Hello all! I missed you more than you know. If you are one of the few who noticed I had disappeared, I assure you it was not my own doing... it was fate. Fate killed my computers. All of them save one... a really old horrible piece of butt that took twenty minutes just to start up windows. Not as fun as it sounds. This is a little better but I'm still not running at full speed again. Soon my dears...soon.
Okay, now back to the fun stuff. The yummy stinks. The soapy soaps. The silky skin makers. The goods! From CandleLynn.
I am addicted to many benign things. Makeup, perfume, pets, shoes, art supplies, you get the idea. Above all I am in love with creating atmosphere. Good smells wafting through my house, easing stress, and creating moods for all seasons. I love soy/wax tarts. I love my tart burner. (it's a little black caldron with a black cat perched atop that blasts candle lit stars on my wall through cutouts in it's base. LOVE.) So when my favorite etsy tart store went into the great beyond due to some unfortunate events in the shop owners lives, I was suddenly without stink. I felt panicked. But surely I'd be able to find another good store with product I'd fall in love with just as I had with the former. How could I not? Right?
I love me some stinks! I started making small orders from a few little shops I found pleasing and/or interesting. Order after order came in and I opened each box full of hope and delight, only to be disappointed by one thing or another. One would smell good until I started to melt it and the smell warped into something weird or weak. Some were alright but I couldn't get over the high prices and tiny products. Some were all looks and no oomph to back them up. Messy. Ugly. Stinky. Smokey. Gnarled. The list of duds started to pile up to a depressing degree. I went into retail stores sure the issue was the small scale shops - even though the thought bummed me out to no end. They were largely more of the same. I had given up. I was over it. In the span of about five months I had tried several ways to fill my stink void to no avail. I was just going to have to smell my house. It's boring housey smell was what I'd have to grow to enjoy. So sad.
I turned to lotions. If my house was going to smell boring I'd be damned if I were going to smell boring in it! I started looking for lotions and perfume oils. Found a lot of good ones. A couple not so good ones. Then while searching for something to use on my mom's feet, (I'm a giver) I found CandleLynn. They had cute little scrub cubes in some interesting sounding scents, I decided to give them a try but wanted to read up on them and look around at what else they offered... Whats this! Soy tarts... maybe just a look... fifty some odd bucks later I checked out without the cute little scrub cubes that were the whole point of the order in the first place. humph. They sucked me back in!
I'd been searching for a particular type of scent for summer. I have this thing about lemon foody smells in hot weather. Makes sense only to me I'm sure, but lemon sugar cookie type smells scream summer to me. Some do vanilla, some lavender, I do lemon cake. Who knows. Getting back into it, I had found a perfume oil that smelled really good, if really faint and not so lingering as I'd have liked. They could put it in a body lotion ... but it was pricey and not too terribly large either. To me, there was really no upside to spending the money there. What are the odds that the lotions scent was going to last longer and be stronger than the actual oil right? So I now was searching for an alternative to that which now became my backup plan. I decided to annoy people.
When I wrote CandleLynn it was on the off chance that they might have a scent that would do the job but wasn't in their store right at that moment. What I got back was a lovely message from a lovely woman named Jana who was all too eager to help me out. She said she'd look around and see what she could find and if her search came up dry she'd be more than happy to try her hand at mixing something up for me! I'm paraphrasing mind you, she's well spoken as apposed to my giddily typed rambles.
I'd say maybe an hour later I got another message! She'd found some oils that might work, she sent me the descriptions, I picked the two that sounded most edible, and she shot off and ordered them that night! MAGIC! A couple days later I got a message letting me know they had arrived and they smelled INCREDIBLE. I may have peed a little. I'm excitable, like a puppy. So I ordered them in lotion and those cute little scrub cubes... and tons more tart tubs (I love the tubs) and a few lippies to give a try. This box took a little while to get to me because the sun doesn't rise and set in my butt, (I was surprised too,) and she had to make everything up. Freshness. She kept me in the loop while all that was going on via messages (which I LOVE) and when I got the box... the Squee's were plentiful. CandleLynn restored my faith in .. umm... in stink I guess? Yeah. Sure. Sounds good.
Alrighty, Lets get to the business it's self. An extremely brief rundown of what they offer (at the moment, because they're adding new things all the time) and then I'll toss you a rundown of what tickled my pickle and why you should .. umm... put it on your pickle? wait, no. I'm lost now. Umm
Okay, here's whats up. CandleLynn offers quite a few great little bath and body items including: Whipped hand and body lotion, Sugar scrub soap singles, Whipped foaming bath soap, Perfume oil roll-on, foaming and and body soap ,Little lip balms (think chap stick,) and natural goats milk loofah soaps.
They also, as I've harped on extensively, have tarts! In tons of yum stinks. :) And, drum roll please, in different types! You can get Tart tubs (my favorite,) Tart packs (the usual tart shape,) And Super king kong mega cute tarts on all sorts of shapes and things including mini melts, and clam shell packages. If tarts aren't your thing, they have tea lights and votives too.
Bearing in mind that I can only tell you about what I've tried - and I've yet to try it all...On to the bounty!
The Bath and Home Fragrance Spray is something that has been residing in my bathroom because it doesn't overpower you when you use it, Is the home fragrance spray. I love these. Alcohol and dye free too.
Sugar Scrub Soap Singles (1 for 3.50, 4 for 12.00): These little guys are great. Each little jar comes with 7-8 little scrubby cubes. These aren't so soft that they turn to mush in your hands, they're firm throughout use and hold up really well. Great to take into the shower and smooth over elbows and knees and whatever else needs a good sloughin'. I was able to use one cube for a few showers. I just plopped the remainder into a plastic baggie in the event that it decided to get melty on me- which it didn't. I got these in four scents, I'll describe them a bit further down in the review because I can! They scents stay consistent in every product I've tried. Amazeballs.They leave skin feeling really soft and smelling really good. Scents stay true but for a slight soapy smell, mostly while in use. When you finish the soapy smell subsides quite a bit and you are left with a nice clean smell of your chosen scent. Moreover! These are fantastic to use on your feet! Dead skin BE GONE!
Downside? They're small. Tiny even. So much so that I'm tempted to take them two at a time, which I think I could totally get away with because they last such a long time for me. I'd love a palm sized bar though.
Lip Balm (1 for 2.49, 5 for 11.95 It's best to check the site and/or etsy store for current pricing): Not pictured because they've all three left me. I ordered three flavor/scents and my mother and sister stole two of them and the third I've used so much already (I've had it for about a week now) it looks a mess. It's in the little white chapstick containers and is great. We all love ours. Moisturizing and the flavor/scent is vary mild, not overpowering. People who like flavored lip stuff but don't want to smell it all day will love these.
Downside? I guess the light flavor could be a downside...And it's slippery instead of sticky... Personal preference dictates that I am under qualified to assume what you might like/dislike. I really like them. Use mine daily. Any questions about them are welcome :)
Hand And Body Cream (1 for 4.25- 5.75, 3 for 14.95-Check the site/store): This stuff I really love. The consistency of this is kinda like silky whipped frosting. I described that while applying a wee amount of the Lemon Drop Cookies scented lotion... I honestly could eat my own arm. When I first got these I slathered on Lemon squares and people in the market were actually smelling me. In a good way... if that is possible. Strangers sniffing you openly is a tad off putting. But they were all very nice and I passed along the shop information. Service with a smile. Also, my daughter kept licking my arm, but I'm not entirely sure it was because of the lotion. She's in a weird place right now.
Downside? They look really small, deceptively so. A little goes a long way so that's not an issue for me either. I use it a few times a day for my hands (thanks to hand washing and sanitizing!) And before bed I give my lower legs, arms, elbows, and hands... and some baby feet, for about a month now and at this rate I think each tub will last me about 2 or 3 months before having to reorder... But don't quote me. It's a best guess.
Goats Milk Soap Loofah (set of 2 for 3.50): I love these too. Anything with a Loofah is fine by me. These are a perfect palm size :) unscented, and quite simply goats milk soap loofahs. I use it in the shower so I'm fully prepped for my sunless tanner. Gave one to my mom and she loves it too.
Downside? I'd like it to smell good... because I am insane. And it is and it can leave the skin a little dry if not followed by a post use lotioning.
Tarts!Tarts!Tarts!
Tart Tubs (2 for 3.25, 4 choose your own scent for 6.00, 3 pumpkin scents for 3.65Check the site/store for current pricing info): Why tubs? Because they seal in the scent! They keep your tarts smell from fading with time. You can melt a scent and if you want to change the scent out you can poor the melted wax right back into the tub and reuse it when you next feel like it. ^5 moody people! Great for storage too. Stack neatly on a shelf instead of the usual sack of loose tarts. I really love these tubs. Best idea. The scents last around 7-8 hours (that's just what I have been finding with the tarts I've used,) and because they're soy, they burn nice and clean. The scents are magical. AND they're adding more all the time! I'm gonna be so broke.
Downside? Well, there is the broke part. heh heh Other than that... none that I have found thus far. Crazy right? It's nuts. Even the broke part is made easier by ' liking' the facebook fanpage for sales and things.
Bakery&Specialty Tarts: These are so so CUTE. Muffins, brownies, cookie type sandwich deals, yummy little candle guys... all sorts of this I'm running out of descriptives for :)
Downside? They look so much like food that I actually had to hide them from pets, kids, and company. hahahaha
Stinks! (a few from my ever expanding collection)
Pumpkin crunch cake: This one is a favorite. I've already gone through half a tub of this and it's not even the season for it. It's the pumpkin scent you expect to find... sweet, almost like a cinnamon bun made with pumpkin and a tiny bit of melted butter over top.
Pumpkin Spice: This is my least favorite of the pumpkin scents. It's really spicy (duh) With some pumpkin, but mostly a sickly sweet almost mapley sort of spice scent. Not bad at, but not my favorite.
Pumpkin Cheesecake: Have you had the pumpkin Hershey kisses that come out in fall? It smells EXACTLY like those! I love this one- makes me want to eat tons of sweets. Love it.
Cupid: Straight up Cocoanut and cherry. Sweet and just really yum. less like suntan oil, more like macaroons. Girlie and nice- without smelling overwhelming or perfumey.
Clean Cotton: Fabric softener. I think it's the one with the bear on it... it's really nice. Reminds me of how the house smells when it's hot out and you have to use the dryer because you're in a rush... a hot dryer and fabric softener smell. Wonderful.
Pomegranate: The berry smell they put in all the yankee candles that smells soooooooo good. My house smelled like this constantly growing up. I have a million tubs of this one now. Sweet, warm, berry ... The candles that they called "mulberry" smell like this.
Black Raspberry Vanilla: Exactly what it sounds like. Sweet. You smell the berry and the vanilla and ... maybe a tiny hint of lavender? Teenie tiny, just to cut the sweet a tick. It's not foody while still being a sweet smell. It's a sweet kind of clean smell.
Banana Nut Bread: Banana nut bread batter. Exactly. Banana, sweet cream, tiny bit of nutmeg and spice- SO yum. omg. I want to bake. I may have to make some banana bread now... also smells a little like banana pudding in a gram cracker pie filling. awwwww I've gotta go to the store.
Banana Cream Pie: Cream, bananas, pie crust. In that order. Smells really good.
Log Cabin: Duraflame log! hahaha It smells like lighting a fire in the fireplace with a starter log. You know how those smell like pine trees but like, not... there's something else in there... I love the smell. Maybe a little bit of ceder smell...I'm sniffing as I type all of these btw - This smells like winter to me. This one I put in for only a couple minutes at a time before cooling it down again. This one tub is going to last me forever because it's such a good sort of background smell. Great for setting a wintery mood before watching a cold weather movie. Am I the only one who does that? I may be the only one who does that.
Harvest moon: BEST SMELL EVER! It's the smell you get in fall when you walk into a craft store. hahaha It's that perfect fall smell - When the weather gets hot and I start to feel like summer will never end (I love the fall) THIS SMELL makes it feel like fall again. It's those cinnamon scented pine cones they sell and all the fall spices.... ugh, so damn good. Words... there are none that can fully describe how much I adore this scent.
Bottom line, I wish there were more negative things to say about them. I honestly do. I just really like the company and the product. There is nothing that I hahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifte more than a good company, with great product, who is run by a bunch of jerks. And I know you know there are a ton of them on the indie goods market. So when I find a company who has the holy trinity I get a little giddy. It shows in my writing and I get scared you'll be spooked out by my zeal. I blow no smoke. It's just really good stuff. If you "like" them of facebook you can get in on great sales, promo codes, and the like. They have an etsy and a .com store (click on any of those words to take you there) that both take paypal- which I just really like.
Shipping was great. Costumer service is great. Product is really great. Packahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifging is really good, everything sealed up tight. Very professional, while still personable.
Expect to hear more about them in the future. More stink is on it's way to me. :)
Picked up anything from CandleLynn? Tell me about it!
Thanks for stopping by.
Tits.
-Robin
Annoy me! No really, I like it! Links to point to in the right direction: Tweet! Tube! Tumblr!
Noteworthy post script: I bought everything myself. Everything I say is all me. If something is bad I don't have a problem letting you know about it. That sort of information is as useful, if not more so to me when I'm "blog testing" any company, as the good stuff is - Dishonesty is a waste of both our time. Thanks again.
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