Candles from the Keeping Room January Reopening Haul - Cold Sniff Reviews

Hey everyone! I've been feeling under the weather (yet again) and I wanted to post this yesterday but wasn't feeling up to it. But I'm back and SO EXCITED to share this haul with you all!

Today's haul is from Candles from the Keeping Room. As I have mentioned on here before, CFTKR is one of my top favorite vendors. It is run by a lovely woman named Carol who has great customer service and always goes out of her way to make her customers happy. CFTKR is strictly a RTS business, meaning that Carol pours the tarts and them lists them on the site for sale. Since it is RTS, the TAT is very fast even when she is slammed with orders. 

She has the most extensive selection available out of any RTS vendor. There are 23 different categories of tart scents and each category has a large selection of different scents. The scents are available in 4 oz. and 8 oz. bags. You cannot purchase the tarts individually. Sometimes she'll have samplers that have 6 different tarts of all different scents in them. These sell out pretty quickly though so you have to plan for that. She always keeps us updated through Facebook on what she's working on, if she's working on remakes, when samplers might become available if she's working on them, etc. so it's easier for customers to plan out their purchases.

This is my biggest order from CFTKR yet, it was my birthday gift to myself =) She was closed for about a month and half for the holidays and to get a lot of remakes done. For this opening, along with tarts, she had TONS of samplers, cuttables, special tarts and candles. I had never tried her candles or cuttables so I made sure to order some of those and I got a bunch of samplers and bags of tarts as well. She opened up a bit before 5 A.M. last Thursday and you better bet I set my alarm and woke up early to order! She ended up having to close for a few days to process the huge influx of orders that she received that day.

CFTKR is another vendor that I would recommend if you are just getting into wax. The TAT is fast, customer service is excellent, there's tons of scents available and she always gives great samples so you can try lots of different scents. Keep in mind that CFTKR is 100% paraffin wax and because it is a harder wax, you will need a hotplate or tealight warmer. This wax will not do well in a lightbulb warmer.

Another thing about paraffin wax is that it doesn't give as strong of a cold throw as soy wax does. Sometimes you can't smell certain notes in paraffin on cold sniff but these notes will come out when melting. For this reason, I was unsure if I was going to do cold sniff reviews. I decided that I am going to because you can definitely smell the tarts in the bags, but I do so with this disclaimer: Cold sniff reviews on paraffin wax may not be accurate to the actual scent of the tart when melting. So please keep this in mind when reading my cold sniff reviews of CFTKR. 

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Anyways, let's get into the fun stuff! 
First, we'll start with the regular bags of tarts.

• Raspberry Peach Summer Tea - I'm smelling mostly raspberry with hints of peach and tea. This is so awesome! I love tea scents so I'm sure I will love this one when melting.
• Raspberry Sorbet - This is so good! It smells exactly like tart raspberry sorbet. Delish!
• Raspberry Vanilla Cream - This one smells like Lush Rockstar to me, very candy-like with a bit of a powdery note. I was hoping for more of a true raspberry scent but I actually do like it! I'll have to melt it to see if more of a true raspberry note comes out.
• Peach Pie Filling - OMG this one is soooo good! This is a very tart and sugary peach scent. It smells exactly like what I would think peach pie filling would smell like. There's no crust note here, it's all peach!
• Peach White Cake - This is a nice blend of peach and cake. The peach is a bit artificial smelling, I was hoping for more of a fresh peach scent with this one. Of the two peach scents I got, I prefer the Peach Pie Filling. This one is still good through!

• Pink Sugared Lemon - This is a great blend of Pink Sugar and lemon. The lemon is stronger in this one but you can still smell the Pink Sugar. Really nice!
• Lemon Noel - This is a blend of lemon and Vanilla Bean Noel. Again, the lemon is the stronger note here but the Vanilla Bean Noel adds a nice sweetness. Love this one!
• Lemon Summer Cake - This is a fantastic lemon bakery scent. I don't smell any other notes in here, it's just a straight up lemon, sugar and cake scent. I can never have enough lemon bakery!
• Serendipity Marshmallow Delight - This is one of my favorite CFTKR scents. I actually got a few bags of this because it's so good. It's a blend of Serendipity and marshmallow. Amazing! Carol's marshmallow blends are always awesome.
• Satsuma and Strawberry - This is a new blend that was requested by a customer. It's definitely heavier on the orange note but the strawberry adds a nice sweetness. I'm hoping the strawberry will come out more when melting.

• Banana Wafer Pudding - You guys know me and my banana scents! This was a new scent for 2013 so of course I had to try it. It's a really great creamy banana scent. It's not exactly a dead-on true banana scent but it's not a candied banana Runts one either, kind of in between. It's a very nice banana scent. Really like this one! 
• Buttery Cake Bites - Another new scent. This definitely has a very heavy buttery note that almost smells kind of maple-y. I'm not sure on this one. I have a feeling it will smell a lot better when melting though so I'm not counting it out just yet!
• Celtic Moonspice - This is a favorite scent of mine from any vendor. It's a strong spicey scent with a slight hint of bakery sweetness. Love!
• Marshmallow & Butter Brickle Pie - I have heard so many good things about this scent so I finally broke down and ordered it. I can't believe it took me so long to try this! It is SO GOOD. It has a sweet, crunchy caramel note to it but it is mellowed out nicely by the marshmallow. 

Next up is all the cuttables! These are large tarts that are to be cut into smaller pieces to put in your warmer.

• Wildberry Mousse & Toasted Marshmallow (Fruit Pie Tarts) - The crust on this one is toasted marshmallow and the filling is wildberry mousse. Oh so good! Wildberry mousse is such a great berry blend and it smells even more yummy with that toasted marshmallow note. 
• Vanilla Bean Noel - Raspberry Coconut (Chunk Muffin Cuttable) - This has raspberry coconut chunks and the overpour is VBN. This smells so good! The VBN is more prominent but it's probably because most of the chunks are within the muffin.
• Vanilla Bean Noel - Blue Hawaiian (Chunk Muffin Cuttable) - Chunks in Blue Hawaiian, overpour in VBN. I smell mostly VBN in this one too as the chunks are on the inside of the muffin. Love Blue Hawaiian though, can't wait to melt this one.
• Toasted Marshmallow - Pink Flamingo (Chunk Muffin Cuttable) - Chunks in Pink Flamingo, overpour in toasted marshmallow. This is really good! Pink Flamingo is a strong sweet cherry and orange scent an the toasted marshmallow adds a nice bit of creaminess to it. Really like this one!
• Strawberry & Toasted Marshmallow - I am currently addicted to strawberry scents, so this is one of my favorites from the order. The crust is the toasted marshmallow and the filling is strawberry. It's amazing.
• Fruit and Spice (Donut Cuttable) - This scent is a blend of citrus, cranberry and spice. I went out on a limb with this one and I'm not sure I love it. I'm really picky with cranberry scents and this one is not my favorite. I know it's a really popular blend though so hopefully the spices will mellow it out when melting.
• Jelly Donut (Donut Cuttable) - If you've seen my Top 10 of 2012 post, you'll know that this is one of my all-time favorite scents. It's a fruity dough scent. It's hard to describe unless you've smelled it yourself. Amazing! When I saw that she did donut-shaped cuttables in this scent, of course I had to get one! 

Here's my very first candle from her. It is absolutely GORGEOUS!

• Strawberry Whirl (Pottery Bowl Candle) - How gorgeous is this candle?! It has the strawberry and mini banana embeds and the top is dusted in sugar. So cool! Better yet, the scent is amazing. Strawberry Whirl is a great strawberry banana scent. Two of my favorite scents together, you just can't go wrong here. This candle is so pretty, I almost don't want to melt it! But I will =)

I ended up ordering 10 different samplers. These are a great way to try a lot of different scents without committing to a full-size bag. These individual tarts are also great for swaps and round robin boxes!

Melons and Blends No. 25 Sampler

• Watermelon Garden - This is an awesome watermelon-floral blend. I think this is my favorite of this lot!
• Sour Watermelon Candy - Not my favorite. A fake, tart melon scent. 
• Passion Melon - I know a lot of people love this blend but I'm not a fan of it myself. This is a blend of watermelon and passion berry. Passion berry is a blend or berries, fruits and passion flower. All of these things together sound like I would like them but it's just not working for me. It's almost too sweet. But like i said, I know a lot of people love this one.
• Honeydew & Whipped Cream - I already have a 4 oz. bag of this in my stash and it's a good honeydew scent. It has a bit of a floral note to it but I don't mind. 
• Watermelon - This is a great straight up sweet watermelon scent. Love this one!
• Melonade - This is a blend of melon and lemonade. I almost ordered a bag in this but I wasn't sure I would like it. It's okay. I much prefer other fruits blended with lemonade. Not bad but not my favorite.

Banana and Caramel No. 20 Sampler

• Banana Colada - This is a blend of banana, brown sugar and tropical fruits. Really good! I love how the brown sugar note blends with all the fruits. Love it!
• Caramelized Banana Cake - Honestly, you really just can't go wrong with banana and caramel scents together. This is fantastic! You can smell the cake, the banana and the caramel notes here.  This is definitely one of my favorites of the whole order!
• Banana Nut Bread - This is your standard banana nut bread scent. For some reason, as much as I love bananas, I tend to not like banana nut bread scents. There is a fake-y note to them that rubs me the wrong way.
• Sticky Licky Buns - This is a blend of apple, pecan, maple, honey, butter, cinnamon and batter. I love this one! Though caramel isn't listed as a note, all of the sweet notes in this together lend themselves to a caramel note, albeit less sweet than normal caramel scents. Delish! 
• Sea Salt Caramel - Awesome, strong caramel scent! I think I want to get a bag of this just to blend with other scents.
• Banana Zucchini - Guess what you guys?! A zucchini bread scent that I like! It's a strong, sweet banana with a hint of zucchini bread. I'm so curious to see how this will be when it's melting. I'm amazed that I actually like this one. 

Spa and Greens No. 14 Sampler

• Cactus and Sea Salt - Okay, I'm really bad at describing clean/green/fresh scents so please bear with me! This one is kind of a beachy scent with a hint of cologne. I really like this one! 
• Glitter - This smells like something from Lush. It's sweet but powdery at the same time. I wish I knew what this was a dupe for! It's not advertised as a dupe but it smells dead on to something I've smelled there. Anyways, I like this one too.
• Green Tea and Lily - I don't think this one is my cup of tea. Green tea notes are always very sharp to my nose and that turns me off. Not a fan.
• Badedas - This one is really nice! There's all kinds of different notes in this one, such as florals, leafy greens, basil, citrus, amber and musk. I can't really pick out anything specific in this but it's a nice fresh, green scent. Not sure it's a reorder but I'll be glad to try this one out.
• Jade - This one is nice as well. It's mostly florals such as jasmine, violet, lily, lavender and rose with pineapple, apple and melon. I get mostly the floral notes with a hint of sweetness from the fruits. Again, probably not a reorder but this will be nice to melt in the spring.
• Shampure Aveda - I am obsessed with the Shampure scent from Aveda so I was super excited to see this one in the sampler. It definitely smells like Shampure! It's very strong. CFTKR also has a Shampure type scent called Shampoo de Luxe an I actually prefer that one to this. The Shampoo de Luxe is a bit softer and it smells more like when you walk into an Aveda salon. This one is very sharp and has a bit more soapiness than SdL does. I still do really like it though! 

Serendipity Blends No. 41 Sampler

• Serendipity - This is just the straight Serendipity scent. This is one of my favorite scents ever. For those that don't know, serendipity is a blend of cherry, coconut, orange, powdered sugar and vanilla. It's sweet, fruity and strong! It's one of the most popular scents in the wax world in general, as most people seem to love it!
• Pink Sugared Serendipity - This is a great blend of Pink Sugar and serendipity. You can smell both equally in this one!
• Serendipity Noel - The blend with VBN really brings out the vanilla and powdered sugar notes in this one. Another great blend!
• Ultimate Serendipity - This is a blend of CFTKR's Ultimate Bakery Shop scent with serendipity. Ultimate Bakery is an awesome mix of cakes, cookies, breads, donuts and icing. The bakery scent is dominant here with a hint of serendipity. Really nice! Usually serendipity dominates other scents so it's nice to smell one where it takes a bit of a back seat.
• Serendipity and Sugar Cookies - This is a blend of, you guessed it, serendipity and sugar cookies. Again, the sugar cookie is the stronger note in this but the serendipity adds a nice fruitiness. 
• Serendipity Marshmallow Delight - This is my favorite Serendipity blend ever. Marshmallows and serendipity - amazing! Since I ordered a few bags of this, the sample will be going to a friend =)

Cotton Candy No. 43 Sampler

• Sugar Cookie Cotton Candy - How cute is this one with all of the sprinkles? Anyways, this is a delicious blend of buttery sugar cookie and sweet cotton candy. It makes for one extra sweet and yummy blend!
• Blue Cotton Candy - This is a very light cotton candy scent. It smells like cotton candy bubble gum! Love this one.
• Cotton Candy Frosting - This is a cotton candy scent that a lot of vendors have. It smells exactly like the cotton candy body spray I had as a kid. Really strong off of cold sniff and really nice! 
• Watermelon Cotton Candy - I think this is my favorite watermelon scent in this entire order. Watermelon with a hint of sweetness. Cotton candy tends to be a very light scent so I don't really smell it but I know that it is adding the sweetness to the blend.
• Cherry Lime Cotton Candy - I'm not sure about this one. There's almost a powdery note to it. I think this is one of the ones that you really have to melt to get the full experience. 
• Rainbow Cotton Candy - This smells like bubble tape gum! Love it!

Spicy Bakery No. 38 Sampler

• Grandma's Cupboard - This is supposed to be an oatmeal cookie scent mixed with other baked goods. I can definitely smell the oatmeal cookie and it is BY FAR the best oatmeal cookie scent I've ever smelled. It smells like the real thing! So good.
• Amish Cinnamon Bread - This is an amazing spicy bread scent. It's not a zucchini bread scent but still has a nice, authentic bready note. One of my favorites of the whole order.
• Warm and Cozy - This is just a nice spicy scent, no bakery notes in this one. I smell clove, nutmeg and cinnamon. Good and strong.
• Celtic Moonspice - I got a bag in this one so I'll be passing this sample on to a friend. A nice spicy scent with a hint of bakery.
• Amish Quilt - This smells pretty much the same as Celtic Moonspice. That's fine with me because I love spicy scents!
• Home Sweet Home - This is supposed to be a dupe for Yankee's famous scent, which also happens to be one of my favorites. This one has a certain sharpness that the original Yankee version doesn't have. I prefer the original.

Citrus No. 10 Sampler

• Fresh Squeezed OJ - This is a good, strong orange scent. I prefer orange scents blended with other things so I'll probably blend it with something else.
• Lemon Clean - This one smells like lemon cleaner, but not as sharp and bitter as the real stuff. I didn't think I'd like this one but I really do! This is a good clean house scent.
• Cool Citrus Basil - This used to be one of my favorite scents from back in the day when Bath and Body Works actually made good body care scents. I love this one. It almost has a soapy note, but in a good way. 
• Bite Me - This is a fizzy citrus scent! I love effervescent scents so this is right up my alley. Sweet, fizzy goodness. It reminds me of Ten Digit Creations Ginger Ale! 
• Sea Island Grapefruit - This is such a nice grapefruit scent. It's fresh and tart, with a hint of floral. Very good.
• Berry Verbena - This one is so strong! It's a sharp blueberry note with a sharp verbena note. I like it but I'd really have to be in the mood for this one.

Lavender and Blends No. 37 Sampler

• Lavender and Moonspice - I know it sounds weird, but lavender and spicy scents smells amazing together. CFTKR's lavender seems to be on the sweet side (as opposed to herbal) but it doesn't have that odd laundry detergent quality that a lot of sweet lavender scents have. This mix of sweet floral and spicy really works here.
• Apple Cream & Lavender - Another awesome blend! The creamy apple note blends so well with the lavender. I didn't think I was going to like this one but now I feel like I need to try every apple lavender scent ever. It smells, once again, like something I've smelled at Lush before. I really need to take a trip to Lush and smell everything so I can places these scents that I'm referencing here haha. Anyways, it's definitely my favorite of all the lavender blends in this sampler. 
• Coconut Milk and Lavender - Okay, this one actually does seem to lave a bit of a laundry detergent note to it. Sometimes coconut scents can have a bit of a soapy quality though so maybe that's where I'm getting that from. I still really like it though! It's a very sweet lavender scent.
• Lavender Berry Sugar Cookie - The sugar cookie note is strongest here but I can smell bits of lavender and berry. Really like this one!
• Lemon Lavender - This pretty much smells like Yankee's Lemon Lavender. Always a classic!
• Lavender and Sweet Cupcakes - This is a great blend too! It smells like lavender frosting. I really like it!

Strawberry Blends No. 32 Sampler

• Strawberry Fluff - This is a blend of marshmallow and strawberry. Not much else to say here except for AWESOME.
• Strawberries and Cream - This is definitely my favorite of the bunch. A classic, creamy strawberry scent. Once she restocks this one (the bags are already sold out) I will definitely be getting some.
• Fresh Picked Strawberry - A great fresh strawberry scent. The most authentic of all the ones in the sampler. I'll probably be picking up a bag of this one as well. I can't resist things that are shaped like strawberries!
• Strawberry Shake - I did a melted review on this one last week. This is a creamy strawberry scent with a hint of a green note to it. Really nice.
• Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - This is the only one of the bunch that I didn't care for. Weird, soapy note to it. I haven't yet found a rhubarb pie scent that I like.
• Strawberry Milk - I did a melted review on this on last week as well. It is a sweet stawberry scent with a strong milk note. It performs really well when melting so I'm super excited to have another one!

New 2013 Fruit and Citrus No. 34 Sampler

• Bliss - This one is ozone and green notes blended with strong citrus. I quite like this one. It's probably not something I would have ordered on my own based on the notes but I do like it.
• Chubba Dubba - I've smelled this one from other vendors and this one smells the same as those ones do. It's a very strong green citrus scent with a dominant lemongrass note. I like this one too!
• Berry Bellini - This is a berry cocktail with champagne. I definitely smell both the berry and the champagne notes. Love this one!
• Citrus Punch - Sort of a nondescript citrus scent. It's good but not a favorite.
• Sage and Citrus - This smells very similar to the Yankee scent of the same name. Herbal sage with a hint of citrus. Very nice.
• Lemongrass Kiwi Cassis - Strong lemongrass scent. I don't smell the other notes at all. Has a bit of a cleaning solution scent to it. Not my favorite.

And now for the freebies. Yes, all of the following items were sent by Carol for free. How awesome is that?! That's another thing I love about CFTKR, she always makes sure to send a few samples. I requested 5 of the scents and the rest were picked out by her. So thank you Carol, if you ever come across this. I appreciate these samples more than you know! She sends these all in a little brown paper bag and it's always a fun surprise to see what she sent.

• Strawberry and Toasted Marshmallow (Fruit Pie Tart) - Yes, this is a full size, cuttable tart! I actually purchased this same item so I got another one for free! Incredibly generous. Love the strawberry marshmallow blend in this one.
• Lavender Noel Zucchini - This was the big surprise of the order. I LOVE THIS! It's probably one of my favorites from the whole order. Yes, another zucchini bread scent that I actually like. It is the best bakery lavender scent I've ever smelled. I can't WAIT to melt this one!
• Blood Orange - This is a really nice, strong orange scent. I like this one a lot more than the Fresh OJ one that came in the sampler. 
• Fresh Floral Linen - This one smells like a fancy soap. Definitely not my cup of tea but I think my mom will like this one. I'll give it to her to enjoy.
• Pink Flamingo (request) - I requested this one not realizing that I had bought a muffin that had this scent in it. Hey, it was 5 AM! Anyways, this is a really nice, strong creamy cherry and citrus scent. Love this one!
• Lemon Noel Sugar Cookie - This one is fantastic! I actually placed a small order a few days after this one and this was one of the scents that I got. It's a great lemon bakery scent. It's one of Carol's new blends for 2013 and it's a huge hit!
• Bendel's Fig Type (request) - This is a really fresh and green fig scent with a hint of sweetness. I'm glad I got a sample of this instead of a whole bag because I'm not sure I'm going to love this one. I'll melt it and see.
• Biolage (request) - This one smells exactly like Biolage hair products! I like it but I probably won't order a bag of this. I much prefer the Aveda shampoo scents to this one.
• Snickers Coffee Blend (request) - I have heard lots of good things about this one but I'm not much of a coffee person so I just wanted to try a sample of it. I actually really like this one! It's a yummy nutty coffee blend. 
• Cherry Vanilla Swirl (request) - I'm always on the lookout for the perfect cherry vanilla scent. This isn't it. I think the closest I've found yet is Pink Flamingo! 

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WHEW! That was a CRAZY BIG order. I'd like to say that I won't be ordering from CFTKR for awhile but why kid myself?! I have another small order out and when I get that one in, I'll probably put together a list for another small order. Paraffin tarts last a very long time so I don't have to worry about these losing scent anytime soon. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed seeing my haul! I'd love to hear what you got from CFTKR's reopening =)