Aunt Smellman Review Part 1

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EVERYBODY!!! (In a Grover type voice from Sesame Street)

I tell you what, having a phone with internet has its perks, but it also has its drawbacks!!

I have missed blogging!! Between working and being lazy at home (because who wants to willingly leave their wax and nice comfortable home?) I've barely made it to the library!

Luckily, I found an opening to make another order which I will make a separate post about!

This particular post is the first part of my two part Aunt Smellman review!!!

Aunt Smellman, around two weeks ago, made a post for Youtube vloggers and bloggers that stated for a review for her wax, she would give a discount for the reviewed order.

Prior to this order, I have never ordered from Aunt Smellman in the past, but have received a few tarts from Round Robins, destashes, and swaps.  What I have tried had always put Aunt Smellman on my "Need to Order From Very Soon" list. 

I thought to myself, "No better time than the present!" and sent her a list of different scents and products which she invoiced me for.

Here is what I ordered:
Clam Shell: Pinkie's Tangerine Lavender 
Custom Blend: Aloha Pineapple/Vanilla Bean Noel  
Custom Blend: Toasted Marshmallow/Birthday Cake
Custom Blend: Pinkie's Lemon Chiffon/Pinkie's Sugar
Custom Blend: Headbanger/Pinkie's Sugar 
Custom Blend: Pouty Pucker/ Pinkie's Sugar 
Tart: 
Berry Blast
Bora Bora 
Breezes and Sunshine
Cashmere Sweater
False Eyelashes
Hot Pink Lime
Lickity Split
Lipgloss
Mandarin Tiki
Paris Twilight
Rachel's Blue Moon
Raspberry Macaroon
Satin Serendipity
Vampires In Love
Pink Sands
Lavender Martini
Lavender Lemonade 

I ordered on March 11th and got the order today (March 25th) so it took about two weeks!! 

I took everything out of the envelope (I wasn't sure if I could share these pictures on this post from my phone (still learning) but the second part of the review will have PLENTY more pictures!!) And everything was well packed (with packing paper and peanuts).  Nothing was cracked or broken.

There was an invoice for my order and a business card included in the package.

One of the tarts that I had ordered (Rachel's Blue Moon) had been discontinued so Aunt Smellman replaced that one tart with three tarts for me to try.  Which was just fine with me :) 

I have asked Aunt Smellman how long to let these tarts cure for and she told me to wait one week before melting.  

My second part of this review will be after the one week curing time and will contain more pictures and some melted reviews!! Stay tuned!!

Her website is auntsmellman.com .  In my opinion, her website is very easy to navigate, easy on the eyes, and what I love from any vendor webpage, has pictures of each product to go along with the listing.  

I can't wait to start melting!!

Short and Sweet!

Hi everyone!!

Well I moved and everything went great with that!!  The only thing that is a downside, is that my internet provider told me that since I moved, that I get way less internet for the same price.  So I've only been able to get on with my phone, and won't let me post any blog posts!! Ugghh!! Which sucks cuz I've been able to take some pretty good pictures with my phone!

So I have been going to the library to do the things that I can't do on my phone!!

Be on the lookout for an Aunt Smellman review coming up!  Also got some fun orders between my last post and this one!!

I will be back!!  Hopefully in the next week or so!! <3

Have a great weekend everyone!! And keep on melting!! <3

Back on the FP BandWagon

I am sitting here with a big bowl of raeman noodles and thought of something I wanted to impart upon you all!!

I really enjoy the Roast Beef raeman noodles, which are hard to find in my area and can be found normally at one grocery store.  It's good, different, and doesn't have this bad stench that most of the other packets have.  I eat raeman noodles by choice, because they are cheap, easy, fill you up, and I don't have to think too much while making them or if I am going to mess them up.  Because when I cook, that happens.  The best part is, I have perfected the science how to cook them the way I like them, so they come out the same every single time! 

Eventually, the noodles by themselves get kinda boring.  I've found articles in different magazines (even health magazines) that tell you how to spice up your raeman!! My favorites have been raeman with scrambled eggs, cream cheese & kale, butter & shredded cheese, and I just made a new concoction where I pulsed some celery, potato, and onion and put it in there with a little parmesan cheese!!  Pretty good!!

If any of you help yourself to raeman noodles, definitely give one or two of these a try!! Or if you have a cool little raeman recipe, I'd love to hear it! <3

Back to wax!! I have been treating myself to tiny Front Porch orders here and there, and between a few restocks, got these!

4Pack Lavender Noel

4Pack Sandalwood

4Pack Lavender Pink Chiffon

4Pack Sweet Dreams

Single Lavender Marshmallow ZB

Single Marshmallow Mango Bread

What kinda sucks, is that I am 50cents away from the $25 mark to get refunded ten percent.  I'm thinking about just grabbing a single or something to put it over.  It's not like there aren't tons of scents I'm wanting to get.  I just love FP's lavender!! <3  I made a whole list of scents based on FP's new scent list that I want to try/get on my virtual sticky note program!  It's a LONG list!

I really forgot after not ordering FP for a long while how ADDICTING it is, with the free shipping incentive!  I mean, really really easy to just get a single or a four pack because you aren't paying any extra in shipping.  Soooooo nice to indulge a tiny (HUGE) want to order sometimes :D

It seems I have gravitated over to somewhat earthy/spa type of scents for the spring and summer.  Especially spring though.  It's just so relaxing to have a lavender or sandalwood scent on with a little fruit mixed in!  I'm still loving bakery, Pink Sugar and Serendipity too, but I think I am going to try to have EVERYTHING blended with that lavender from FP.  I'm obsessed, what can I say?  lol

Still waiting on my Shayz and my second FP order (above)!  My The Bathing Garden order (SO EXCITED!) should be shipping out Monday because I paid on the 24th! So I should be getting it, hopefully on Wednesday! 

And to make matters even more exciting, my moving day is on the 28th or the 1st of March!  So slowly packing everything up as time grows closer.  I'm moving to a different apartment in the same apartment complex, so nothing too different, just a little manual labor to keep the blood flowing and the bank account better padded! <3

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe weekend!!

Get Up, Straight and Tall, Get Your Back Against the Wall

Cuz my love for wax is dangerous!  Dangerously FUN!  (Anyone a Madonna fan? White Heat? Lol)

There is a reason I decided to reference this song in my post tonight.  I was trying to think of a drug/reference to being high in a song, but I don't listen to that type of music.  This is the closest that I could come up with.

In many groups, there is always that excitement before and after making an order.  Many times this feeling is compared to having a high similar to, well drugs.  I always think this is such a funny comparison!! Thirteen years in school and every other phrase is "Say no to drugs." and "Drugs are bad."  What we are really comparing is the addicting quality of our hobby.  And the most common thing to be addicted to is drugs.  It's the mere act that is addicting; it's like collection addiction.  We are the obsessive collector.  We are a slave to our senses because we need wax so we can satiate our olfactory thirst.

We are almost forced into action to engage in wax and candles for smell, food for taste, music to hear,   When you have something that makes you a slave to your senses, you love receiving and it almost forces you to comply to your addiction.  Nowadays, in the wax world, you are "smelling" with your eyes with all of the new products that are out: chunks, loaves, brittle, doughnuts, decorated clamshells, etc.  The high that you experience when clicking that submit button, is almost unparalleled!  Dreaming up orders and blends in your mind, thinking how beautiful your wax will look and smell once it reaches your mailbox and into your arms, is what we all feel plotting and submitting orders at all of our favorite vendors.

It is our way of stress relief and enhancing our quality of life by something so simple yet so intriguing. "What scent do I put on today?"  No extra effort, no focus, the automatic body function of breathing allows you to enjoy scent without having to work at it.  It's one of the things that I, and I'm sure everyone else appreciates and enjoys about our wonderful hobby.  This coupled with the array of different scents, the possibilities with the blending of new and different scents, which only increases our want for new and extra stimulating ideas/blends.  You can almost call it, instead of Sense Stimulation, "Scents Stimulation".

I got to participate in this height of stimulation, and ordered three times today (two times if you count with a friend).  I LOVE ordering, I love the plotting, the preparation, everything (obviously)

Shayz Scentz

Six Packs:
2 Pink Serendipity
Warm Pink Vanilla Sugar
Pink Toastie Marshmallow
Lavender Serendipity
Sweet Dreams
Sweet Lavender

Also went out on a limb and got a few shapes!  A jumbo bunny tart in Pink Sugar Vanilla Bean, 2 "Spring Sinus Tarts, and a double heart tart in Pink Serendipity.  I got two cups in Lavender Vanilla and Honeydew Melon!

Then I made a Front Porch order!  Everyone knows I love my Group Hug (which is a blend of FP's lavender vanilla, tangerine, and Pink Sugar).  It's fabulous!  I had just made my Shayz order and was like, "OK, I have a little bit of money, why don't I check for my Group Hug?" Because when I have money and when Group Hug is stocked, those times never get quite aligned.  BUT TODAY WAS DIFFERENT!  Today I grabbed the LAST four pack of Group Hug and a four pack of Lavender SCDB!  WOOHOO!!!!!!!

Last but not least, my friend was participating in Victoria's Designer Creations flash sale!  I haven't tried too many (maybe one or two VDC's and they've only been in destashes) so I wanted to try in my own little order!! I got a few things!

Victoria's Designer Creations


Pink Grapefruit grubby
Ice Cream Cake Batter ZB grubby
First Kiss Lips
Hot Kiss Lips
Rainbow Sherbet Ice Cream Scoop

Yayyy!! So excited!! Also looking forward to my Bathing Garden haul.  I paid on the 24th, so it'll still be a little while!!

The Bathing Garden
2 Marshmallow Cookie Jar
2 Sleepy
Marshmallow Frosted Tangerine Mango
Pomegranate Lime Sweet Tart
Cheshire Cat
Cleopatra's Cream Bath
Illusions of the Labyrinth
Guava Berry Gelato
Gardenia Coconut Cream



Yayy!! Hope everyone's staying safe and warm!!  Our whole road is ICED over! I am not about to go drive in this... hope everyone's got snacks, electricity, and fun stuff to do at home!

Daphne's Divine Round Robin

Hi everyone!!


OK so I have some really great news!!

I am moving!! Not far, but I am moving!! Both my husband and I have been sharing a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment, only because there were no one bedroom apartments when we got our own place!  Now we can get a one bedroom and have less rent for the space we ACTUALLY USE!  (That second bedroom was a place for our stuff that we had hurried and packed when we moved the first time, and we had no need for it).  For the past week, we have been packing our stuff and going through everything, and you will never BELIEVE how much stuff we had that we didn't want/need anymore!

So lots of trash bags later and very little boxes, we realized that there's not a huge amount of stuff (like I had thought) that we are moving over to the new apartment.  Soo... what comes with little rent, means more money.  Period.  Phew!

AND TAXES!! We will be getting our refund back in the next few weeks! SO YAY!!!

Back to your current programming!

Back a few weeks ago, Daphne's Divine owner Lindsey Davis contacted me, along with other bloggers, vloggers, and vendors to participate in one of two Round Robins!  Usually, I don't do Round Robins with all of the issues that surround them most of the time, however, I am very comfortable with the group of ladies that were participating, so I figured, why not?  I am never successful with openings because openings never coincide when I have money.  So thanks to Sunnee  at Fragrance Obsessed, a few months ago, I had my first Daphne's Divine clamshell: Pink Serendipity BooBerry! And ever since, I've been wanting more!

So here is the box when I opened it!!

Pretty!!!!

So it took me two hours to go through the whole box (Large Flat Rate) with Barry!  And here's what I took out!!

Daphne's Divine TakeOuts: Serendipity Vanilla Butter Fudge, Island Mango Rock Candy, Cake Batter FlapJacks, Alien Bites, Serendipity Cotton Candy Taffy, Strawberry Vanilla Butter Fudge, Boo Berry Pops, and Hot Pink Lime Serendipity

Non Daphne's Take Outs: Two Bundt Cakes of CFTKR Berry Sorbet, scent shot of UTC Blueberry Vanilla, Starlit Wildberry Scone , RG Strawberry Serendipity, Rainbow Melts Pink Peppermint and FP Sugar Cookie Donuts

Then my Put-Backs!  

LCP 5 sticks of "Mix Ur Scent" in Nana's Sugar Cookie, Singles in Sweet Honeydew, Pink Coconut Cake, Orange Sherbert, Pistachio Coconut Fluff, and Scoopable Sample of Watermelon Ice Cream Bread. Vintage Chic Scents: Single Rose in Aunt Bee and War of the Worlds, Butterfly Lane scallop in Pizzelle, Rosegirls: Square in Spiced Apples and Peaches, Ava's Country Cupboard: 3oz Sliceable Tart in Spiced Apples and Peaches, CBV: Scentshot in Marshmallow Fireside, LSC: (repackaged) scentshot in Strawberry Mallow Bread, Crosscreek: Scallop in Frosty the Snowman, K's Kreations: Scallop in Orange Sunshine, Pics Petals and Scents: 1 Single in Jammin' Sugar Cookie, HHS: 4 Pieces of Brittle in Granma's Blackberry Butter Jam Cookies, 4 Prim Words in Toasted Bubble Gum Cotton Candy, 3 Prim Words in Lemon Drop Ice Cream Scoop Dough Bread, and 2 Prim Words in Vanilla Nutmeg

The box before I have to send it out!  Nice, full, and good stuff!

And you won't believe me, but I haven't even been melting much lately!! Since Barry and I got sick, since we couldn't smell them anyway, I figured there was no point in melting (and I didn't have any Sinus Relief Tarts, which I will be getting soon!).  And ever since, I wanted to make sure I had enough good tarts to put in this Round Robin!  I have been melting a little though!!

Shayz Scentz Pink Toastie Marshmallow

Front Porch Apricot Vanilla Butter Fudge

Starlit Wildberry Scone

Slatkin Vanilla Cinnamon

The Bathing Garden Pistachio Pudding Cake

Kimrie Anne's Pink Lavender Vanilla Butter Fudge

Slatkin Flirt

Slatkin French Garden

Slatkin Citrus Flower

Anyhow!  I ordered from The Bathing Garden during her last restock and I am really excited about her Alice in Wonderland themed one that she plans to have next!  Anyone have any scents that they'd recommend that everyone needs to try?? Sound off below!  

I hope everyone has a great week!!

My January

Remember that Textbroker site that I had mentioned in my previous article?  The one where you can get a little extra money (for me to spend on wax orders, that is!) for writing articles about pre-decided topics.  It is CRAMPING my blog posting STYLE!  So I took the day off.

My New Year's Resolution was to cook more, in the crockpot and out.  There is little that I love more (except for well, wax) than for my taste buds to be surprised, stunned, and pleasured by new dishes!  I would love to try Thai food, Japanese (other than sushi) food, Indian food, etc.  And really just want to learn how to cook regular things!  I aspire to be that mom-type who clips coupons and uses the crockpot while shuffling her kids off to soccer practice and dance recitals.  But before I do all that, I learn to cook and dine to unique and flavorful dishes!   I have been experimenting with crockpot "dump cakes" where all you do, is put a can of fruit (any kind), cake mix (any kind), and a stick of butter (in that order) and let it cook for three hours on high.  That sounds like my kind of recipe!

So you think, OK, this girl has got to have a bunch of orders with all this Textbroker money we've been hearing about.  Sadly, so I'm told, bills trump wax. (Who came up with that idea?)  I finally made a nice big order with The Bathing Garden when she restocked this past Monday January 19th.   I could not be MORE EXCITED about my order!!  I didn't order any scrubs this time, because I am still using my four scrubs that I bought in November plus I really really need more wax!  Here's what I ordered!!

The Bathing Garden 1/19/14

A) Marshmallow Cookie Jar
B) Marshmallow Cookie Jar
C) Marshmallow Frosted Tangerine
D) Sleepy
E) Sleepy
F) Pomegranate Lime Sweet Tart
G) Cheshire Cat
H) Cleopatra's Cream Bath
I) Illusions of the Labyrinth
J) Guava Berry Gelato
K) Gardenia Coconut Cream

Some of these are "whims" that I just have heard so much about and need to see if they are worth the hype!  Like Illusions of the Labyrinth is supposed to be a Lush Calacas dupe, and I have never even smelled the Lush dupe, and since it is a unique fruity blend, I wanted to try it!

PLUS I won a contest on Vintage Chic Scents and got a clamshell, a 3pack of roses, and a scent shot, along with two samples!

Clamshell was in Walk of Fame
Roses were in Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'
Scentshot was in The Saturday Evening Post

Samples were in Aunt Bee and War of the Worlds.

Everything smells great cold sniff, I am being good and letting them cure!

I also took a page out of Sunnee's old playbook and decided to keep my empties as a way of incentive to keep them and how they add up!! This is over the past few weeks!!

TBG Marshmallow Cookie Jar
TBG Boo Berry
TBG Sugar Leaf
HHS Pink Noel Cake Batter
FP Pumpkin Blueberry Bread
CBV Peachy Pink Coral
JLCCW Strawberry Passion/Sugar Cookie Brulee
PPS Pink Dipity
HHS Twinkies
CBV Stress Relief
Streetman Bonfire on the Beach
TBG North Pole Ozone
Butterfly Lane Pink Cupcake
Streetman Raspberry ISCDB
TBG Sleepy
HHS Buttermilk Sugar Cookie
HHS Raspberry Zinger
HHS Pink Chiffon
FP Banana Marshmallow Cookies
PPS Fresh Baked Bread
Kimrie Anne's Orange Sherbert/Rainbow Sherbert
Crosscreek Elf Treats
Aunt Smellman Honey Lavender
Aunt Smellman Lavender Martini
L3 Pink Raspberry Peach Sorbet
HHS Granma's Spiced Apples & Peaches
Kimrie's BooBerry Birthday Cake
FP Sugary Apples
CFOW Sugary French Toast
K's Kreation's Sweet Potato Pie
Aunt Smellman Pumpkin Pie
Aunt Smellman Toasted Birthday Cake
LSC Pink Sugar Melons
Kimrie Anne's Pink Lavender Butter Fudge
Kimrie Anne's Serendipity Cream Pie
Kimrie Anne's Brown Sugar Cookie Dough
Kimrie Anne's Pink Wildberry Mousse Vanilla Sugar Cone
Streetman's Lavender Sheets
FP Spicy Apples and Peaches
LCP Pistachio Coconut Fluff ZB
Butterfly Lane Frosted Sugar Cookie Dough
HHS Toasted Bubble Gum Cotton Candy
HHS Pink Noel
HHS Granma's Monkey Farts
Shayz Blueberry Marshmallow
Shayz Pink Toastie Marshmallow
HHS Pistachio Coconut Fluff
HHS Blackberry Butter Jam Cookies
HHS Granma's Vanilla Bean Cookies
Crosscreek Pink Sugared Spruce

It's been a few weeks, which is probably why my list is so long!! Long list of empties!! I do like the look of all the empties!!

I have to shout out to Crosscreek, I ordered with a friend and got five singles each in a Christmas sampler.  I put on Elf's Treats, in my bulb warmer, a single mind you, and it was blowing into my living room and across my apartment.  SO STRONG!! The other's I had were good but not as mind-blowingly strong as that one.

I hope everyone is adjusting to writing 2014!! I know it's taken me a little getting used to!!

Have a great week!!

    

Cheers to 2014!

Where has the year gone!?   

Seriously... I can't believe it is already 2014 (in a few hours, that is!)

Looking back at previous posts and just plain ol' remembering... this time last year, I was a manager at Subway, trying to get out of my super stressful, thankless job.  And I had gotten a Lil' Kitchen Candles order (everyone remember LKC) for Christmas.

It seems like every time I make an order for Christmas to be wrapped under the tree, it seems like they close down.  LKC last year, Butterfly Lane this year *whimper whimper*

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2013

I was a Beaux-Savons-Frais administrator back then too.  But it was short lived.

I also hadn't gotten into zucchini blends yet.  Because I was talking about Amish Bread blends... and while I still like Amish Bread blends... I really really love that creamy zucchini bread WAY more!

Some scents that I got into this year that I never thought I'd get into, along with the zucchini is LAVENDER!! I hated HATED lavender. It always made me think of old hippie's houses and incense shops.  So I think I got a Front Porch lavender blend (which for those of you who don't know, Front Porch uses Downy Lavender Vanilla in all of their lavender blends) and it just clicked.  I also fell inlove with their Group Hug scent (which is Pink Sugar, Lavender Vanilla, and Tangerine!)

I have always loved Pistachio.  My mom used to make Pistachio Cake sometimes for my birthday, and it was always beyond delicious!! So when I started out in the wax world, my first Pistachio scent was Pistachio Pudding Cake.  I got it, and melted it, and there was something off, no matter what company it was from, or what warmer I used.  It was really disappointing... but figured maybe Pistachio was one of those scents that was better to consume rather than smell.

Then I found Pistachio Coconut Fluff!  The first time I got this scent was from Sugar & Spice Gourmet Candles.  I swear, it was on a whim (I've found a bunch of scents I like on whims such as this), and I just grabbed it because I was curious.  I ended up loving it and trying to find it from any vendor, trying to make my own Pistachio Coconut Fluff (Pistachio Pudding Cake+Coconut+Toasted Marshmallow) but to no avail, nothing was like my PCF.  Now I have a whole bag from HHS that I'm melting sparingly until I can buy more...

There has also been a huge influx in scents like Blackberry Butter Jam Cookies, Spiced Apples & Peaches, Twinkies, Vanilla Butter Fudge, Pumpkin Blueberry and other scents/blends like these!  It has been so interesting!! I swear I'd never believe that I'd be able to bare witness to all sorts of awesome blends!


This all being said, I really made the transition into bakery scents!! I used to think people were a little nuts when I heard people just wanted to smell sugar cookies and other scents that would make you hungry.  But now I know, and am aware, how awesome it is!


A few vendors that I'm excited about that surfaced in 2013: Kimrie Anne's, Vintage Chic Scents, Daphne's Divine and Ethereal Glow.  They either have just set up shop in 2013 or have become really recognizable/famous in 2013.  Sometimes I just don't know the difference!  :D

Vendors that III found out and loved in 2013:

The Bathing Garden- I avoided TBG for so long because Shannon only did clamshells, even as pretty as they were, I didn't want that nasty plastic-y smell in my wax.  But after so many people saying how they loved this blend and that blend... I made a little tiny order... And of course, fell inlove.  I love the different blends, the pretty decorations, the scrubs in many different scents, and the customer service!  And the fact that TBG is probably one of the only vendors that mastered clamshells without the plastic smell.

K's Kreations- I know I have looked at her site before, perhaps before 2013, and forgot.  Then when I went and ordered, and did the Katch Em' sale, I was hooked!! I love her brittle, her scallops for trying out different scents and some of the different scents that she has!! Her Cookie Bread blends are fabulous!! Plus I love knowing that when you order the Rainbow Brittle, it goes towards a good cause, an anti-bullying charity in her late son's name.  Plus Kathy is awesome! And so are her administrators!

Sugar and Spice Gourmet Candles- Shanna is a doll!  She is great with customer service and most of her scents that I've had from her last for DAYS!  She is infamous for her Ghost Munch (A Bath and Body Works dupe of Cider Lane) and Honeydew blends!! I've ordered from her a few times, and have always been very pleased!! I still need to make an order here soon...

I'd love to hear all of your New Year's resolutions!! Mine is to learn how to cook better, especially with my new dual crockpot!!

Happy 2014 Everyone!!