Yankee Candle Sicilian Lemon Wax Tart

Following my big Spring Clean exercise in the home and freshening up all the rooms in my home, I have been using reed diffusers to freshen my home instead of constantly using scented candles. The reasons are plainly for a visual point of view as well as trying to inject freshness in the home boosting and promoting spring instead of harbouring and using all the candles I received for Christmas. For mothers day for example I discovered a new Yankee Candle product on the market whereby the UK Company has tarted up their old reed diffusers by supplying fake plastic flowers that look authentic and real, but with reed diffusers hidden behind them that you insert into the bottle. Of course it is all good marketing, but it also made an ideal gift for any loved Mum who loves flowers AND Yankee Candle! I also found a new scent, perhaps for 2012 under the name of “Sicilian Lemon.” Having been a fan of Yankee Candle’s “Sparkling Lemon,” scented candles since they were brought out near Christmas 2010 and more so, the cherry laced “Country Lemonade,” lemon candles, I wasn’t hesitant to buy a couple of the Sicilian Lemon tarts at the time.

Yankee Candle “Sicilian Lemon,” comes from a new line up for Spring/Summer 2012 range and sits amongst other new fragrances like “Loves-Me-Loves-Me-Not,” “Fruit Fusion,” “Pink Dragon fruit,” and “Wild Passion fruit.” Sadly it looks destined to replace "Sparkling Lemon" as my sources report.

Safety First!

In wax tart form, this “candle” has no wick to light but, has a wax and oil solid shape and will require the use of a tea light candle placed underneath to melt the wax. You'll also need an additional hot oil/potpourri oil burner to use and avoid using around inquisitive children or pets. The wax tart looks like an edible tart, hence the name and has a fluted edge with quite a deep depth. Removing wrappers are easy to use before the candle can actually be melted but you'll also need the burner to have a suitably deep concave to hold the tart in and by placing the wax tart still in its wrapper on the top of the burner is a good indication of whether your burner is going to be suitable. If the tart sits above, then the burner isn't deep enough, or if you are still persisting to use it with its shallow edge, you must slice the wax tart and use one half only. When the wrapper is disregarded (simply slide a knife under the wrapper's plastic sticker on the base and pull upwards, usually tears the plastic film in two), and the tart placed on top, a tea light candle will have to be used to get the solid wax melting into a hot oil. Even with this novel way of using hot wax, you have to maintain safety and logic at all times - and you may find that the oil burner gets hot on the base as well as the top making it unsuitable to be moved around.

By the fourth or fifth day, the scent may naturally begin to weaken if it has been left to melt for a couple of hours per day, but the best way of checking if all scent has been used up is also the best way of removing the tart! Wait for the burner to cool down completely, usually judged by an oil that has now hardened, take out tealight candle and place the burner in a fridge or freezer for a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes. After which, take out the burner, tap the top gently and turn the burner over so that the concave tart is facing the worktop. Usually a gentle tap is all that is required for the now solid wax tart to slip out. Give the base of the wax tart a sniff and if you can still smell the scent, then the wax tart still has life to give!

What Does It Smell Of?

Sicilian Lemon has been here before, even if Yankee Candle wouldn’t like to admit it. It has many shades of “Sparkling Lemon,” but without the bergamot orange content that gives the latter scent, a sparkling and fizzy aspect. Here, this fragrance reminds me very much of Opal Fruits/Starburst lemon chewy sweets and I was initially pleased to find that the scent this candle gives off avoids the sneeze inducing or raspy cough producing aspect that some scented candles give off.

The first tone that comes off this candle is freshly cut lemons that are strong to the nose.

The second tone is that of Jaffa oranges, when combined seems to give this candle reminiscing memories of Lemon Fairy washing up liquid rather than a drink when these two citrus tones are brought together. At first I thought my nose was deceiving me! Surely Yankee Candle couldn’t have brought two tones together to create something synthetic? They are famed for using 100% natural extracts, but the combination of these citrus tones isn’t as freshening and pure as I hoped they would be.

The third tone is very difficult to describe. On the one hand, it looks as if Yankee Candle has avoided the vanilla route, often using this extract to give candle scents balance, sweetness and longevity. Instead, the base tone of Citronella gives the game away as the scent soon becomes pungent in the room. It didn’t take me long to discover the after tones of Citronella in this candle though, as it is pretty powerful when the candle is left to burn for a couple of hours.

Strength & Delivery

On quality alone, the wax scent is very rich and very freshening and you’ll be left with no doubt at all that the candle has the ability to freshen up a room in a quick amount of time. The problem however is that Sicilian Lemon doesn’t feel exactly new. It feels like a replacement to “Sparkling Lemon,” but with a lot more citronella added to it that gives it a golden, warmth feeling suitable for sunny days and would probably get away with the fact that it acts as a replacement because of its highly added citrus tones. When I first tried Yankee Candle in 2003/4, one of the first scents I tried was a candle called “Garden Lemon,” and this is a very similar, returning fragrance. Pity because of cost, Yankee Candle no longer sells the excellent mini-steel buckets that were of great use with evening barbecues and the warming scent of Citronella wafting over, killing the midges as a bonus!

One issue that I can’t ignore is that when this candle is left to burn for a good couple of hours, it has the strong ability to come across as synthetic, but only to those with the more sensitive of noses! Here is where it is slightly different to “Sparkling Lemon,” and by far completely different to “Country Lemonade,” that has a sweeter, far creamier edge.

In terms of longevity I find that Sicilian Lemon can last up to five days, which is a good factor that is usually not commonplace with Yankee Candle tarts if they are left to burn for 3 hours or more every day. It’s a good, long lasting scent if you require the freshening aspect of masking odours and tobacco, but whilst it is strong enough to travel to all areas of the home, the power of the citronella aspect can become too much to contain with.

As a garden laced candle, from where this candle comes from however, Yankee Candle have produced a super effort here, even if when fully considered, the candle could just have been named “Citronella,” rather than trying to conjure up something totally continental and confusing by the name alone!

Other Formats

As this is a new fragrance, there are limiting varieties of the candle scent where other ranges are concerned. Online, seller companies are being particularly vague as to what this candle really smells of, so it’s still relatively new.

Prices are given on average without a 25% "season of the month" discount:

Wax Tart (22 grams, 8 hour duration, 90p/£1.20 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 £8-99)
Medium Housewarmer jar candle (14.05oz 60-75 hours duration, £14-99)
Large Housewarmer jar candle (22 oz 100-150 hours duration, £18-99)
Large 2-wick tumbler (22.7 oz 70-90 hours duration, £17-99)
Lidded glass tumbler (7oz 35-45 hours duration, £8-99)
Car tab Housewarmer jar cardboard freshener (6-8 weeks duration, £2-99)
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

If it was the case that Yankee Candle stopped producing the Christmas tinted “Sparkling Lemon,” and replacing the scent with Sicilian Lemon, I wouldn’t be disappointed to buy this scented candle again – but I doubt that it would appeal to a lot of YC fans that may find the smell of burning Citronella fragrance oil in general too strong. Sadly, Sicilian Lemon doesn’t bring anything new to the table of citrus freshening that Yankee Candle haven’t done before - but I like it because I like Citronella oil. It gets 3 stars on its own for originality.

This scent from Yankee Candle is a good idea for summer however, a handy and versatile candle scent to perhaps rely on if you were to take it outdoors to accompany your evenings, and indoors it will fully freshen your home. Because of its synthetic nature, it isn’t a candle scent that I would recommend, unless “Sparkling Lemon,” is severely out of stock, but for its added outdoor versatility and strength coupled with good value for money for a single wax tart, it gets 4 stars - and only just! Thanks for reading! ©Nar2 2012

www.yankeecandle.com