Yankee Candle Bahama Breeze Wax Tart > Reviews (14)

Of late with summer holidays impending, Scotland has had the worst kinds of weather imaginable. From an extended cold winter to March and April storms and power cuts, it's been a wonder that winter hasn't come knocking on the door again! What better way than to consider a new branded scent from Yankee Candle called "Bahama Breeze"? Yankee Candle, one of America's global premium candle companies promise the scents from fruits like pineapples, mango and grapefruit and has been made to conjure up the fun loving, beach-ball-bouncing-on-sand images of a well deserved summer break - not that the fact that my garden looks like a hurricane has been through it - makes the appeal of trying this candle scent any more appealing!

Yet, this is what I adore about Yankee Candle. Most of their scented candle products have the appeal of being sampled straight away with the bonus fact that you can instantly identify the scents or natural additives that the premium candle has added. When I picked up the wax tart in the shop I instantly identified Wrigley's chewing gum from their "Condom" pack inspired "5" range, namely in the yellow sub-brand flavour "Lush," a tropical mix of pineapples, lemons and mango. I'm not a fan of that particular flavour because I find it too tropical to my tastes and often has me wondering if there's any Malibu in the house!

In wax tart format you'll need a supporting tea light candle and a potpourri oil burner with a deep concave at the top. Wax tarts are so named because of their shape, depth & round fluted edge. They don't have a wick in them, which is why you need an additional accessory to get them going. The tarts cost £1-05 on average and each wax tart has a burn time of 8 hours.

What Does It Smell Of?

The flavour that this candle gives out is very strong and very much like Wrigley's "Lush". From the moment you open up the wrapper (so easy to do if you slip a knife under the base sticker and push upwards) and place the wax tart into a hot oil/potpourri burner with a supporting tealight candle to get the wax tart hot and into a hot steaming oil, it only takes minutes for the first tone of fresh and appealing pineapple to pervade. Fruity, sweet and very appealing it does remind me of lots of fruity sweets I used to devour as a child!

The second tone that comes out of "Bahama Breeze," is a lovely mouth watering mango and it is so fresh and strong that when the candle had been left on for an hour, the open scent of this fruit began to make me cough. I don't tend to cough with Yankee Candles but I found the fragrance a bit too strong to contend with to the point that my throat became very raspy. There's definitely a chalky additive in this candle's scent that induces a cough in me and initially found it hard to identify which tone this problem was arising from.

The base tone seems to come out fairly quickly with the Mango content and is one of the promised grapefruit. It is quite citrusy in its approach though helped along by a distinguished tone of citrus lemon and reminds me of a very famous soft drink I used to devour called "Lilt."

This is where the problem lies with me - having had grapefruit candles in the past from Yankee Candle; the grapefruit tone has shades of cucumber and a slight hint of lime. Whilst it all very refreshing, the fullness of the oils when they come together provide a raspy, biting edge that may induce a cough or sneeze in you. It isn't a candle for the faint-hearted!

Strength

Where other odours are concerned however, they simply don't have a chance to sit back and linger. Bahama Breeze breezes in quite quickly with a warming cloud of freshness which seems to twist around odours fairly quickly like that from pets, tobacco smoke and even kitchen cooking smells, replacing it with a summer tainted dream of what could be in store if Mother Nature gives the whole of Scotland and the rest of the UK, decent sun without rain! It certainly smells of the scents that Yankee Candle promise, which isn't unheard of from this company, but offers an additional sweet edge against others I have tried.

In terms of longevity I found that the wax tart can last up to 3 to 5 days depending on how many hours per day you burn the candle. One of my friends who bought the candle with me found it lasted her 2 weeks since it was so strong that she found an hour at most was all that was needed for scent over a couple of day's use in a smoke-free home.

Safety

The wax tarts by Yankee Candle will turn into a hot steaming oil when placed in a hot oil potpourri burner - this whole concept gives the buyer value for money - but safety and caution is paramount. Wax tarts can be more dangerous because of the secondary burner that has to be used and it will not be able to be carried or handled the moment the wax tart is "lit," unless you're lucky to have a 3M heat proof oven glove but then play at second odds to be careful not to have the oil spill over if you must move the burner. Make sure you put a heat proof coaster down though as many hot oil burners don't have heat insulated bases whilst the top must have a deep concave where the wax tart can fit into. If the wax tart sits above over the lip of the burner, you may have to slice the tart in two and use only one half at a time to prevent oil spillage or oil flowing over. This isn't a product to use in the home if you have inquisitive children or pets.

After the tealight candle has burned out, you replace with another tealight candle until all the scent in the wax tart has gone. If you have had enough of the scent and simply want to change it, the tealight candle has to be extinguished and taken out, wait for the burner to cool, place in a freezer or fridge and wait for 15 minutes, take out, turn it over and tap the bottom so that the now solid wax tart simply falls out. If there's still scent on the base, there's still scent in the candle!

Other Formats

Whilst the candle is available in wax tart format, there are other versions you can buy from Yankee Candle if you don't fancy the wax tart idea such as (prices given on average and not including 25% discount if this scent is "season of the month," which some stockists apply.

) Being a new scent for 2011 means not all ranges from Yankee Candle are yet available such as the lack of a reed diffuser or plug-in scents - it is worthwhile to use online stockists for limited edition versions:

Wax Tart (22 grams, 8 hour duration, 90p/£1.05 each.)
Votive candle (1.75 oz 15 hour duration, average price £1-75 to £2)
Small housewarmer jar candle (7 oz 25-40 hours duration, £5-99 to £7-99)
Medium housewarmer jar candle (14.05oz 60-75 hours duration, £13-99)
Medium 2 wick tumbler (12.5 oz 45-50 hours duration, £12-99)
Large housewarmer jar candle (22 oz 100-150 hours duration, £17-99)
Large 2 wick tumbler (22.7 oz 70-90 hours duration, £16-99)
Lidded glass tumbler (7oz 35-45 hours duration, £8-99)
Car tab housewarmer jar cardboard freshener (6-8 weeks duration, £1-99)
Tea light scented candles (240 grams, 4-6 hours per candle, 12 in a box £5-99)
Aerosol Room Fragrance Spray (1.5oz, 400 spray limit £4-69 to £5-99)

Final Thoughts

Against a lot of other fruity candles I've tried so far, "Bahama Breeze," is by far one of the strongest scented candles I've come across and in the future I can see I may well buy the same scent again. My wax tart lasted for three days burnt for around 3 hours each day before the scent started to die away and unbelievably there was a point where the scent certainly took me away from the weather and gave me a bit more optimism. The trick to avoid coughs is to keep the candle lit for an hour before extinguishing as the scent takes a while to die down rather than leaving it lit for a lot more time. Whilst the candle scent is very strong, fruity and appealing, it is also quite overpowering and lets your dream of a future summer with plenty of cocktails on hand! A full on fruity candle not for the faint hearted! Thanks for reading. ©Nar2 2011

www.yankeedoodle.co.uk

www.yankeecandle.co.uk