Haul - Candles From The Keeping Room March 2015

Warning: Picture Heavy!!
Ooooo, aaaaaah! Wax porn!! LOL!
What's that? You're reminding me that I'm trying to melt through my wax for our impeding move, NOT buy more? I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of MY WAX, BUAHAHAHAHAA!
This wasn't planned in the least. I'd woken up last Saturday morning and was doing my normal Internet rounds - Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and various other websites that pertain to my current interests. I refreshed Facebook for whatever reason and noticed that Carol had posted that 'the website is now open for ordering' JUST NOW. Without thinking about it I rushed over to the website and put whatever I saw that I liked in my cart (I was admittedly faster and more panicked than I should have been, turns out I had plenty of time!). After I had everything I wanted, I woke M up and asked him to give me a limit on how much, if any, I could spend. Then I sifted through whatever was in my cart and narrowed it down to what you will see shortly.

Revlon - Iced Mauve

Ah, the frustrations of bad weather. Maybe it's because I'm on my period having a bad week, but I've just not been in the blogging mood. Not in an... anything mood, really. I'm at a plateau with working out, regardless of my switching up my routine and increasing the number of workouts per week. I haven't been melting anything, and even my nails have been blah. Today I made myself sit through and participate in an entire P90X Yoga session, and suddenly I'm all emotional and stupid music videos are making me tear up. Seriously, what is wrong with me?

Anyways, Iced Mauve is... well, a frosty (or icy!) mauve color. This is an older Revlon that I inherited from my great grandmother when she passed, two years ago. For that reason alone I'm unwilling to ever part with this polish. Even a crappy Lancome basecoat stays in my collection for that reason.

In other news, I don't know what I did but the pictures of this manicure turned out much nicer than any other pictures I've taken to date. Let's hope this isn't a one time thing... 

Urban Lacquer - Take It Offline

The lovely Julie sent me this in January. I promptly lost it.

Seriously. I don't know why I keep losing my stuff. I'm normally much more organized and I can tell you where every single thing I own is. I blame M. Yeeeeeeah.

Anyways, I found it (under the desk, guess it fell over) and promptly slapped it on my fingernails. Ooooo, aaah!

Take It Offline is a gold shimmery polish. These pictures show two coats, and if you look closely it's not completely opaque. That's fine by me. Mainly because I almost never both with a third coat of anything I put on. I'm lazy like that.

I don't want to wear this anymore since it's a mini! I can't use it up! That would be bad! I don't buy things to use them up, I buy them to look at them and adore how cute it would potentially look on me!

Nah, I'm working through that line of thinking. I'm much better about using stuff up now. The only thing I can think of that I let myself not wear for that exact line of reasoning is an old perfume that I've had for 8 years now. Elizabeth Arden's Provocative Interlude. I got it as a Christmas Present and it became my favorite perfume. When I looked to buy more of it, I found out they'd discontinued it! Noooo!

Revlon - Firecracker

Aah, now here's a beauty I haven't worn in a while. I've had this polish for around 10 years, give or take (more on the give side). I loved it and wore it so much all that's left is half a bottle! I recently rediscovered it and after a bit of polish thinner it was good as new!
Firecracker is a red jelly base with tiny red and silver bar glitters. I'm pretty sure when I first got this the silver glitter wasn't there. Maybe. I could be wrong. I remember layering this over itself so many times you could only see a glitter bomb on my fingernails.
Pictured is only one coat and I can't say anything about the original formula because this is mostly thinner now. The actual polish got very very goopy. Mostly because the cap no longer forms a seal with the bottle.
This weather is killing me! It had been so sunny and of course now that I'm doing more nail posts than wax the clouds had to roll in. I just can't win!

Sally Hansen - Aisle Be There & Essie - Ballet Slippers

Oh, there's that blingy bit that I know I crave! After a day in the nude (heheheheheheee *gigglesnort*) I decided I wanted to add something sparkly and blingy to the mix! Unfortunately it decided to rain today... so I'm stuck with indoor pictures. Eh. You take what you can get, right?

I tried so hard to capture this on the nail, but it's not showing up as well as it is in the bottle in this picture. So let me help you. This is actually a flakie. Very tiny flakies, but they are flakies as opposed to simply being glitter. The flakies change from pink to purple/orange depending on the angle and lighting.
This is actually one of my favorite polishes because it's a present from my little brother. He was 11 or 12 at the time and I had already moved off to college, but he said he bought it because he thought of me and he wanted to get me an early Christmas present. Will's always been sweet like that. He also has never thought about money when it comes to presents. It continues to shock me to this day. Some of my most expensive polishes are from him, and he's never once thought twice about it. This past Christmas M had made a comment on switching from Diablo 3 on the console (I can't remember which one) to PC, and Will remembered that and without thinking twice, coughed up the $60+ for M to be completely set up with the game. He might be 15 now, but his allowance isn't any more than $6.50/week (1/2 your age, minus at least $1/week to be put into savings). That's my little brother for ya.

Essie - Ballet Slippers

What is wrong with me? I'm wearing a sheer nude polish by itself! Where's the bling? Where's the color? Am I going crazy?

For whatever reason I decided to wear this polish. Maybe it's because it's one of the only two Essies I own. Maybe it's because I just wanted something plain after wearing so many blingy and otherwise strong colors. Maybe I was lazy. I don't know. Why am I getting so into the reasoning behind me wearing a freaking polish? LOL

In any case, I very much enjoyed this. Initially I was going to do a french tip and then use this to soften the edges. As it appears my own VNL served as a nice french tip barring some dirt under the fingernails but I'm not going to get too torn up about that.

Pictured is two coats and the formula was fine, if a slight bit streaky. I'm so used to applying polish, though, that I barely noticed it. Four and a half years ago I would have gotten frustrated at the streakiness and stopped using the polish, but over time I've developed enough application skills that I'm not fazed by that kind of stuff. Who knew that with use comes experience?!

Do you own any nude polishes? Do you use them frequently?

Beezy Tarts - Peach Margarita

Scent Description: I just got a straight up Peach scent. I'm not very familiar with margaritas, though, so it could've been there and I wouldn't recognize it.
Weight Melted: 1.8 oz. I thought I told myself I was going to chop up my Beezy Tarts before melting them...
Cold Sniff: 3/5 There was something almost sour behind the peach. I wasn't sure what it was, but it did not agree with my nose.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 That sour note went away and I actually found myself enjoying this scent quite a lot. When I was younger I hated peaches, and while I still don't care to eat them they at least smell nice now.
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 4/5 This wasn't quite able to reach the bedroom.
Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 12 hours from this tart
Repurchase: Yes. No. Maybe? By all means with the performance I should say yes, but I still don't like peach scents enough to pick it up on its own... I don't know, I still have my teen viewpoint on whether I'll like something or not. I'm weird, I know. Stop judging me! I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't make an entire order just for this scent, but if I wanted something else to round out an order I was already placing I wouldn't mind picking this up.

Cupcake Candles - Elf Games

Scent Description: When I sniff this, I definitely pick up on something minty. Besides that, I get a typical Christmas Tree type scent. I can't really describe this besides Christmasy!
Weight Melted: 1.3 oz.
Cold Sniff: 3/5 That minty scent really took over anything else that I could smell in this.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 The tree took over here, and the mint fell back to create a lovely Christmas melody for my nose.
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 3/5 Most of the kitchen and living room enjoyed this. I couldn't smell it in the bedroom whenever I was in there.
Melting Power: 3/5 I got about 8 hours of scent before it died off.
Repurchase: No. I loved the scent, but it didn't reach as far as I would have liked.
I've been in such a Christmasy mood since January. Whenever I come across a Holiday themed tart I have to melt it. I think it's because my holiday season didn't start until the 20th of December. Before that even though at work the Christmas station was on, I never felt ready for the holidays. It was probably because I was completely alone in Lubbock. M wasn't there, I wasn't seeing my family, I didn't really have friends... I didn't even start feeling like it was December until it was already almost over. I went grocery shopping the other day and I had to keep myself away from the turkeys, otherwise I would have bought one and made it just because I wanted to bring back Christmas/Thanksgiving! M wouldn't have been happy with me. It's hard for him to lose weight and keep it off, and he's always borderline overweight by Army standards. Turkey would not have helped this.

Finger Paints - Flashy over China Glaze - Crimson

Ohhh my goodness, this is a beauty! I know most people are sick of this multichrome flakie (a la Essie Shine of the Times, Sallie Hansen Hidden Treasure, Color Club Snow-Flakes, etc.) but I don't think I will ever ever get sick of this, especially when layered over a dark base.

These pictures are more blurry than my typical already blurry pictures, but I find that it captured the multi colored awesomeness better.
One thing that's always been an issue with flakies is their application. Applying them like regular polish doesn't work - you have to pat it on and then smooth it out. For some people it's a pain... I'm just excited to get my multicolor madness on my nails!
Do you own any flakies? Are they as multi-colored as this beauty?

China Glaze - Crimson

 Oooh, look at this beauty! I haven't worn a dark and vampy color in a while. What better time than spring? LOL
In the pictures the layers look streaky. I promise in person it's nice and even. As for the weird textures/imprints on the nails... I did this right before attempting to go to bed, so there's that.

Pictured is two coats and I didn't experience any issues with the formula.
I'm considering layering a flakie over this. Maybe something Finger Paints. I'll get back to you on this!
Have you been wearing polish lately? Do you stick to seasonal 'norms' when wearing it?

Beezy Tarts - Pumpkin Marshmallow

Scent Description: According to the website: Sweet Sticky Marshmallow blended with Creamy Pumpkin. I get a hint of cinnamon here. Besides that, this is an almost sickeningly-sweet and marshmallowy pumpkin. Somehow I associated this with Thanksgiving, even though I'm pretty sure this is a Halloween type scent. Maybe it was that cinnamon I picked up on.
Weight Melted: 1.9 oz.
Cold Sniff: 4/5
Warm Sniff: 4/5
Scent Strength: 2/3 Whenever I smell cinnamon I can't ever put the scent as a background scent.
Scent Throw: 6/5 Wow, I think this is my first >5 tart I've melted. I was worried when I weighed this out and noticed it was almost twice the amount of wax I normally melt, but I felt too lazy to chop it up before melting some. M could smell this at the bottom of the steps that led to our apartment level, if that makes sense. Basically this tart extended very, very far.
Melting Power: 5/5 I got roughly 30 hours of strong scent from this before I decided to call it quits. It was just too darn sweet at that point!
Repurchase: Yes! I very much enjoyed this scent and how it performed. Next time I'd make sure to chop this up before melting, though :)

JMae's Soaps & Candles - Fresh Fruit Slices

Scent Description: A typical mix of apples, bananas, oranges, and lemons. At least that's what I pick up on here. Mainly an apple-lemon scent with just a hint of everything else.
Weight Melted: 1.8 oz.
Cold Sniff: 3/5 I'm not a big fruit fan
Warm Sniff: 3/5
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 4/5 I was very surprised with this. It filled every room of the apartment except the bedroom.
Melting Power: 2/5 Even with how far the scent spread, it lasted about 5 hours before I turned off the warmer for the day.
Repurchase: No. I didn't care for the scent enough.

Bath and Body Works - Pumpkin Pecan Waffles & Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin

I don't really have a rating system for candles and I don't burn candles enough to set up a rating system, so I'm going to just talk about this candle.
I got these mini candles in a fall/halloween gift type set along with one other pumpkin themed mini candle. If these hadn't come in the set, I wouldn't have thought to pick up any of the mini candles. They're too small, don't last long, and compared to the 3-wicks, they're very very expensive for the amount of wax you get. For six months I'd let these candles go untouched.
Having hosted two LAN parties now, I'm not quite in love with these candles but I enjoy their performance for my needs.They are small, easy to manage, smell nice, and scent up the bathroom and only the bathroom. At one point over the weekend we had 13 people in the apartment and I was very glad I something keeping the restroom smelling nice.
I wouldn't repurchase these unless they were insanely cheap or came in another set, but they have been very nice to have while I had them.

Crosscreek Country Candles - Bunny Patch

Scent Description: From their website: creamy orange pound cake layered with gooey marshmallow, so yummy good even Thumper approves!
Weight Melted: 1.1 oz.
Cold Sniff: 3/5 I got a pleasant sweet and slightly orange scent.
Warm Sniff: 3/5 There was definitely orange here, but I couldn't really make out any of the other scents besides a generic 'sweet' background to this.
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 1/5  I could not smell this! It stressed me out because I was trying to clean before setting off to spend a day with my mom and I knew M was coming over with a bunch of friends to have another LAN party. I wanted the apartment to smell good, dangit!
Melting Power: 0/5 After 30 minutes I ended up adding in another of CCC's tarts to this without taking any pictures or making note of what it was. Yuzu? It was something that was definitely a clean type scent.
Repurchase: No. Whatever that other tart was that I added would be a yes, but I have no clue what it was LOL. That's what I get for getting up at 4 AM (when M got up to leave for PT) to clean and set up the apartment for the first day of a three-day LAN party.

Glitterati Candle Co - Cotton Candy Waffle Cone

Scent Description: A very sweet blend of waffle cones and cotton candy. The waffle cones really tones down the ultra sweet factor of the cotton candy.
Weight Melted:  1.6 oz.
Cold Sniff: 3/5 I got a hint of something chocolatey as well as a generic 'wax' scent when smelling this cold.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 Fortunately, the chocolate went away and I was left with the sweet concoction that is this tart.
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 5/5
Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 16 hours of good scent from this before it died off.
Repurchase: Yes! I'm a fan of this scent blend and it performed really well, too! Julie sent a huge chunk of this and I was able to chop it in half quite easily. Such soft wax! I have just requested to join their Facebook page, so I'll have to see how their TAT and ordering process goes on a more in depth scale once (if?) I'm accepted. In any case, if all of their products perform like this I have very high hopes for this new vendor!

Rosegirls - Blueberry Hill

Scent Description: Boo Berry and Frankenberry Blend. Well thank you, 'master list' of the Facebook page. When I went to search the individual blends in here nothing popped up. ARRGH! Let my nose do the sniffing and describing then. I sniff this and think of blueberry muffins here with a mix of some other berries. The muffin part of this is very very minimal, but it's there if you concentrate on it. 

Weight Melted: 1.0 oz

Cold Sniff: 4/5 I really liked this, as some of the other berries here seemed to tone down the blueberry. I'm not typically a fan of blueberry.

Warm Sniff: 4/5 Same thing. If anything, the muffin part became a little more noticeable, but it was still very much a background aspect of this scent.

Scent Strength: 1/3

Scent Throw: 5/5 I was in the bedroom playing video games all day while this melted (yup. Ah, the life of not having a job LOL) and I could smell it here. When I walked around the house either for a restroom break or to grab some food, I still smelled it. 

Melting Power: 4/5 This lasted about 12 hours before the scent completely disappeared. It was rather sudden, too. One minute I was smelling the pleasant berry mashup, the next I had nothing.

Repurchase: Probably not, just because I don't feel that this was a complex enough scent for me to spend RG kind of money and time on. Time in the sense that I'll have to wait a very long time to get it at my doorstep.

I don't know how the next opening in April is going to go. I'm keeping a periodic eye on the Facebook page for when Jenny posts something about how she hopes the opening will go and her expected TAT. I know in her 2015 business plan she stated that she was going to hire more help, so maybe this is going to be a good sign for her TAT.

JMae Soaps & Candles - Love Spell

I liked the look of these tarts, even though they fell apart en route to my doorstep. This was something I'd bought through one of Jamie's cleaning inventory auctions, amongst many many other things.
Scent Description: This is a dupe of VS Love Spell. If you aren't familiar with that scent, it's a very fruity scent. I sniff this and get lemon-orange-lime madness. If you want something very heavy on the citric acid, this is for you!
Weight Melted: 1.7 oz
Cold Sniff: 2/5 Eh, this was too lemony for me.
Warm Sniff: 2/5 Same thing when melted.
Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 3.5/5 This surprised me, considering who this tart came from. I actually didn't take pictures initially, thinking I would just replace this after 10 minutes anyway. Surprise for me! I had to grab the rest of the tarts and form them into this picture here.
Melting Power: 3/5 This lasted for about 7 hours before the scent had died off. Good thing, too! I was getting sick of the scent LOL
Repurchase: Nope, even if this was one of Jamie's better performing tarts. I'm not a fan of Love Spell if it's not blended. I'm even going to toss the rest of the bag. I have no reason to keep it.

Rosegirls - Watermelon Peppermint Smoothie

When the lovely Julie sent me a box of goodies in January, the box had a lovely smell inside and outside that I'd initially attributed to the perfume sample she'd sent. I could not describe it at all. It smelled like a perfume with something... fruity? Not quite the word, but I instantly fell in love. After a couple days of the box being open, the scent faded away and I feared that the scent I had come to love was just a combination of everything Julie had sent me. The perfume had contributed to this scent, but only slightly. I soon realized that it wasn't the perfume, and started frantically sniffing at every chunk and tart she'd sent to try and figure out what it was I was smelling. Nothing smelled close to the lovely scent I'd gotten, so I eventually gave up. Enter this beauty!! Squeee! 
Scent Description: I assume the 'smoothie' part of this is marshmallow smoothie. It smells like that. In any case, let me try and explain this. A sweet watermelon mixed with vanilla and just a dash of peppermint. Think a more fruity, 'adult' friendly version of Twisted Peppermint. It's still just as sweet, but in a nice and summery way.
Weight Melted: 2.0 oz.
Cold Sniff: 3/5 The peppermint had been awfully strong when I'd sniffed this initially, and I didn't pick up on anything related to the box scent that I had been obsessing over for a month and a half at this point.
Warm Sniff: 5/5 I was cleaning up a little of the mess left behind after the LAN party when I got hit with a whiff of the nameless scent I had fallen in love with. THIS! This was it!! THIS WAS IT!! Oh my goodness I cannot describe to you how much I loved this scent! This is a perfect example of why you need to melt something before you give a final verdict on whether you like the scent. On cold sniff the peppermint was waay too strong, but melted this baby was all sorts of perfect. I would seriously buy a perfume in this scent. Try me. I'll give you ALL the money!!

Scent Strength: 2/3
Scent Throw: 5/5 Everywhere was filled with the bliss that was this scent. Which was good, because I spent a good chunk of the day in the closet putting up clothes.
Melting Power: >4/5 I melted this for about 12 hours before I decided to turn off my warmer to preserve the tart. You guys know me. I melt something and move on from it. I never save a tart for later, because I have too many other scents. This was so fantastic I decided to save some of the scent for later! This was still going strong when I'd turned of the warmer, so I'm certain this has another good melt in it.
Repurchase: I am seriously contemplating ordering from Rosegirls come April just to get this blend. Either that or buying each of the individual scents in the Mini Melters and creating the scent myself. So the answer would be a very resounding yes. Thank you Julie for this lovely melt. I'm not sure if you could tell, but I very much loved it :)

Rosegirls - Frosted Summer Breeze

 A couple weekends ago M hosted a LAN party at our apartment. It made sense, since we still don't have a couch and we had more than enough room to put several tables and have 9 people total playing computer games and getting drunk in one room. I wanted to put something on that wasn't completely in your face but would be strong enough to combat any other stenches that might arise from this situation.
Scent Description: I don't know what the 'frosted' part is, but the Summer Breeze is "notes of orange and lemon blossoms with white jasmine and woody amber." I know for a fact that there is cotton candy and lavender in here, and that's almost all I smell. Everything I've found that fits the 'frosted' description doesn't have either of those, though.
Weight Melted: 1.8 oz
Cold Sniff: 2/5 There was a weird pukey undertone when I sniffed this, but I know some things just don't smell well in their cold form so I went ahead and melted it.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 I quite enjoyed this. It was a combination of something detergent-y (think Gain) with some lavender and cotton candy.
Scent Strength: 2/3 This was quite pleasant! It was strong enough to cover the stench of 7 males sitting in the living room and gentle enough not to make their drunken asses gag LOL
Scent Throw: 5/5 I smelled this all over the apartment. Score!
Melting Power: 5/5 I left this in for the entire first 24 hours M's friends were over.
Repurchase: Probably not, even though this performed so well. The main thing I smelled here was cotton candy + lavender, and I know it's that because I've been making my own tarts for two years now and my favorite scent to make is Lavender Cotton Candy. I was sitting in the bedroom playing some video games after I put this on and after about five minutes I smelled this and wondered if I had somehow put my own tarts in and convinced myself it was Rosegirls. After the whole chunk melted, all you could really smell was this weird mix that didn't seem to be anywhere in any scent description with anything related to  "frosted" "summer" or "breeze." I loved it, but you could only barely smell the 'summer breeze' when you were within 5 feet of the warmer.