeads, which were on QVC last month for less than the price of a single large jar, so of course I had to buy them.

 

The Shooting Star ScentBeads is actually burning right now. It's like... being outside, away from city pollution, on a clear night with just a hint of rain in the air.

 

There's a shop in the city centre that used to be just Yankee Candles, and over half of it still is. I love going in there and smelling the new scents. If the fragrance of the month is one I like, I'll sometimes buy that.

[CaduceusCade]

I LOVE CANDLES.

 

Seriously, they're the best thing ever. I like some of the unusually scented ones that Target carries right now, sun-kissed leaves, I swear it smells green, mint-basil, fig-vetiver, blueberry-basil, lotus-lemon peel...

 

Plus there's this aromatherapy series that has things like "Give Love", "Feel Beautiful", "Be Amazing", "Be Grateful", "Be Peaceful" and "Choose Happiness". I got the Feel Beautiful one for my girlfriend and it smells amazing.

 

I'm dying to try out a wooden wick one because of what I've heard about them crackling like a real fire.

 

I'm also excited to finally raid Yankee Candle with my gift card I got for Christmas.

[gizmo1960]

Love candles and incense.

just one question though.....

I always thought of a cylinder as a shape but hollow.

that said wouldn't a candle be a wax column?

 

[Dimar]

Candles are cylinders. That's one of the basic geometric shapes and can be either solid or hollow, like a block or a can respectively. Columns are cylindrically shaped objects though, so both terms would work.

[lightningsky]

Candles are the best thing ever. I love having them and I spoil myself and only buy Yankee candles, since my favorite scent from them is 'Pink Sands'; but I wouldn't not use a candle if it was free of course.

[sparkle10184]

I love candles I've made some myself before. (pretty simple, I just got wax, molded it into the shaped I wanted, and put in a wick) I love the scented kinds, especially holiday ones like spices and pine tree.