I know it’s silly, but I’m terrified of fire. So I’m a big fan of Yankee Candle’s Scenterpiece wax melts. They sit in a little cup and get warm through electricity rather than fire, and make your room smell as pretty as though you’d just lit a beautiful candle. And hanging out in the store to find your new favorite scent can be a fun, soul-searching experience.
Enchantment
But Yankee isn’t the only source of either wax melts or candles. One day an ad came across my Facebook page for a candle named “Enchanted Library” from a place called Spireside, and I was intrigued enough to click on it. True to its name, this was an imaginative scent unlike anything you’d find on a Yankee shelf, where everything is designed simply to smell like “pretty”. According to the website, Enchanted Library smells like aged library books, wild roses, and just a hint of leather.
I love all of those individual scents, and put together, they would indeed (in my mind) make up the smell of an old library in a magical castle, with perhaps a beast and a dying, magical rose lurking within. I added this to my cart immediately. But then I realized, this wasn’t the only creative scent like this on their site.
Atmosphere
Spireside creates whole atmospheres straight from the scenes of favorite books and films. They bring dimension to our imaginations. Yankee makes scents that simply make your house smell good. (And I love them for that and expect nothing more or less). But Spireside sets scenes and creates worlds. That’s why I’ll keep coming back to them and finding new scents to complement my Yankee collection–that and their products are really good!
I like to save the cups from expired Yankee melts to put my Spireside wax into. (Just put the Yankee Scenterpiece cup in the freezer for a couple of minutes, and the old wax will slide right out!)
Favorites
Here’s an added bonus for me: My boyfriend lights a lot of candles. While I tend to go for woodsy, spicy scents that remind me of autumn and Christmas, he prefers beachy, tropical ones that remind him of summer. The Nautilus is somehow the perfect compromise for these two book lovers, satisfying both our aromatic needs. We can’t get enough of it!
I actually love so many of their scents that it’s hard to choose a favorite. Here, in no particular order, are all the ones I’ve tried that I like to keep around:
- The Alchemist’s Fire and Forbidden Temple (These two are intended to be used together, but are also good by themselves.)
- Headless Horseman’s Ride
- Pirate’s Revenge
- Wizard’s Forest
- Dragon Queen
- The Nautilus
- Jungle Cruisin’
- YOLO (The Pirate’s Life)
I also enjoyed the following scents which appear to have been retired since my last purchase (including them here in case they make a return):
- Wizard’s Ball
- We Wish You A Creepy Christmas
- Dragon Rider
Thoughts From A Man
Having thoroughly pored over every ingredient and description on the website before ordering, I already knew exactly what each scent was supposed to smell like, so admittedly, I’m a bit biased. For fun, I decided to let my boyfriend do a blind sniff of my scent collection to give me his thoughts. I already knew he would not like most of them, since as I said before, we have very different tastes when it comes to the smells we enjoy.
My guy is much more logical than imaginative and was largely unable to name specific notes or relate any of the scents to a particular book or film. Still, he agreed this would be a fun project. Here were his reactions to all the scents I had on hand:
- The Alchemist’s Fire: “It’s like a good men’s deodorant. I like it, but I’d want to wear it; I wouldn’t want it as a candle.”
- Forbidden Temple: “It’s like it’s trying to be fresh, but failing miserably.” (I found this very funny since the entire point of Forbidden Temple is to recreate the scent of a musty old temple like from an Indiana Jones film. So I’d say Spireside absolutely nailed it!)
- Headless Horseman’s Ride: “The pumpkin spice smells too sweet.” Much too sweet for him.
- Wizard’s Ball: “It’s like a partially cluttered, partially updated apartment belonging to a middle-aged white woman.” He added that it was reminiscent of cleaning supplies and was ‘meh’ on whether or not he liked it.
- We Wish You A Creepy Christmas: He recoiled and said, “ICK! God, that’s AWFUL!” and added that it smelled like fake cinnamon.
- Pirate’s Revenge: He said he didn’t really like it because it smelled like old people’s dated houses in Florida.
- Wizard’s Forest: He said it smelled like Christmas and a cluttered holiday store with glass jars and wood shelving, or like a spice/candle store.
- Dragon Queen: “It smells like a beach bar.” He actually liked this one!
- YOLO: “Definitely like [redacted] Christmas. It’s like Christmas spices, very spicy.” I got an emphatic “NO” when I asked, giggling, whether he liked it.
- Dragon Rider: He said it kind of reminded him of a shoe store where he worked as a teenager, and the (then young) man who owned it. “Not unpleasant.”
Of course, it stands to reason that no one will like every scent–and the irony of this story is, the Enchanted Library scent that hooked me in the first ad I saw, I absolutely loathed. I’m not sure why, but for me it didn’t smell like any of the ingredients it was supposed to, and instead was somehow the scent equivalent to a nasty earthworm-flavored jelly bean I once got out of a box of Bertie Bott’s Beanboozled jelly beans. Nevertheless, it’ll surely smell different to different people, and this one still has great reviews.
In Conclusion
I tend to think that, especially with the pretty illustrations on the labels, these candles make excellent gifts, but are probably better suited for women, or at least for men who are more in touch with their creative side. In conclusion, I think there’s something here for just about everyone. It’s a unique concept, and it’s fun exploring the site for something that’ll speak to you. Whether it’s Disney, classic literature, Harry Potter, or Game of Thrones, enjoy your quest!
(Note: If you live in Florida, there’s a very limited window to buy candles and melts from anywhere online and have them arrive at your door in good condition. It’s just like ordering chocolate. All the more reason to think about ordering these at Christmastime!)
Have you ever wondered what your favorite book or movie might smell like? Let me know your ideas below!
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