Scents & Scentsibilities

Our July discount is good through July 31 - get 20% off an order of $40 or more (before shipping) using voucher code summer20.  Remember to click the Recalculate button to see your discount!

We’ve been streamlining our fragrance options this summer - we’ve noticed some huge price increases from our suppliers, and other suppliers have closed down.  If a scent runs low and hasn’t been selling well, we are putting it in the Limited Time Offers section until it’s gone.  For the more popular scents, we have switched suppliers  - most recently for Sandalwood and Gardenia.  In the past year we have also had to switch suppliers for Bayberry and Warm Vanilla Sugar.  We just wanted to give everyone a heads up because although we try to match the scents as closely as possible, some of them have different top and bottom notes so they don’t exactly match the previous supplier’s version.

We have started noting recent supplier changes on the Scents list on our website; if you want to be sure you like the new supplier’s version of a favorite scent, it might be a good idea to order a small item (a melt or one votive, for example) to see what you think.

Right now we have a discount of $5 off orders of $35 or more (before shipping).  When you are ready to check out, enter newyear in the vouchers box of the first shopping cart page, and then scroll down and hit “recalculate” to see the discount.  We’ll probably leave this up through the end of February, so it will be good for another month. 

Keep an eye on the Limited Time Offers page over the next few months — we plan to add things to that page as we clean out the workshop and weed through some items we no longer sell.  We will probably be adding some bakery-type candles (pies, etc.), empty foaming soap bottles, etc.

For Valentine’s Day, we recommend you try one of our favorite scents…Cupid!  It’s a great blend of cherry, almond and coconut — rich and tantalizing.  We love it!

If you’ve ever ordered votives from us, you’ve probably seen our recommendation to burn your votive in a tight-fitting holder.   Going with the “seeing is believing” philosophy, we decided to photograph two votives, both made from the same fragrance, wax and wick, and show how they burned.

We placed one in a tight-fitting votive holder (of course!) and the other on a slightly-concave pillar plate.  The results are on Flickr, here:

Votives Test Burn

And by the way…Happy New Year!  We hope 2011 is a fantastic year for everyone!

We’re wrapping up 2010 with a discount of $10 off orders of $50 or more.  Once your shopping cart total reaches $50 (before shipping), the discount will automatically show up.  (The discount does not apply to gift certificate orders.)

We have our Winter Woods pillar on sale right now, available in three fragrances:  Northwoods, Sweet Spruce and Bayberry.

We’ve been trimming things over the past year to help keep expenses down, which is why some of the less popular scents and candle offerings have been discontinued (air fresheners and tealights come to mind).   The more expensive candle jars have been replaced with styles that are easier to source locally, and the tins have been replaced with locally-sourced glass jars.

We are coming up on our 10th year of business in early 2011, and it would not have been possible without all of our wonderful loyal customers.  We value your patronage, and wish you a truly wonderful new year!

Dave & Wendi

Happy Holidays!

Our Cyber Monday discount is 15% off all orders of $25 or more (not including gift certificates). There’s no code to apply — the discount will show up automatically in the shopping cart.

We have our Winter Woods candle on sale right now as well — this is our cone pillar and it’s available in Bayberry, Northwoods or Sweet Spruce fragrance.  This candle definitely smells like the holidays!

We’ll post our holiday closing schedule in the next week or so, but right now it’s looking like we will take a shipping hiatus between Dec. 18-25 (pretty much the same schedule as last year) unless something changes in the meantime.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season — we are lucky to have such wonderful customers!

Wow, you guys…it is HOT here in Illinois.  This marks the official first day of using air conditioning — whew!  I’m kind of a big wimp about hot weather (85 or higher) … give me temps around 70 degrees and I’m very happy, thank you very much. 

We usually like to kick off summer/end of school with a sale, and we’ve got a nice one going on right now — 20% off your entire order of $35 or more.  The discount shows up automatically in the shopping cart once your product total hits $35, so there’s no voucher code to enter.

This is also the time of year patriotic candles get really popular, with Memorial Day and then Independence Day just a little over a month apart.  We’ve got our patriotic votives back on the site, and we’ve also added a set of patriotic floating candles as well! If you go to our floating flower page and scroll down a bit, you can see that we offer these sets two ways: patriotic (red, white and blue) or a trio where you can choose your own three colors.

And finally…graduation!  If you’re having a graduation party, our chunk votive favors are a huge hit.  You can pick the color of the chunk and the color of the overpour wax, and using school colors makes this a great favor item.  It’s a busy time of year for favors, with showers, graduation and christenings, so be sure to order in plenty of time before your event.  If you’re not sure we can get the order to you in time, just shoot us an email and ask.  We’re happy to work with you so your candles arrive when you need them. 

We just finished testing the fragrance from our supplier and this is a winner.  :)  Angel has been off our site for quite a while now; our original supplier discontinued it because the cost of patchouli essential oil rose so high.  (Patchouli is one of the bottom notes in this fragrance.)  Originally they said it would be back, but that hasn’t happened so we started searching for a suitable replacement.

This is a duplicate of the popular Thierry Mugler women’s fragrance and it is really beautiful in candles.  We’re very happy to be able to offer it again!

Hi everyone!

My gosh, it’s nearly been a year since I wrote…how is that even possible?!

We’ve got a free shipping deal going on right now — if your order is over $50, shipping is free.  The discount is applied automatically, no special code needed.  This applies to all orders except for favor orders.

Although we’ve actually been leaning more towards paring down our fragrance choices the past couple of years, we did add a new fragrance in 2010.  It’s called Pure Seduction, and it’s a duplication of a Victoria’s Secret scent…kind of citrusy-strawberry, with a little bit of jasmine and musk tossed in.  It’s a great fragrance for spring and summer!

As I mentioned, we’ve been going through our fragrance line and moving the slow-sellers to our Limited Time Offers page.  It’s really a tricky thing, balancing “lots of options/something for everyone” with “too many choices are overwhelming”.  We hate to disappoint people by discontinuing a favorite scent, although sometimes we have no choice.

One fragrance that may be making a reappearance is Angel.  This was one of our favorites and was a very popular scent, but our supplier stopped carrying it and we had a hard time finding a suitable substitute.  We’re getting a sample in today, however, and we have our fingers crossed that it will be a good replacement for the old fragrance we used to carry.  We’ll be testing it this weekend. 

Finally, summer… and graduation… is just around the corner!  If you’re having a graduation party, our chunk votive favors are a cute, affordable party favor.  You can even match the chunk and overpour colors to the school colors!

It’s that time of year again…graduations, showers and weddings abound!  We’re seeing an increase in floating candle and favor orders right now and wanted to give you all a heads up so you can plan ahead if you need candles (favors or otherwise) in June.

From June 15-21 (Mon. through Sunday) we won’t be processing any orders.  You can still order, of course, but any orders that come in  during that time will enter the processing stage on Monday, June 22.

This will also affect large favor orders that come in between June12-14 because there’s a chance they won’t be completed before our closing; they won’t ship until the week of June 22 at a minimum.

If you think you’ll be needing favors or candles for parties during this time period, it’s best to order early so we can get them out to you in time.  If you have any concerns about whether they’ll arrive in time, feel free to email us and ask before you place your order.

In the meantime, we are still offering a 10% discount (for everything but favor orders) with the code spring — just enter it into the vouchers box of the shopping cart and hit ‘recalculate’.  We’ve had this discount up for a while but with the economy the way it has been, we just figured a straightforward discount is probably more appreciated than a discount on a specific type of candle.

We hope everyone has a wonderful  summer!

We like to give advance notice of our holiday schedule. Since we hand-make every candle after it’s ordered, and this is by far the busiest time of the year for us, our processing time does get longer as the holidays draw near.

In addition, the only time of year that we close shop is during Christmas. This gives us a chance to spend time with our family, who otherwise see very little of us at this time of year!

Here’s our full holiday schedule, including ordering deadlines and holiday closing dates:

If you would like your items to arrive by Dec. 23, please order by midnight CST on Wednesday, Dec. 10. This ensures enough time for processing and a one-week delivery period, which should be enough time to receive your order by Dec. 23.

Orders placed from Dec. 11 - Dec. 14 will be accepted and shipped but, depending on order size and ship-to location, may not arrive by Christmas.

Orders will also be accepted while we are closed (Dec. 15-Jan. 1) but will not begin processing until we reopen on Jan. 2. Your credit card will not be charged until we begin processing your order.

All orders placed while we’re closed in December will receive a free votive (for new and repeat customers) and a discount code good for 10% off a future order!

Holiday Closings

Thanksgiving: Nov. 27 through Nov. 30 - Orders accepted but not processed until Dec. 1

Christmas & New Years: We will be closed Dec. 15 through Jan. 1 - Orders accepted but not processed until Jan. 2, 2009