First Orchid Lake Candles Haul - First Impressions and Cold Throw Reviews

Happy Monday everyone! I've been sick with the flu for the past few days so I hope you've all had a better weekend than I did. I'm here today with my first - and certainly not last - wax haul on the blog! Woohoo! Without further ado, let's just hop right in!

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The company that I will be talking about today is Orchid Lake Candles! Orchid Lake Candles (a.k.a. OLC) is based out of Florida and run by a lovely woman named Wendy. She makes all of her products by hand and besides wax tarts, she also sells candles, incense and bath and body products. I only purchased tarts from her this time around but I may throw in a few bath and body items in my favorite scents next time around. I have heard a lot of good things about OLC from several youtubers so I was very excited about this order. 

TAT (turnaround time) for this order was 14 business days which was within her stated TAT of 15 days. It seemed a bit longer than that because the order was placed before Christmas and New Years so I did have to go back and count the days to make sure but it as I said, it was within the stated TAT.  

She has a good variety of shapes and sizes of tarts available, such as scent shots, clamshells, small bags of shaped tarts and large bags of shaped tarts. I went for the 2 oz. scent shots for my first order but the 1 oz. scent shots seem to be her most popular item. I did the 2 oz. ones because I have large rooms with tall ceilings in my home and I'd rather have a punch-you-in-the-face-strong scent than a weak one.  

A cool thing that Wendy does is tie-dying the tarts. This is a free option that you can select when ordering and I figured why not get my tarts tie dyed?! Some tarts had a better effect than others and some that I ordered didn't seem to be tie dyed at all. No biggie. It is noted on her site that some types of wax take to the tie dying better than others. Anyways, here are some of the best tie dye effects of the tarts from my order:

First up, I will start with the samples she sent.

So generous of her to send so many samples! I only learned after I placed the order that you could request samples so everything I got was picked out by Wendy. She did a great job picking scents that I would like based on what I ordered! 

• Grapefruit Jasmine - This is lovely! I'm a huge fan of grapefruit scents so this one was right up my alley. You can definitely pick out notes both the tart grapefruit and the jasmine and they compliment each other well. The floral note is not too overwhelming. Definitely going to get a full size of this one in my next order.
• Tropical Madness - Meh. A very nondescript fruity tropical scent. I couldn't find the notes listed anywhere on the site so I'm not quite sure what's in this. Not bad but nothing special. Wouldn't order again.
• Juicy Pear - Great pear scent! Love this one. Would consider reordering if I was in the mood for a plain, straight up pear scent.
• Passion Fruit and Guava - I ordered a scent shot in this as well. I'm not a fan. There's a weird,  generic floral smell to this that I'm not digging and not a juicy, tart fruit scent like I was hoping. The husband really likes this one so I'll at least melt the sample to see how it is when warmed.
• Bread and Jam - Yum!! You definitely get that bready note with the tart, fruity jam. I prefer the Bread and Jam scent from Sweet Fixations so I probably wouldn't order this one again. The SF version is a bit sweeter while this one is more of a true, crusty bread scent. If that's what you're into, this one is definitely for you!
• Neroli Blossom - I'm so glad she sent this one because I was actually considering getting this one in my order! Neroli is a favorite scent of mine for perfume, it is a sweet floral scent. This version is very strong, and it smells great on cold sniff but I could see it becoming overwhelming while melting. We shall see!
• Fruit Loops - Just your standard and delicious citrus-y Fruit Loops scent. Smells exactly like the cereal. Divine! I have a lot of this scent from other vendors so I'm not sure I'd order it again but nonetheless I'm glad to have more of it =)

Now onto what I actually ordered! I'll start out with the ones I wasn't too keen on:

• Mary Jane -  EW. I had to try this one because there was lots of buzz about it on Facebook. It's supposed to smell like marijuana. To me, this tart smells like the stale smoke of a Christmas tree that caught on fire. Strange, unpleasant and weird. But hey, you've gotta give it points for uniqueness! 
• Yuzu - This is the scent of a yuzu grapefruit. Wildberry, my favorite incense brand, used to make this amazing Yuzu incense. It is now discontinued and I was hoping that this would smell like it. Sadly, it did not. It had that same weird, artificial soapy smell that the Passion Fruit and Guava did. Not fresh. Not bright. Just yuck. 
• Zesty Lemon Zucchini - I think I need to just give up on Zucchini scents at this point. To me, they all smell like a bag of Fritos. Sure, there's a hint of lemon in this one but it doesn't cancel out the corn chip smell. I know lots of people love Zucchini Bread scents so I'm sure I won't have a problem finding this one a new home.
• Passion Fruit Guava - I got this one in a sample as well so I talked about it above. In short, not the fruity scent I was hoping for. 

Now onto the ones that I did like!

• Cucumber Cantaloupe - I had to get this one because it is one of my favorite Yankee scents. This version of it tends to be heavier on the cucumber. I prefer the Yankee version because it is heavier on the cantaloupe but it's still pretty close. Not bad but probably not a reorder. I'll stick with the original version from Yankee. 
• Cherry Cola Cake - So cool! You can smell the cherry cola note and you can smell the cake note! I'm not sure if I will actually like this while melting but it is a fun scent and I can't wait to at least give it a try.
• Chubba Dubba - This is definitely a strong, fresh citrus fragrance. I can smell mostly the lemongrass and a sweet orange scent. This scent is actually marketed as an appetite suppressant. I don't know about all that but it sure smells fantastic! 
• Grapefruit Blackberry - This one is okay. It's like 90% blackberry and 10% grapefruit. I would prefer more grapefruit but overall not bad. The blackberry has a bit of a floral note to is as many blackberry oils do. Maybe I'll throw in the Grapefruit Jasmine sampler with this one to amp up the grapefruit note in it.

• Pixie Dust - So good! This is a blend of pomegranate, berries, peppermint and vanilla. I smell mostly pomegranate with a hit of mint to freshen it up. I absolutely love love LOVE this one. A reorder for sure. The pomegranate scent in here is delicious. Is it true to the scent of an actual pomegranate? I don't know about that. But it smells pretty fantastic!
• 7 Up Pound Cake - This is a scent that most vendors carry, and for good reason. It's so yummy! OLC's version smells like the rest, a citrusy cake scent with a slight hit of effervescence. One of my favorites. 
• Exotic - This is a dupe for The Body Shop's Exotic fragrance oil, one of my favorite scents ever. The notes in it are apples, pear, melons and berries. I can't pick out any of the specific notes but I can tell you it smells EXACTLY like Exotic from The Body Shop. It's a deep, fruity fragrance that's just hard to explain. If you like fruity scents and you've never tried Exotic, you must! It's amazing. 
• Sinus Relief - This is the scent of Vick's Vap-o-Rub. Strong, medicinal smell that seems like it would be perfect for clearing sinuses. 

And here's my favorites from the order:

• Lemon Lime Twist - YES!! This one is phenomenal. It smells EXACTLY like my beloved Fizzy Pop incense from Wildberry. I have a Fizzy Pop tart from Sweet Fixations and that does not smell nearly as good or as close to the original as this one does. It's a bright, effervescent citrus scent. You can almost smell the bubbles hitting your nose. Will reorder this one again for sure!!
• Raspberry Lemonade - I just love lemonade scents and this one is definitely one of the best. It is the same raspberry lemonade scent as most other vendors have but it's so good that it is always a favorite. You smell the lemonade and the raspberry scents. The raspberry adds almost a hint of a floral note to the scent but not in a bad way. LOVE!
• Blueberry Zinger - Hands down, the absolute BEST blueberry scent I've ever smelled. EVER. This is an OLC blend of blueberry, coconut, and cake. I assume it is modeled after the popular raspberry zinger scent. And indeed, this is like a blueberry version of the famous Hostess raspberry zinger cake. The coconut note blends so well with the blueberry scent and the cake note brings it all together. I need a truckload of this. DIVINE. 
• Caramel Coconut Cookie - Caramel, Coconut and Cookie. Not much more to say about this one except it's delicious. Another hit and another one to add to my reorder list.
• Pearamel - A fantastic blend of pear and caramel. It smells like a caramel apple except with pear instead of apple. The pear is bright and juicy and the caramel is rich and sweet. They two compliment each other perfectly and I can see this becoming an ultimate favorite for fall. Or whenever. In fact, I might throw this in my warmer right now!

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Overall, and off of cold sniff alone, I am pretty pleased with my first order from OLC. I ended up getting 17 different scents in the OLC wax blend (a soy and paraffin mix) and along with those, Wendy sent 7 samples of other scents. There were a few misses but overall I generally liked everything. She has a huge scent list with lots of unique scents that other vendors don't have, so if these perform well while melting I can definitely see OLC becoming one of my favorite vendors!