Sniffed a lot of FOs at The Candlemaker's Store today

[GailC]

Went to Hamilton OH, almost 2 1/2 hours from my house, but I picked up my aunt on the way to keep me company.  She lives in Greensburg, right off 74 so it is real handy.  Got 4 cases of wax and 20 dozen jars, so you can imagine what I saved in shipping charges.

 

They have their 16 oz Specially priced FO's available for sale.  So I ended up getting:

 

Granny's Pumpkin Pie (have had this one before; use it as a mixer)

Country Clothesline - toss up between that one and Cotton Linen, but my aunt and I thought Country Clothesline was a little nicer

Bergamot - I really liked this one.  Kind of an herbal orange.

Cotton Candy - I wasn't even going to smell this one, but my aunt picked it up, and I sniffed it and liked it.  She said it was her favorite of the ones she smelled.

 

I was anxious to sniff the Pumpkin Spice Latte, and it did smell pretty good, but I have to stick with the Spiced Pumpkin Latte from RE; it is so good that I don't care if I could save a few dollars if I got this one.

 

The only ones I ordered to pick up was Snow Cream, which I had bought a little bottle of years ago.  Kind of a butter mint scent.  And Summer Orange which was my free one.  There's not a lot to choose from in the free FO's when you spend over $100. I already had several.  It's a nice refreshing orange.  It would be a good blender too.

 

Here are some samples I sniffed that I liked, but some cost more than I usually pay for a pound:

 

Hot Maple Toddy

Fresh Strawberry - Really nice strawberry scent. I will probably get this one next time I order.  Better than the Strawberry cream I also smelled.

Lavender Fields - I don't usually care for lavender but I like this one.  I wrote it down one other time when I went there, but still haven't bought it.  I need to though.

Mocha Cappuccino - This one is good but at $24 a pound, I'll stick to the coffee ones I get from RE

Oak Moss - also expensive but I actually liked it!

Raspberry Creamy - looking for a replacement for Millcreek's Raspberry Cream, which was discontinued.  This one is close

Cedarwood Spice - I may get this one some day.  Nice!

Cedarwood - also nice, but I like the spiced one better

Woodberry - this one was different, wish I would have written down what I thought it smelled like.  

Coffee Caramel - I have Caramel Cafe from RE, so although I liked this one, RE's is just as good....and cheaper. 

Clove - I would like to have this one to blend

Bamboo Lime - I like this one!

 

And finally.....guess what??  They have a fresh ground coffee that smells like  coffee! 

 

There were some very unusual FO samples.  Like Burnt Rubber and BEEF!  I didn't even sniff those.  

 

Met a very nice lady there who makes soap and was excited to find out The Candlemaker's Store is about an hour from her house in KY.  She was having fun sniffing samples too.

 

When I was checking out I told the guy I wished I had called ahead and asked to smell a Grade B fragrance oil and compare with the regular priced fragrance oil.  He said if I liked the regular priced FO's I wouldn't be happy with the Grade B's.  So there you have it.  I said, so you get what you pay for?  And he said pretty much.  Or something like that.

 

I asked him if the specials were grade B, and he said they were B minus, because they were even cheaper than the Grade B's! But the website says they are full strength.  I think it depends on the FO.  I have a few specials I've liked and some I didn't.  One of my best sellers last summer was a $9.99 bottle of Botanical Breeze.  Too bad they don't carry that one any more.

 

All in all, it was a good trip with my Aunt.  I always love sniffing new FO's and going to Cracker Barrel for lunch was an added bonus.  Then we took a long detour through the country and went to Metamora, IN....everything was closed though during the week except the grist mill museum, where they still grind corn and wheat.  Very interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[soshiegirl]

Glad you had a good time.  Sounds like you found some keepers and boy did you really save on shipping!  Good for you!!

[Sarah S]

Hey, thanks for doing that recon for us Gail!

So annoying that they don't have the scent descriptions on their site.

I was wondering about their Grade B oils as well. The whole Grade A/Grade B things seems a little shady to me. Why sell it of its not a good product? Won't you just end up with unhappy coustomers? 

Sounds like it was a great trip for you though! Isn't it great being able to pick up your wax? What a money saver!!

I need to make a trip up to Candlewic soon for mine!

[GailC]

@Sarah S I would rather live close to Candlewic.    They have so many FO's I like.

 

I agree about scent descriptions.  I don't know why The Candlemaker's Store is the ONLY supplier I know of who doesn't include scent descriptions.  And seeing as how they have over 1000 FO's, it's overwhelming to try to just blindly order oils from them.

 

I also wish I could sniff a sample, then buy a 16 oz bottle if I like it.  But I have to write down the ones I like and order them online.

 

I am glad I asked about Grade B.  It stands to reason that the cheaper version wouldn't be as strong/good as the regular version.  Some of their FO's are so expensive it's been tempting to try the Grade B, but I sure won't now.

 

I ordered a new style jar from them, because they keep discontinuing the ones I use!  I was getting such a good deal on the oval hex jars, but then they quit selling them.  Ordered some from Peak, then they went out of business!  

 

Shipping charges on jars are so expensive I thought I'd give a new kind a try....now let's see how long it is before TCS discontinues this one.