Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Candles by Victoria Scent Shot Review: Bakery Edition

I've been saying for a while (at least 6 months) that I would review all of my Scent Shots.  It seems like every time I say that, I have an order coming soon and I think, "Well, I might as well wait for that order and include the new ones as well."  Factor in 2 weeks or so for curing time and another 2 weeks for trying them out warm and pretty soon we run into another order and the cycle continues.

BUT, I am being VERY good (because I have to if I want to do silly things like eat and have a house) and not ordering for at least 2 months. So, it's a perfect time to finally review all of my SS!

Let's go over the normal background info before we begin.

About Candles by Victoria:
These scent shots are all from Candles by Victoria.  CBV is a family owned, small business run by Victoria and her amazing family.  She makes the most highly scented, clean burning candles I've EVER used. I would not recommend any single product over hers. CBV is so much more than a Candle Company. Victoria and her family are like friends to us all. She's the sweetest woman in the world and you can tell how much love she has for her products and for her customers. I've never found better customer service, in ANY industry, than Victoria's.  If you're jonesing for some scented candles and you haven't tried CBV, DO IT NOW!

About Scent Shots:
Scent Shot are 2 oz wax tarts that can be used on a candle warmer. They're a really great way to try out scents (she has over 730!) without committing to, or paying for, a larger candle. At only $2 each, you cannot go wrong with these!

These are not all of the Scent Shots I have tried, some have been used up and I can't remember them or some I just don't have with me. But these are most of them. I'll be starting with Bakery Scents, which I have the most of, by far!

For Victoria's descriptions and to see overall user ratings for all of these scents you can go to The CBV Browser. (Shameless plugging, for the win!)

Alright, get yourself some coffee and get comfy because here we go!
(These are in no particular order, I'm just reviewing as I pick them up.)

Note: After writing this review I realized that there are quite a few that I have not tried warm, so I give the cold reviews as well as input on how I think they'll be warmed as well as popular opinions I've heard on them.

Bakery/Food Scents:


Granny's Pie Crust - I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't tried this one warm. Honestly, I got it right before I moved and I only recently found my tart warmer to begin melting SS again.  
Cold review though: the funny sour pickle-like smell that I smelled when I first got it has almost disappeared. I know many people say it goes away completely when warm so I'll trust that. Honestly cold, this scent does nothing for me. It's a light scent, cold, and it smells like a faint smelling shortbread cookie.  I have high hopes for this one warm though!


Kettle Corn - Holy cow!  This scent is awesome! Victoria is amazing at replicating food and soda scents and this one is really good!  It honestly doesn't smell like Kettle corn to me, but it does smell like popcorn. It smells like deliciously buttery slightly warm movie theater popcorn to me. It's so good! Not sure if I'd get in it a candle, but I'm most likely repurchase every once in a while in SS.


Peach Ambrosia - I haven't melted this one either. I only have 1/4 SS that I got in a swap and it smelled so good that I wanted to save it for Spring.  Cold it smells like a yummy, fresh peach. I also pick up some other note, that I really can't put my finger on. But in general, it's a yummy, sweet juicy peach scent. :)


Boston Cream Pie - I have to say, I am not a fan of this scent at all. It does smell sort of like a Boston Cream Pie but I feel like it smells mostly like chocolate frosting, which I hate. I think if it had more cream and cake notes, I might like it more but as is, it's an overwhelming chocolate frosting rich scent that just doesn't agree with me. If you like the smell of a store-bought chocolate frosting though, I would recommend trying this! It seems like a scent that doesn't get much attention.


Apricot Crumb Cake - My SS of this is gone so I'm honestly sniffing the empty container for this review! haha  Anyways, cold, I don't really like this scent at all. I can't really pick out any individual notes in it. If I didn't know it's name and I smelled it cold, I could honestly not tell you in the slightest what it was.
Warm however, I really, really like it! It has a definite apricot/peachy preserves type scent on a really nice crumb cake base.  It smells really good warm! I'd highly recommend trying this and if you don't like it cold, definitely let it cure and try it warm because it's very different!


Bacon - This is probably much more of a novelty scent, and honestly I only got it because I was curious if it could be done and because my best friend and I have an ongoing thing about being obsessed with bacon.
This definitely smells like ham. It's not bacon, that's for sure. But it really does smell like a honey-glazed baked ham, which is awesome, but when warmed I find it really overwhelming and kind of gross. It's not a bad scent (though it required a LOT of cure time, about 1-2 months for the SS) before it smelled remotely like ham. Before that is smelled like jerky and it made me feel sick.  So, cool scent, it really does smell like ham but it's strong and I don't particularly want my house smelling like it. While it does smell like a ham, it's way too strong to be mistaken for a ham baking in your oven. Maybe using a tiny sliver would work if you want to impress guests or something. I dunno. I'll pass on repurchasing but it's a fun little scent to appease your curiosity. haha


Lemon Peach Pound Cake Preserves - I am not the biggest fan of this scent on it's own. It's really nice, I don't dislike any particular thing about it but it just doesn't do it for me.  However, I tried mixing this with Caramelized Pralines once, and I LOVED the combo. I loved how CP toned down the tartness of this and I loved how this toned down the rich sweetness of CP.  I will say, it does smell like a Lemon Pound cake. I don't particularly smell any peach but in comparison to the regular Lemon Pound Cake (which I haven't tried) it might be detectable.


Caramelized Pralines - Like I said above, I love mixing this with LPPCP. I'm not a huge fan of this scent on its own. I find it really delicious cold, but warm it becomes WAY too rich and overwhelming.  I really like it for combining with other scents though, particularly tart ones.  I will say as a side note that although I don't like this scent one its own in candle form, I LOVE Victoria's daughter Melissa's version of it in soap form! You can find her products at CBV Bath & Body.


Pumpkin Pickin - I LOVE Victoria's pumpkin scents. I have yet to come across one I didn't like. However, last fall I outdid myself with Pumpkin scents, burning things like Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Pralines, Pumpkin Pear Strudel, and Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Bread, EVERY day for a few months. Now, I'm a little bit sick of them. haha But, I know come fall I will be in love with these scents again and I know that Pumpkin Pickin will be included in that list.This smells like her regular pumpkin scent, which I love, mixed with the slightest touch of creamy vanilla. It's very simple and very yummy smelling. I haven't warmed it yet but I'm confident that if you like Victoria's pumpkin scents, you will like this one. :)


Apple Cinnamon Butter - Honestly I had really high hopes for this one. My grandma made cinnamon apple butter when I was growing up and I was hoping this would smell like the real thing. To me, it doesn't at all. It smells cinnamony, though not strongly, to me. And it has a slight sweetness that I suppose is supposed to be the apple. But in general this really doesn't impress me. =/  I don't smell much and I definitely don't think it smells like real, warm cinnamon apple butter, which is what I was expecting.


Carrot Cake Orange Delight - I love this scent! It smells just like it's name; There's an amazing cake note, but not a very sweet one like you'll find with Pink Cupcake, for example. It's blended nicely with this sweet, earth carrot note and it just smells like the whole thing has a light, orange glaze drizzled on top.  This is one of my favorite scents for burning when guests come over because I find it really unoffensive and it smells like there's something delicious in the oven. :)


Rice Crispy Treats - I haven't melted this one but I love it! It smells exactly like a rice crispy treat! There's a powdery sugar cereal smell combined with a marshmallow glaze scent that just makes an out-of-this-world rice crispy scent! It's a really great one! I find it somewhere in between the scent of homemade RCTs and packaged ones. It's not quite buttery enough to be homemade but not quite as sweet as the packaged ones. It's really, really good! I'd definitely recommend trying this if you like the smell of rice crispies, homemade or packaged!

Sugared Corn Pudding - I haven't melted this one either, and I think this is one that comes out much truer warm. I can't really describe this cold. When I first got it, I could smell a sweet corn smell that I really loved. That smells seems to have gone away and to have been replaced by a very very light cookie-type scent.. Most people say this smells exactly like a fresh baked sugar cookie when warmed so if that sound appealing to you, try this. :)


Brown Sugar - I've had this one for a few months and I still haven't tried it cold. Honestly, I'm a bit afraid to. This doesn't smell at all like brown sugar to me. It's a light sweet scent and it's VERY perfumey to me.  I don't really like it at all but I want to try a sliver of it warm to see what that smells like. It's very off-putting how perfume-like this smells though.


Lemon Gingersnap Pie - I wasn't a huge fan of Lemon Peach Pound Cake Preserves because of it's tartness so I thought I may just not like Victoria's lemon scent but I LOVE this one! There's something about the zesty lemon mixed with the spicy gingerbread that I just love! This is definitely worth a try, even if you haven't found a lemon scent that you like. :)


Blueberry Cobbler - Another newer one that I haven't melted but I know I like it. It has the same cobbler note that you find in Berry Blackberry Cobbler (which I LOVE) but the sweet tart blackberry scent is replaces by a very sweet juicy blueberry scent. This smells really great cold. I don't know if I will like it better than Blackberry Cobbler because I love the combination of the slight tartness with the sweet and cobbler notes. Blueberry Cobbler has no tartness at all and it a purely sweet juicy blueberry on top of a buttery, salty, delicious cobbler scent. It's very very good!


Pumpkin Cheesecake - I had this one for months before deciding to melt in. It does not impress me at all cold. It smells like a light creamy pumpkin scent, similar to ones I've smelled from Yankee. But warm.... OH MY GOSH! This is sooooo good! It's rich and pumpkiny and sweet. It's so delicious smelling! If you've dismissed this one on cold throw, WARM IT. It is sooo much better! Definitely in my top 10-15 scents from CBV. :) This is probably my number 1 pumpkin scent!


Bear Claws - This is one of my all-time favorite scents. WHile I don't particularly think it smells like a bear claw (I don't smell raisins at all), it does smell like the most delectable cinnamony, doughy, possibly maple glazed donut EVER!  This scent is so amazing and I find it ever more amazing when I light it in one room, go to another to do something (like dishes or shower) and then come out. My house just smells like the best donuts shop you could ever walk into! Definite top 5!


Butter Pound Cake - I got this from my SS I believe and I still haven't warmed it. Cold though, it smells like a room temp version of it's name. It's a sweet, buttery pound cake. There's not much ore to say about it. It smells delicious and I'm really looking forward to melting it soon! :)


Key Lime Pie - Another new, not melted one. I'm a bit afraid to melt this one because while it smells really good, it's REALY tart smelling, which tends to make me think it will overwhelm me or give me a headache when warmed. It does smell exactly like this Raw Vegan Key Lime Pie that I make that is AMAZINGLY delicious! I'll definitely try this warm, it does smell really good. I'm hoping the crust notes will come out a bit more and tone down the tartness.


Hawaiian Hula Muffin - This is one that I had not heard anything about until recently. I haven't warmed it (I know, I know, I'm sorry!).  I think I don't like pineapple scents, which is odd because I love pineapple (the taste and smell). But I have this as well as Pineapple Upside Down Cake) and while they both have a cakey scent that seems nice, it's REALLY buried beneath the pineapple scent which, at least cold, I do not like.


Cinnamon Buns - I love this scent! This is probably tied with Bear Claws as my favorite cinnamony bakery scent. It is soooo delicious! I haven't melted the SS BUT I have a candle in Chocolate Fudge Cinnamon Sugar Cookie Surprise which starts off with a layer of Cinnamon Bun crumbs and it is abso-freaking-lutly amazing! Some find this very very heavy on cinnamon, but I have a high tollerence and love bakery cinnamon smells so I don't have that problem. If you're worried about it being too cinnamony but want to try it, I might suggest trying Cinnabon instead, as it has a sweet frosting scent that tones down the cinnamon. :)


Pineapple Upside Down Cake - Like I said in my review of Hawaiian Hula Muffin, I don't like the pineapple note, at least cold. I haven't warmed either because I really can't get past the strong pineapple note. This does have a detectable cake note and I swear I even smell the maraschino cherries that go in the center of the pineapple rings but the pineapple is still a tough note for me to get past. Hopefully I'll find a good day to try these two scents out warmed to see if that pineapple scent bothers me while warmed. The cake notes may come through enough to balance it out better when warm. 


Cinnabon - Like I said above in my Cinnamon Buns review, this is very similar but it has a frosting note to it that tones down the cinnamon scent. I'm actually melting this for the first time right now and I can't smell it yet but I'm 97% confident, based on the cold smell, that when warmed it will smell VERY much like sniffing a fresh, warm cinnamon roll with gooey dripping icing! I think I still prefer Cinnamon Buns, because I like a heaver cinnamon scent but this one is still really good!


And last but BY FAR not least:

Elvis - I purchased this one by randomly selecting a user from the CBV Browser and randomly selecting one of their favorite scents.  I honestly would have pushed ordering this off for SO long had I not decided to do that. BOY am I glad I did because this is AMAZING! It's an awesome almost candy-like banana scent mixed with a light peanut butter scent.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this! I melted the SS for the first time and immediately decided that in my next order there would be a huge candle of this! I think I'm going to get it in a Mustard Jar! Seriously, try this scent; it's really awesome. It does have the candy banana scent that some people associate with Victoria's banana scents but I happen to LOVE that even though I didn't think I would. Give it a try, it's a great one!


Okay! That's all for the bakery Scent Shots! If you made it through that, you honestly deserve a cookie and if we're ever in the same place, I'll make you one. ;)

I will post another review of my remaining SS (which categories combined, I don't think I have as many as I do Bakery) so be on the lookout for that! I will warn you that I have played the I-have-it-but-haven't-melted-it game with non-bakery scents a lot more because bakery is my favorite type so I gravitate toward those. BUT I will still give reviews and hopefully enlighten you on a few scents that you may be wanting to try!


Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you are all having a great day and, as always, happy melting!
~Sara

1 comment:

Debbie said...

Fantastic review, Honey!!

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