The Bathing Garden January Orders

Good morning everyone! I hope you all are having a splendid weekend. I wanted to pop in with another quick post to show you all my combined January Bathing Garden orders!

The Bathing Garden is always a vendor that has been at the top of my list. For some reason, TBG kind of fell off my radar for awhile when they first starting selling only on Facebook. Truth be told, I enjoyed that rush of trying to order through etsy and when she moved operations to Facebook, it became too easy to order. Crazy right? Most people in the wax world are dying to have a vendor that easy to order from. Me, I craved that rush that comes along with stalking and having to quickly order from vendors. Or at least I did. Now I am absolutely thrilled that Shannon only takes orders through Facebook. I still have my vendors that I will always stalk, but I am happy to have a vendor that takes that stress away from the consumers.

For those unfamiliar with The Bathing Garden's ordering process, it is quite simple. You must be a member of the Facebook group, because in there Shannon will post the restock list. She will give a timeframe during which she will be taking orders. And all you have to do is e-mail her with what you want, pay the paypal invoice she sends you, and voila. Pain free ordering. No refreshing the page to see when stock is added. No staying up way past your bedtime just to get an order in. Just plain, simple e-mail. She always only has a limited amount of scents that she is offering at each opening, which helps keeps the work and TAT down for her. There was talk of her maybe doing things a bit differently for the next opening, so I'm not quite sure how that will work but I do believe things will still be done through Facebook. 

Here is a link to The Bathing Garden's Facebook group: The Bathing Garden on Facebook

There are a lot of things I love about Shannon's wax, but first and foremost it performs well for me. On average, I use about 2 cubes in pretty much any warmer and I generally get a great throw. Sometimes I only need 1 cube, and sometimes I'll need 3, but overall her wax performs consistently for me. And of course, I enjoy a great deal of the scents that she offers. Shannon carries some very unique blends in her lineup, and I appreciate having something a bit different now and then. She carries a lot of standard scents as well so there's always something for everyone. Lastly, but certainly not least, her wax is gorgeous. She does mainly clamshells, with the occasional shape or block tart. The combination of embeds, glitter, wax crumble, and dried flowers that she uses make for a stunning presentation. Looks wise, TBG is one of my favorites. 

So here is what I ordered from The Bathing Garden in January. She did 2 restocks, and I placed small orders from each one. Enjoy! Oh, and these pics look so much better if you click them to enlarge =)

• Guava Berry Gelato - Guava, raspberry, strawberry, creamy gelato. To me, this smells like the Strawberry Raspberry Guava scent from other vendors, which is an absolute favorite. It's a lovely sweetened up berry scent with a hint of creaminess. I don't really smell a "gelato" note per se, but I can definitely imagine this scent in the form of some sort of iced treat. Really beautiful and always a favorite from TBG.
• Pomegranate Lime Sweet Tart - Tart lime and pink pomegranate. This was probably the scent that I was most excited about but I ended up strongly disliking, unfortunately. The lime in here reminds me of a lemon or lime cleaning product, and I don't get a whole lot of pomegranate. A friend of mine said this smelled exactly like a Sweet Tart candy, but sadly my nose didn't pick up on that at all. I passed this one along in a round robin, as I know it's a popular scent and I'm sure will find a loving home.
• The Berry Scandal - Ripe raspberries, red strawberries, blackberry and guava topped with buttercream, candy corn and cake batter ice cream. Basically in this tart, I smell a strong scent of strawberry passion fragrance oil, a scent I've come to recognize from other vendors who carry it. It's more on the fresh side as far as strawberry oils go, with a hint of powdery sweetness. It's not my favorite strawberry oil, but it does smell nice with the creamy cake-y top layer. I'm still torn on this scent, I'll probably have to melt for the final decision.
• Pirate Punch - Coconut, pinapple, tiare and plumeria flowers. To me, this is the perfect light tropical scent. I get a touch of floral in the background but I mostly smell the sweet coconut and pineapple notes. It's a great combination of floral with tropical fruits that allows this scent to be fresh and fruity at the same time. After a month of curing, this is still quite light but I think it will be a perfect scent to bring with us to Maui in May. Yes, I will be bring wax with us on vacation and yes, I am already thinking about which scents to bring. This was a freebie in my first January order.

• Tricky Banana Treats - Vanilla cupcake, banana, caramel, cinnamon and cream cheese frosting. I had been dying to get this scent for over a year now, and I'm so glad to finally have it in my possession. It is your standard banana caramel cupcakes scent, I'm not sure if Shannon has added anything else to this scent because it smells like the same scent that I've had from other vendors. I really like this type of scent from anyone so I'm happy to have it, but I was hoping for a bit more of a unique spin on the scent. Oh well, at least this tart is absolutely adorable with all the glitter and that mummy embed! 
• Almond Macaroon Cheesecake - Cheesecake, almond macaroon. I'm really enjoying the almond macaroon part of this tart, which luckily, seems to be the bottom layer so I can smell it the strongest. However, I'm not so sure about her cheesecake scent. I should have remembered that I didn't care for her famous lemon cheesecake scent either. However, I am still going to melt this one because I adore almond scents and I am hoping that the cheesecake note will blend well with the almond while melted. Fingers crossed!
• Caramel Velvet Coffee Cake - Ground coffee beans, espresso, caramel, cake bites. I have been absolutely loving coffee scents lately after over a year of not liking them, so I of course had to snag this one. I smell mainly a strong, true coffee note but that caramel note in this blend helps it from being too bitter. I don't get any obvious cake note, but I'm sure it just lends to the creaminess of the blend. This is undoubtedly one of my favorites of the order, and now that these are all cured, I will be melting it as soon as possible. You can't tell from my picture, but this tart is absolutely gorgeous as well. 
• Marshmallow Cookie Jar - Marshmallow and sweet cookies. The cookie scent Shannon uses in this blend is phenomenal. It's a strong, crunchy cookie note with a hint of a rich, bread-y undertone, akin to Rosegirls' Monster Cookie, but a tad sweeter. The marshmallow in this blend is the top layer an adds a nice creamy sweetness to that rich cookie note. Another definite favorite of the order. I had this tart once before and wasn't impressed, but I'm glad I gave it another shot because it smells different this time around. Better.
• Zucchini Cake Noel w/ Wild Berry - Zucchini cake, Vanilla Bean Noel, wild berry. Shannon's zucchini bread is undoubtedly one of the more savory zucchini bread oils out there. I wouldn't exactly call it spicy, but it does have a hint of that "corn chip" type of note that in the past would have sent me running the other direction but have now come to love. The VBN with that swirl of wildberry (wildberry mousse, I'm assuming because that's what it smells like to my nose) helps tone down the savory aspect of the zucchini bread and adds a nice sweetness to it all. Really love this one!

• Brown Sugar Cream Rose Bouquet - Whipped buttercream, brown sugar, sugared rose petals. I was hoping this one would be heavier on the brown sugar aspect, but I smell mostly rose in this blend. I do enjoy rose scents, but like I said, I was hoping for more of a bakery scent with a touch of rose. I'll stick with Lemon Curd and Rose Milk for my rose fix from The Bathing Garden. 
• Illusions of Labyrinth - Mandarin, musk, sugar and violet. This is a dupe of a Lush scent. I'm not sure quite which scent it is a dupe of, but I can say that I am generally not a fan of Lush dupes in wax. I do enjoy them in the Lush products themselves but most of the time I'd rather not have my whole house smell like them. The exception is Pink Candy Fluff/Snow Fairy dupes - yum! But I digress. This one is nice, but I don't see it being a favorite. I went out on a limb with this one because there were so many raves about it. I smell mostly a sweet citrus with a prominent floral background. I actually usually love violet scents but this doesn't smell like the type of sweet violet note I am familiar with. I am definitely going to hang on to this tart for when I want something a bit different but it won't be a regular scent in my lineup.
• Faded Opulence - Fizzy clove, ginger, blood orange and cola. This scent is fantastic. I love cola scents, and they are hard to find these days. I smell mostly the fizzy cola note, with the scent of citrus lingering in the background. It does have a perfumey aspect to it, but not so strongly that it turns me off of this scent. It is a nice, fresh effervescent scent that I can see myself melting year round. And this is probably one of the most gorgeous tarts I have ever received from The Bathing Garden. You can see a closeup of this scent below.
• Ophelia in Gold - Raw honey, jasmine, lily, rose, bergamot, musk. This was a freebie in my second January order, and I can say without a doubt that this is my least favorite scent I've ever smelled from The Bathing Garden. To me, it smells like a old lady perfume. I hate to use that term, but it's all I can think of when smelling this tart. I cannot imagine how anyone could like this scent in perfume, let alone in wax. However, I have seen a lot of people raving about this scent so it just goes to show how everyone's noses are so different. It is a gorgeous block tart and I'm sure I can find a new, loving home for it. It is very generous of Shannon to give samples at all, let alone such a big one, so I am grateful for it whether I enjoy the scent or not.

SCRUBS! This is the first non-wax product that I've ever featured on my blog but The Bathing Garden is famous for her sugar scrubs so I had to include them. They are super creamy, no oily residue with these bad boys! I got them in two scents, Guava Berry Gelato and The Smitten Diaries, which is a new coconut scent. I love them both and I was happy to get a sample in Honeyed Toffee as well. I can't wait to dig into my new scrubs! I'm not a huge body scrub kind of gal but I can't help but get excited about these. 

And to conclude this post, here are a couple closeups of the gorgeous tarts. I swear, this batch of tarts I received from Shannon are some of the most beautiful I've seen yet. Enjoy! 

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Thanks for stopping by everyone! Have you recieved an order from The Bathing Garden recently? What are your favorites? If not, are you plotting an order from them? Let me know! 

Have a great weekend <3

A Quick Post - Daphne's Divine Round Robin!

Happy hump day my fellow wax addicts! I have a ton of posts lined up for the next few weeks but I thought I'd pop in and share this with you before I get started on all my haul posts.

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Today I have a short post for you all to share with you a wonderful round robins that I participated in this week. This RR was started by Lindsey, the owner of Daphne's Divine. I was contacted by Lindsey to participate a few weeks back and I jumped at the opportunity. I haven't gotten to try a whole lot of Daphne's wax thus far but I have been really enjoying my last order so I was super excited. And of course, I LOVE doing round robins. I was taking a bit of a break from doing RRs for a few reasons, but mostly because I did so many during the fall and I was trying to melt through everything that I got before I added any new RR wax to my collection. I feel like the time has come to get back into RRs and the Daphne's one was a fantastic start to the season!

You can find Daphne's Divine here on their new website: Daphne's Divine Scents and Aromas.

For those of you who don't know, a round robin is when a group of people get together to swap wax in a traveling box. Generally, one person will decide to start the box and ask people if they'd like to participate. They fill a box with wax (in this case, all Daphne's wax), ship it to the first person in line, that person takes out the wax they want, fills it up with more wax, and ships it to the next person. This continues until the box reaches the person who started the box who now has a box full of new goodies!

It seems pretty simple but there is a lot that goes into a round robin. First and foremost, the key to having a successful RR is to have trustworthy people in your box. I have seen many RRs go awry when people either take out too much and don't replace it with quality wax or when people just up and steal the RR box altogether and never send it to the next person. It's always such a shame, especially when the people starting the boxes put a lot of thought (and good wax!) into the box to begin with. A general rule of thumb is to replace ounce for ounce, but also quality for quality. I always like to think about what I'd like to see in an RR box that I was receiving when I put wax back into a box. If you wouldn't want to receive an RR with something, don't put it in the box! It's as simple as that =)

Round robins are one of my favorite things about this wax community. When they go well, they are such a pleasure to participate in. Sometimes people are hesitant to do them because of all the RR horror stories out there, but when it's a good group of people, it's a blast! Part of the reason why I was so excited to participate in this Daphne's Divine RR was because there was such a great group of ladies involved. It was all bloggers, youtubers and vendors, so I was familiar and comfortable with everyone who was participating. I hope this post encourages you all to take part in some fantastic round robins this year. And hey, if you can't find anyone doing one, start one yourself! I have made some amazing friends in this community by starting round robins of my own.

Here is what the box looked like when it got to me. What a beautiful sight!

Without further ado, here are my take outs and put backs for the Daphne's Divine RR! These are all craptastic pictures taken with my iPhone, but I figured I'd show them anyways <3 Enjoy!

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Take Outs: Everyone was allowed to take out around one pound of Daphne's wax and as much of the other wax in the box as we wanted. I took out a total of 41.65 ounces, 17.15 of which were from Daphne's. This was a super box, Lindsey really outdid herself with this one. So many fantastic scents in here from DD. I know everyone else left in the box will find some awesome stuff in there!

From Daphne's, I took out:

• Watermelon Cake - Such an awesome sweet watermelon scent! I'm not really getting a cake scent from this but still delish! 
• Pistachio Pineapple Cake - Amazing! Lindsey always does such fantastic pistachio blends. You can smell both notes equally in here. I'll be needing more of this. Bravo! 
• Butter Brickle Waffle Cone Cotton Candy -  Butter brickle/cotton candy is always a favorite blend and the waffle cone adds some extra sweetness. So good.
• Buttery Blueberry Zucchini Bread - I am in love with everything that I took out but this is at the top of the list. It's a wonderful blueberry caramel bread type of scent. I tried this blend from another vendor and DD's is by far my favorite.
• Hot Fudge Brownie Latte - This was an obvious pick for me, as I am loving coffee and chocolate scents lately. I'm surprised more vendors don't have more blends combining the two because they are perfect together!
• Strawberry Vanilla Butter Waffle Cone - Awesome sweet strawberry scent! I need to try more strawberry scents with vanilla butter fudge, it's a great combination.
• Blueberry Lemon Sugar - This was a not-so-obvious pick for me but I still had to give it a go. The blueberry in here is yummy and sweet, but the lemon note is sort of odd. It's almost herbal! It's a fascinating combo and I can't wait to see what it smells like melted. 
• Sweet Boo Berry Pops - I'm really loving the blueberry scents in this box, apparently! Another lovely sweet and bakery berry blend. These are the CUTEST tri-colored Hello Kitty heads with glitter. 

From the other vendors, I took out:

• Rosegirls Extreme Strawberry Jam Twinkies - This was a must have for sure. I love RG's strawberry scents and I love their twinkie blends so this is a winner in my book. Going on my bag list for next time!
• Rosegirls Melon Mayhem - I got this in a bag last time but the floral note in the blend scared me away and I destashed it before ever giving it a shot. This time I am going to melt it to see, as I love melon scents!
• Rosegirls Ultimate Caramel Apple Pie - I normally do not care for RG's green apple scent but I want to give this a try because I love their caramel. We shall see. It smells great on cold!
• Rosegirls Pecan Waffle Fluff Puffs - This was another out of character choice for me. I normally do not like the Pumpkin Pecan Waffle scent but mixed with monster cookie and marshmallow smoothie, it is a winner! See that's the awesome thing about RRs - you get to try scents that you normally wouldn't pick out for yourself.
• Candles from the Keeping Room Strawberry Raspberry Guava - This was another scent I destashed without giving it a fair shot. I love this scent from other vendors so I'm sure I will love it from Carol! It's a nice, super sweet berry scent.
• Vintage Chic Scents Sweetheart Smoothie - I was so excited to see this in the box because it was one of the scents I regretted not getting more of. And I am pleased to say, this clamshell has absolutely none of the plastic-y scent I got with the clams from my order. Awesome!
• Vintage Chic Scents Flapper Girl - This was another scent I never would have picked out for myself. It's an appletini scent, which I believe has a touch of blonde moment in there. Really nice, a surprise for me for sure.
• L3 Waxy Wonders Mexican Wedding Cake Mallo Fluff - L3 is quickly becoming a favorite vendor of mine, she has really fantastic stuff. This is a lovely sweet lemon cake scent with a hint of tres leche in there. Yum!
• L3 Waxy Wonders Fruit Loop Cheesecake Serendipity - I get mostly serendipity and fruit loops, two scents I have been really loving lately!
• Lasting Scent Candles Caramel Drizzle Cookies - An all-time favorite scent. LSC has my favorite caramel note ever. This scent is pure bliss!
• Waxie Lady Peach Puree - This is a new vendor on the block that I haven't gotten the opportunity to try yet so I was excited to see this in the box. I'm not normally a peach fan but this one I really enjoyed. I'm curious to try this one out!
• Sassy Girl Aroma Cucumber Cantaloupe - This is one of my favorite Yankee scents of all time, and while the oil dupes of it are a bit more perfume-y than the original, I still love it. This one will be great once spring finally rolls around.

And here are my put backs! I put back 52.75 ounces into the box. I will just list these instead of boring you all with more scent descriptions =) I tried to put back a good variety of scents and vendors. Enjoy!

• Rosegirls: Baked Zucchini Bread/Monster Cookie/Marshmallow Smoothie, Waluigi's Wonderous Birthday Cake, Pomegranate Watermelon Smoothie and Toadstool Trifecta
• L3 Waxy Wonders: Mango Sorbet Coconut Watermelon and Serendipity Rainbow Sherbet Cotton Candy
• The Bathing Garden Pomegranate Lime Sweet Tart
• Rainbow Melts: Tutti Fruity/Wildberry Mousse/Cotton Candy and Gooey Caramel Cider
• Sugar Scoops: Chocolate Fondue Bar and Rainbow Wafers
• Glitterati: Pink Sugar/Serendipity/Bubble Gum and Lemon Biscotti
• Sniff My Tarts Sweet Lavender Marshmallow Cake/Raspberry/Cotton Candy
• Haley's Heavenly Scents: Strawberry Pound Cake and Granma's Raspberry Zinger
• Candles from the Keeping Room: Tangerine Dreams and Strawberry Filled Twinkies
• Up the Creek Scents: Jelly Donut Butter Cookies and Confetti Cake
• Front Porch: Cotton Candy Cookie Bread and Wildberry Lemon Poundcake
• Beezy Tarts: Starburst and Ice Cream Scoop Bread
• Lasting Scent Candles: Blackberry Cotton Candy and Virginia's Blueberry Cookies
• Vintage Chic Scents My Favorite Things
• Sugar and Spice Gourmet Soy: Frosted Strawberry Honeydew and Butter Brickle Ice Cream

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And so concludes the Daphne's Divine round robin! I had so much fun participating, thanks again to Lindsey for asking me to participate <3 This box is already on its way to Ashley, the next person in line. 

Hope you are all having a great week! I have lots of blog posts coming up so stay tuned! As always, thanks for stopping by <3

Rosegirls January 2014 Haul Part 2 - Custom Muffins!

Good morning everyone! I hope you all are having a fantastic week! I'm going to just jump right into Part 2 of my January RG order - THE MUFFZ!!

Part 1 of my RG order can be found here: RG January 2014 Haul Part 1 - Bags!

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While I absolutely love Rosegirls' house blends, part of the excitement of ordering for me is the ability to custom blend some scents. I love the process of concocting my blends, from making lists to watching countless YT videos to bouncing ideas off of friends, it's all very exciting! I always keep a blend ideas list going, whether RG is going to be opening soon or not. Anytime I see a blend or think of a blend that I might want to try, it goes on the list. While the majority of the blends I ordered this time around were carefully planned and calculated, there's a few last minute blends that always seem to make their way into my order! Overall, I was pretty pleased with my custom blends this time around but I definitely think there is room for improvement. My quest for the perfect custom blend is endless. I noticed that I used a lot of the same kind of scents in this order (strawberry jam, gilligan's brew, and florida key lime pie to name a few) and next time I decide to do custom blends, I think I'd like to try for more of a variety. 

The products that Rosegirls allows custom blending in are large pies, 2 lb loaves, 1 lb loaves and muffins. I choose the muffins not only because it is the least expensive option, but because it gives me the least amount of product. I have so much wax at this point (especially RG wax) so I don't know if I'll ever use a whole loaf or pie, especially in my custom blends that I'm not even sure I will like. Also, I love the fact that the muffins are especially easy to share with people. The muffins come 4 to a pack, each one individually bagged and labeled which make them super easy to pop in a destash, RR, or swap! Previously, RG also offered custom medium pies that were $8 a piece. Those were always my favorite blending option before they were discontinued. RIP medium pies, we will never forget ye <3 Although a bit more expensive than the medium pies, the muffins are a nice replacement for those looking for a less expensive custom blending option. Plus they are just so darn cute, aren't they?

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So here they are, the muffz of my January Rosegirls order!

COLD SNIFF REVIEWS ONLY. SCENTS MAY SMELL DIFFERENTLY WHEN WARMED.

Top row, L-R: Wildberry Pomegranate, Caramel Butter Brickle Dunk My Donut, Strawberry Watermelon Margarita
Bottom row, L-R: Strawberry Raspberry Coconut Nilla Wafers, Monster Cookie Fluff Puffs Bread, Sicilian Lemon Royal Sugar Cookie Raspberry Coconut, Ooey Gooey Caramel Gilligan's Brew Funnel Cake.

• Wildberry chunks with Pomegranate overpour - Starting this post out with one of my absolute favorite blends! This isn't one of my own concoctions, but rather was a test scent that they had sent out with some flash sales last fall. Sadly, it didn't make the cut into bags so I knew that I have to custom blend it myself. It is SUCH a wonderful blend. The uber-sweet Wildberry scent blends so well with the tart and juicy pomegranate scent. Simple yet gorgeous. I can smell both notes equally in this blend, which is always something I worry about with the muffins. It is a constant struggle for me when I'm blending to decide which scents will be the chunks and which one will be the overpour. Good thing this scent had already been done so I had a model to use when picking the chunks and OP for this one. 
• Ooey Gooey Caramel & Butter Brickle chunks with Dunk My Donut overpour - This blend was created for the August opening by my lovely friend Michelle. She had stuck a few chunks of this into a RR for me and I knew I had to have more. Michelle and I were both on a huge butter brickle kick last fall so this was absolutely perfect. To me, this smells exactly like how a Cinnabon smells somehow, although there really isn't any sort of frosting note in this. The caramel and butter brickle blend together to make a super rich caramel scent, and the donut adds a lovely sweet cinnamon dough note. Two thumbs up for Michelle's blend!! I need to do more blends with Dunk my Donut next time, I always seem to love every blend it is in.
• Strawberry Jam & Watermelon Slush chunks with Margarita overpour - This was one of the blends I was struggling to figure out which scents to make the chunks and which the overpour. I knew that I wanted to do a strawberry watermelon margarita scent, but since all three of those scents are super strong on their own, I just couldn't figure it out. In the end, I went with margarita as the OP because RG has a house blend called Raspberry Pomegranate Margarita and the marg was the OP in that one as well. In the end, I wish I would have chosen the strawberry or the watermelon as the OP. The margarita is SUCH a strong scent that it overpowers the other notes, and it almost has a fizzy note to it. It actually kind of reminds me of that fizzy pop oil that other vendors have. It's definitely not my favorite blend but I am going to give it a whirl. If worse comes to worse, I will toss in a piece of my strawberry jam brittle when it is melting if that margarita is too strong. 
• Strawberry Jam & Raspberry Coconut chunks with Vanilla Wafers overpour - This is definitely one of my favorites from this order. For the August opening, a group of friends and I did a pie and muffin club, and this was based on one of the blends we did for that. I believe the OP in that one was VBN but I decided to do the vanilla wafers for this one to give it a bit more of a bakery feel. I can smell mostly the strawberry jam and the nilla wafers in this blend, but the raspberry coconut peeks in also. It's a sweet and creamy berry bakery blend with a hint of crunch from the wafers. It almost reminds me a bit of my beloved Nilla Strawberry Noel. Winner winner!
• Baked Zucchini Bread & Monster Cookie chunks with Marshmallow Smoothie overpour - This was one of my blends from our August pie club and it is amazing! I like to call it Monster Cookie Fluff Puffs Bread. It's honestly just the ultimate bakery blend. So creamy and delicious! If you are a Monster Cookie Fluff Puffs fan, you have to try this blend. It takes it to a whole other level! There's not really much else to say about this scent other than it's absolutely awesome. 
• Sicilian Lemon Cookies & Royal Sugar Cookies chunks with Raspberry Coconut overpour - I've been wanting to do a Raspberry Coconut/Lemon blend for quite some time now and I finally took the plunge. I added Royal Sugar Cookies to the chunks so that the lemon wouldn't overwhelm the delicate raspberry coconut scent but looking back, I wish I would have only done lemon chunks because the RSC does seem to tone down the lemon a bit too much. Still a really nice blend though and hopefully the lemon comes out more when warmed. Also, I feel like the combination of the RSC and SLC chunks combine together to form sort of an almond-y note. Really digging that!
• Gilligan's Brew & Ooey Gooey Caramel chunks with Funnel Cake overpour - This was inspired by LSC's Coconut Flan scent. Coconut and caramel smell SO good together, who would have thought?! RG's funnel cake scent is very sweet and almost reminds me of their waffle cone scent. It's a great blender and pulls together the fruity and caramel notes in this blend quite well. I think maybe if I did this blend again, I would probably choose a different overpour as that funnel cake is almost a tad to sweet for me, but I still think it will be really great when warmed.

Top row, L-R: Strawberry Pear Honeydew, Harvest Bake Sale Donuts, Key Lime Pie Gilligan's Brew Pie Crust
Bottom row, L-R: Key Lime Cotton Candy Birthday Cake, Strawberry Brownie Bear Claws, Pink Serendipity Smoothie and Cotton Candy Zucchini Gilligan's Brew

• Strawberry Jam & Pear chunks with Honeydew Melon overpour - This blend is the result of me trying to narrow down my scent list and combining two of the original blends I was planning. The two original blends were Strawberry Jam/Cotton Candy Frosting/Honeydew Melon and Strawberry Jam/Pear/Swizzle Sticks. I remember hearing that pear and honeydew were good together so I figured, why the hell not, let's combine them! This is undoubtedly my favorite custom blend of the whole order. The sweet honeydew scent definitely takes center stage, but the pear and strawberry add a nice tart, fruity background to the melon. I absolutely adore this blend. I usually end up sharing around half of my RG orders but I think I am going to have to save all 4 muffins in this scent for myself. It's that good. 
• Dunk My Donut chunks with Harvest Bake Sale overpour - I sniffed Harvest Bake Sale in a RR during the fall and I was pleasantly surprised! Harvest Bake Sale is a pumpkin and apple blend, but what I mostly smell is a sweet apple pie. I wanted to do an apple pie donut kind of scent and I think I went back and forth about 20 times trying to decided whether DMD or Harvest Bake Sale would be the OP in this blend. Obviously, I ended up choosing Harvest Bake Sale and I kind of wish I would have done Dunk My Donut because I really can't smell the donut scent in this yet! Hopefully it'll come out more when warmed because I think these two scents could smell great together.
• Florida Key Lime Pie & Gilligan's Brew chunks with Pie Crust overpour - This is another one of my favorites from this order! I think it's fairly obvious what I was going for here - key lime coconut cream pie! Like I've mentioned before, Rosegirls has my favorite key lime pie scent ever. It's so tart and creamy and crusty and wonderful. I've been loving coconut and lime bakery scents together lately so it was a must with this order. This blend is perfect. I smell all three notes equally, not one overpowers the other. My only minor qualm is that the pie crust scent may have the slightest hint of a perfumey note to it but I'm hoping that will go away once it is warmed. 
• Florida Key Lime Pie & Cotton Candy Frosting chunks with Birthday Cake overpour - This blend was inspired by a chunk I got in a sampler awhile back of Key Lime Pie Birthday Cake. It was amazing on it's own but I have been wanting to do a cotton candy lime blend for awhile and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. RG's cotton candy frosting scent is so strong that it ended up dulling down the key lime in this blend a bit but it's still really good. I would classify this as a super sweet bakery scent with a hint of tart lime in the background. While it's not exactly what I had envisioned, it is still a winner in my book!
• Strawberry Jam & Hot Fudge Brownie chunks with Bear Claws overpour - This one is probably my only true flop of the bunch. I want to like this one, I really do, but there is a weird nutty, yeasty note in the bear claws scent that is throwing this whole blend off. I love Bear Claws when it is used as chunks, but I think it's a bit much when used as an OP. I was envisioning some sort of chocolate strawberry flaky cinnamon pastry kind of scent, but what I got was a weird nutty bakery scent with an underlying plastic-y scent. I should have used Dunk My Donut as the overpour instead! I'll still melt at least one muffin to see if it smells better when warmed but I definitely don't have high hopes for this one. I've been obsessed with chocolate and strawberry blends lately, so I'll have to try for another chocolate/strawberry blend next time around. 
• Pink Sugar & Serendipity chunks with Marshmallow Smoothie overpour - Even though I love Pink Sugar and I love serendipity scents, I'm generally not a fan of Pink Serendipity scents per se. That was until I smelled RG's Pink Serendipity Smoothie! I got a few chunks of this scent in a destash and I fell in love with the blend. It isn't a scent that is available in bags anymore so I blended it myself. I think that creamy marshmallow OP lets me enjoy this scent that I normally wouldn't enjoy on its own. I know this is a pretty boring blend when it comes down to it, but I'm glad to have more RG Pink Serendipity Smoothie in my stash!
• Cotton Candy Frosting & Baked Zucchini Bread chunks with Gilligan's Brew overpour - This was another blend that was born out of the need to combine a few different scents to narrow down my order. I knew I wanted a Gilligan's Brew/BZB scent, a cotton candy/zucchini scent and a Gilligan's Brew/cotton candy scent, so this seemed like a good choice. I saw a couple of other people throwing around this blend idea for their January order and I figured, why the heck not! And ya know what, it's not half bad! It's just a rich coconut candy scent with a zucchini bread background. I was hoping that the zucchini bread would be more prominent in this blend but it still smells really good. I can't wait to melt this one! 

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The leaning tower of muffz!

And so concludes my January RG order....or does it?! I may have a few tricks up my sleeve in the form of a pie club so stay tuned for that in the (hopefully) near future! I think it's safe to say that between my order and the pie club, I will be well stocked up on RG for awhile! 

Hope you all have a great rest of the week and I will see you all again soon <3

Rosegirls January 2014 Haul Part 1 - Bags!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! More importantly though (at least in my mind), it is also Groundhog Day and the day before my birthday! Not surprisingly, our old pal Punxatawney Phil has forecasted six more weeks of winter. I knew this freakshow of a winter would never end. In my almost 28 years of life, I cannot remember a winter more miserable than this one. A few years ago on my birthday, it was nearly 60 degrees outside. I won't be surprised if it's negative 20 this year. Gotta love that polar vortex!

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Today I have for you all Part 1 of my January 1st Rosegirls haul!! If you have been following my blog for awhile, you'll know that Rosegirls is one of my favorite vendors of all time. I love everything about this company. As I mentioned on a post in their group a few weeks back, there's just nothing out there quite like Rosegirls! First and foremost, I love their wax. They have over a hundred unique house blends in their chunk cake melts, and they give you the ability to custom blend as well. I get amazing results from their wax in pretty much any warmer, sometimes with throws lasting for days on end. Their wax is colorful and beautiful all around, not to mention that they were the ones who started my chunk obsession. And of course, I love the people behind the wax. Rosegirls is owned by Jenny Oaks, who took over the company when her mom Kathy retired. Both Jenny and Kathy are awesome, and I'm always proud to support such a wonderful family. I will be a Rosegirls fan for life. 

The important thing to realize about Rosegirls is that is in extremely high demand, which means it is sometimes difficult to order from. RG is completely, 100% handmade by Jenny and her husband and they can only accept so many orders at one time in order to keep a reasonable TAT. Even then, sometimes the TAT will expand beyond the stated time frame because the size of people's RG orders is often quite large. However, they are working on ways to make sure that more and more people have access to RG. What they've been doing recently is offering flash sale lots on an almost weekly basis, which gives people who didn't get to order during their last opening (and those who did as well) a chance to snag some RG wax! I absolutely love that. I believe that most of the wax in the flash sales is made by Kathy, who though retired, is still as sharp as ever when it comes to blending and making the wax. I know that there are a lot of people out there that have expressed their frustration with not being able to order from RG, but please rest assured that they are trying their best to make sure as many people as possible are able to try Rosegirls wax. If you have been unable to procure some of their wax through ordering or flash sales on their FB page, check the FB destash groups. RG even has their own destash page! I'm finding that it's definitely not as hard to get a hold of RG wax as it used to be.

The last time they opened before January 1, 2014 was August 10, 2013. On August 10, they announced the date and time they were opening and they were so slammed with orders that they had to close in under 5 minutes. And even then, they took almost twice the orders they intended to take just because their website's shopping cart could not keep up with the demand. This time, the opening was silent. They told us that it would be sometime in early January, but no one knew the date or time. The point of the silent opening was to ensure that the site would not get overloaded so that there wouldn't be as mad of a dash of people placing their orders at once. Silent openings are probably my least favorite method of store openings, but I 100% understand why they had to do it that way. Word got out quickly this time around as well, and they closed fairly soon after they opened. However, they took about half as many orders this time around which means they will be opening much sooner than usual. Thanks to me being at the right place at the right time (and of course, my trusted team of fellow RG stalkers), I was by the grace of the wax gods able to place an order this time around. I may not be so lucky next time around so I made sure to stock up!

I did end up being in the first group of orders, and the TAT on my order was 17 business days, well within their stated time frame. However, I've waited much longer for RG before and I glady would again. RG is one of those vendors that the TAT just isn't really a factor for me because I am so head over heels for their wax. So not only was this the fastest I've ever gotten an RG order, this was also by far my largest Rosegirls order yet. I'm calling it my graduation present to myself but in reality, I'm just really bad at narrowing down my selections. Without further ado, here are the bags from my January Rosegirls order! Part 2 will consist of my custom blends, and will be coming sometime later this week. Hope you enjoy! 

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The bags are $9 a piece, and you get approximately 8-9 ounces per bag. Oh an please forgive the fact that the clear cello windows on my bags are a bit messy already - I've already sniffed and played with these chunks several times now!  Anyways, I figured I would start off with the new blends for January. Here we go!

COLD SNIFF REVIEWS ONLY. SCENTS MAY SMELL DIFFERENTLY WHEN WARMED. 

• Toadstool Trifecta - strawberry shortcake & blueberry cobbler chunks with pie crust overpour. This was one of the new Mario blends for January! I was a bit unsure of this one since I'm not the hugest fan of their strawberry shortcake scent, but I went for it anyways because I love blueberry and I love pie crust. Well, I'm still note sure about this one upon smelling it. I get a good amount of the blueberry but I smell that strawberry shortcake note as well. For some reason, I get a bit of a powdery, candied note to the strawberry that isn't hitting my nose quite right. It almost smells grape-y. I think I'm going to have to melt this one to see how the notes are blended together while warmed. This was one of the only blends from this order I wasn't head over heels in love with, but I have a feeling it will be a big hit among the strawberry shortcake lovers out there.
• Waluigi's Wonderous Birthday Cake - blackberry jam butter cookies & wildberry mousse chunks with birthday cake overpour. This was another one I wasn't overly crazy about on cold sniff. Usually I love RG BJBC blends but for some reason, I'm picking up on a bit more of that perfume-y note than usual. I smell mostly the BJBC in this, with a hint of the sweetness from the wildberry mousse and then a creamy background from the birthday cake. I've noticed that RG's birthday cake isn't as sweet as some of the other b-day cake scents out there, and I like that. It ensures that the blends with it won't be overly sweet. This is another blend that I'll have to melt to give a final verdict on. 
• Donkey Kong Destruction - banana cream pie  & bear claws chunks with vanilla ice cream overpour. This is definitely my favorite of the three Mario blends that I ordered! I've been on a huge banana kick lately. This one smells like a straight up banana cream pie. The banana scent is somewhere between a true, ripe banana and a banana candy, the bear claws adds kind of a crusty note to the blend, and then the vanilla ice cream brings it all together with a sweet, creamy finish. Fantastic! I kind of wish I would have ordered more of the Mario blends so hopefully some will be made permanent so I can order more of them next time around.

• I Can't Help Falling in Love - strawberry jam & cotton candy frosting chunks with sinfully sweet pops overpour. This is hands down one of my ultimate favorites from the whole order. It is absolutely incredible incredible! The strawberry jam and cotton candy frosting chunks are so strong, and the sinfully sweet pops scent just adds to the wonderful, creamy sweetness of this blend. I almost smell a bit of a caramel note in that SSP OP. I know a few of my friends had this on their list but it didn't make the cut because of the almond note listed in sinfully sweet pops. I promise you, I smell no almond in that scent, just super sweet cake with a caramel-ly undertone. I don't think I've ever smelled a blend quite like this one before. Sweet, fruity, candied, caramel, cake-y goodness. I cannot wait to melt these bad boys! 
• Love Potion #9 - mystery blend of Love Spell and pomegranate blizzard. I have always loved the Love Spell fragrance in wax, and pomegranate is always a big hit for me also so I knew I had to have this blend. On cold sniff, the Love Spell's fruity perfume scent is definitely the dominant note, but the tart pomegranate and the creamy "blizzard" scents are in there as well. I am really enjoying this blend! I wouldn't call it an absolute favorite but it will definitely be nice for spring, and I think I'll be melting this one on Valentine's Day for sure. 
• Strawberry Frankenberry - mystery strawberry cereal blend. I am SO EXCITED that this blend is back in RG's lineup! They carried this fan favorite scent back in 2012 but sadly, one of the oils they used in the blend was discontinued. Fortunately, Kathy was able to dupe the blend using new oils and Strawberry Frankenberry is back and hopefully here to stay! I smell strawberries and cream in this blend, so it's definitely on the sweeter end of strawberry. There's more to this blend though that gives it a hint of that "cereal" scent, possibly a slight bread-y note? I am in LOVE with this. I got a chunk of the originally Frankenberry from the sweet Sara, and I am glad to confirm that it smells VERY similar to the original! So anxious to melt this one!

• Windmill Cookies - mystery almond cookie blend. I remember seeing people get samples of this in their August orders and there were tons of raves about it. I was so glad to see this offered as full bags for the January opening! To my nose, I believe the almond scent in this could be their cherry almond scent. I could be wrong though. And I'm not sure which one of their cookie scents they are using in the blend but it's yummy. This scent is fan-freaking-tastic! It's such a sweet, almond-y cookie scent, and reminds me of these almond crescent cookies we used to make for Christmas when I was a kid. It reminds me of biscotti as well. I know almond is a controversial scent and doesn't seem to be universally well-liked, but I absolutely love almond scents so Windmill Cookies is a major win for me! 
• Berry Crumble - mystery berry blend. I got a chunk of this in a RR and I was desperate to have more! I didn't see it being offered in bags when I first started making my wishlist, so I contacted Kathy and Jenny asking what was in this blend so I could blend it myself in muffins. It was a secret blend so they couldn't tell me what was in it, but they were kind enough to make it available in the bags which is so awesome! I definitely smell a crunch berry crisp note in here, along with a super sweet strawberry note. I love, love, LOVE this scent and I'm so glad to have a bag so I can finally melt that chunk I've been hoarding from the RR. 
• Frosted Streuselkuchen - streuselkuchen chunks with Vanilla Bean Noel overpour. Streuselkuchen (or the KOOK, as my friends and I call it) is RG's signature sweet cinnamon pastry scent. No one knows quite what's in it or how to pronounce it, but what we do know is that it is simply fantastic. Streuselkuchen is not available to custom blend with, but people are always coming up with blends for that scent. Vanilla Bean Noel was an obvious choice to add to this slighty spicy bakery scent, and the two are wonderful together. I'm not normally the hugest VBN fan but RG is one of the exceptions because it is so strong and good. I feel like I'm smelling the kook in a new light...I don't think I've ever smelled it in such a perfect blend. VBN and kook are a match made in heaven!

The rest of the bags are blends that have been offered before.

• Badger State Cocoa - hot cocoa & peppermint chunks with marshmallow smoothie overpour. This winter marked the beginning of a huge peppermint craze for me. I've loved chocolate in wax for quite awhile now as well, so I was dying to get my hands on this famous chocolate mint blend. On cold sniff, I can smell mostly the peppermint and the marshmallow, but the chocolate makes an appearance as well. It's hard to stand out in a blend with the always-strong peppermint, but I think the chocolate holds up it's end quite nicely. I can't say that this is necessarily my favorite chocolate mint blend ever, but it's really good. I believe they had a chocolate mint ice cream scent for this opening too so maybe I'll have to try that one next time to compare and contrast the blends.
• Cinnamon Glazed Oranges - mystery cinnamon orange blend.  This scent has gained quite the cult following in recent months so I of course had to get a bag to see for myself what everyone was talking about. I'm iffy on orange scents to begin with so I wasn't counting on this one to be a big hit for me. On cold sniff, I'm not sure about it. The orange scent in here is very strong, and kind of reminds me of orange soda pop. The cinnamon definitely takes second fiddle to the orange, but it's a nice, sweet and creamy cinnamon as opposed to that sometimes cloying red hot cinnamon kind of scent. The blend is definitely unique from any other cinnamon orange scent I have smelled before. Again, I'm not sure if I'm loving it yet but I'll for sure be melting it to see what I think when it's warmed. I think this will be a nice blend to melt while I'm cleaning the house! 
• Egg Nog Caramel Ice Cream - eggnog & salted caramel munch chunks with vanilla ice cream overpour. This was a blend that was on my list to order back in August, but it didn't make the cut because I was afraid the salted caramel might have a popcorn note to it. Fast forward a few months where I got a chunk of this in an RR, and I fell in love. I melted this scent on Christmas morning and I knew I had to have a bag of it. The eggnog and salted caramel scents are both very strong! So strong that I'm not sure I can even smell that vanilla ice cream in here other than a slight hint of creamy sweetness. But that's okay because this blend is on point! That salted caramel scent definitely does have the slightest popcorn-y undertone to my nose but only because I'm so sensitive to that type of scent, and it almost adds a savory note to the blend. ENCIC is a very unique blend and I'm so glad to have snagged a bag of it before it was retired for the season. 

• Death by Caramel - ooey gooey caramel chunks with southern creme brulee overpour. I got Death by Caramel as a sample in my August order and I was blown away with how delicious it smelled. I've always been a caramel lover but I somehow always overlooked this scent when making my bag selections for previous orders. I probably would have never ordered it without smelling that sample chunk! Death by Caramel is the richest caramel scent you could ever imagine. It's a straight up caramel with a hint of creaminess probably brought on with the creme brulee OP. If you enjoy caramel scents at all, this is an absolute must have. Amazing!!
• Raspberry Brulee Coffee - raspberry sauce & southern creme brulee chunks with absolute coffee overpour. This is another scent that I fell in love with after smelling a chunk in an RR. I have an odd relationship with RG's raspberry scent - sometimes I love it and other times I don't seem to like it at all. Right now, I'm REALLY loving it so this scent is just hitting the spot. I've also been more drawn to coffee scents lately so this was really the perfect blend of the moment for me. I can smell mostly the tart raspberry and the aromatic coffee, but the creme brulee adds a nice creamy sweetness to it all. I am going to be loving this scent this winter! I really need to experiment with more coffee blends. Next time - chocolate and coffee!
• Ooey Gooey Baked Zucchini Bread - ooey gooey caramel chunks with baked zucchini bread overpour. I am surprised this was my only ZB blend out of all the bags because I've really been loving zucchini lately! Nevertheless, this was an excellent choice for my only bread scent of the bunch. This was yet another blend I fell in love with through an RR chunk. I can smell both notes in this scent equally, just simple caramel and zucchini bread goodness. Nothing much else to say about this blend except for YUM!

• Blackberry Cotton Candy Waffle Cone - blackberry jam butter cookie & cotton candy frosting chunks with waffle cone overpour. As mentioned above, I'm getting a bit more of a perfume-y note out of the BJBC blends than I normally do. I doubt that they've changed their oil or anything like that, I think it's just my nose changing. I definitely smell the cotton candy and the blackberry cookies in this blend, but what I seem to be picking up most on at the moment is that super sweet waffle cone scent. It's almost too sweet for me, but I think I might still like this blend somehow. I don't think I can dislike anything with their cotton candy frosting scent in it - it is the strongest and most delicious cotton candy oil out there. And I love how in most of their cotton candy blends, they make both baby blue and baby pink chunks with that scent. So cute!
• Strawberry Cereal Killer Ice Cream - strawberry jam & cereal killer chunks with vanilla ice cream overpour. Yes, this is yet another blend that I discovered in an RR and fell in love with. However, I already had a bag of plain Strawberry Cereal Killer chunks in my stash so I was heavily debating whether or not I needed this bag. Eventually, my want for this bag won out over the fact that I didn't exactly need it since I already had something so similar. Cereal killer is RG's Fruit Loops scent, and it is super strong and dead on. The vanilla ice cream adds a gorgeous creaminess that the original blend doesn't have. The cereal killer note is definitely strongest in this blend but the other notes compliment it quite nicely. This is my ideal spring and summer scent!
• Blueberry Muffin Cup A Cake - blueberry muffin and cuppa cake chunks with sinfully sweet pops overpour. Surprise, surprise, this is yet another scent that I never would have tried if I hadn't stumbled across it in an RR. RG truly has the best blueberry scents out there, they are never fake and always very strong. However, I always thought this was just a typical blueberry cake type of smell. I was wrong. Once again, the sinfully sweet pops scent really makes this blend into something special. When I melted the RR chunk, it smelled exactly like blueberry pancakes with syrup and all. That caramel note in sinfully sweet pops must have transformed into a maple kind of note while warmed and it absolutely blew me away. I am so glad to have a bag of this wonderfully comforting blend.

• Taste the Rainbow - purple cow, satsuma & florida key lime pie chunks with chicks dig it overpour. Taste the Rainbow is possibly one of the strongest scents I've ever smelled in wax in my whole life. In fact, before Jenny sent out my order, I asked her to double bag this in a cello bag because it is so strong that it tends to scent the other wax around it as well. It's funny, because I normally cannot stand purple cow or satsuma scents in wax, but they work really well in this blend. The chicks dig it OP adds a hint of fizziness, while the chunks provide the base fruity notes. It really does smell like Skittles - but stronger. Taste the Rainbow is skittles on steroids! 
• Strawberry Lime Fluff - strawberry jam and florida key lime pie chunks with marshmallow smoothie overpour. RG's Florida Key Lime Pie is probably my favorite key lime ever. It is a bakery key lime scent, as it does have a slight crusty undertone but it works well in both straight fruity and bakery blends. I had seen this blend before in large pies but I had never seen it offered in bags. I was so excited that it was offered in bags this time around so I had to nab one! This is definitely another favorite of the order. I can smell all three notes in the blend equally, and they all compliment each other nicely. It reminds me of a fancy summertime cocktail! You know, the kind that give you the worst hangovers ever. This scent allows me to indulge without the headache the next day ;-)
• Candy Land - cotton candy frosting chunks with bubble gum overpour. I've had a few chunks of this scent over the past year, but I never really gave it much thought and always ended up passing it on to other people. However, my husband found the one chunk of it that I had been saving to try and the moment it hit the warmer, there was no turning back. This scent single-handedly launched my now full-on obsession with bubble gum scents. RG's bubble gum is dead on for the real thing. Candy Land is just pure candy goodness, that somehow always manages to not be too sweet. Next time I order, I am going to be sure to do some custom bubble gum blends!
• Pomegranate Watermelon Smoothie - pomegranate & watermelon slush chunks with marshmallow smoothie overpour. Hello, gorgeous! This blend is pure bliss. RG's super sweet watermelon slush scent is tempered by the tart pomegrante and the slight hint of creaminess from the marshmallow. I just want to pour it down my throat and drink this scent! It is the smell of summer in a bag! Pomegranate and watermelon is a scent craze that RG seems to have started, and they do it the best. It is a staple in any fruity wax lover's stash.

Now here are the samples that I got with this order. They used to only do 2 samples per order but it seems like they have been upping that number lately and it is so generous of them! Here they are:

• Koopa Troopa Assault - raspberry sauce, pomegranate & sweet lemon confection chunks with marshmallow smoothie overpour. I was SO GLAD to see this as one of my samples because this was one of the bags I cut from my order and I had major regrets afterwards. This is phenomenal! The raspberry and lemon take center stage in this blend, but the other notes are there in the background. It is such a bright, fruity blend. I think out of all the Mario blends I've smelled, this is my ultimate favorite. I hope it's still available next time around because this is bag worthy.  
• Waluigi's Wonderous Birthday Cake - I ordered this in bags, see above.
• Sweet Lemon Confection and Marshmallow Smoothie - sweet lemon confection chunks with marshmallow smoothie overpour. This is one of the best lemon marshmallow scents I've ever smelled. RG's sweet lemon confection is a fresh, sweet lemon without any hint of that cleaner note. Their marshmallow is super strong and creamy. Together, they are perfection. It just goes to show that sometimes the most simple blends are the best! I'm not sure that I'd go out of my way to order a bag in this blend but who knows, it may find it's way into an order in the future.
• Delicate Daisy - Bombshell VS type and cotton candy frosting. Out of all the Mario blends, this was probably the one I was most unsure about. I typically don't like perfume types in wax unless it is Pink Sugar, Blue Sugar or Love Spell. I'm not quite sure which scent is the OP and which scent is the chunks in this blend, but I smell the perfume-y Bombshell note the most. It is a fruity-floral scent which I love in my perfumes but not so much in wax. The cotton candy frosting adds extra sweetness to the blend. Although I'm not sure I am going to like this much when it is melted, I think I am going to give it a whirl. If anything, I think I am going to test out some Bombshell next time I am in VS to see if I like it as a perfume!

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Well ladies and gents, thus concludes the first part of my January Rosegirls order! Next up is my custom blended muffins! I am pleased with most of my custom blends, though I do wonder what I was thinking with a few of them. It really is hard to go wrong when custom blending with RG because their oils are truly some of the best out there. I can't wait to share them with you! As always, thanks for stopping by and I will see you all again soon <3

New Vendor Spotlight - Vintage Chic Scents

The wax world has positively exploded. There are new members joining us every day, and it seems like new vendors are popping up almost as quickly. It's astonishing how great the demand for wax has gotten, and it's a good thing that these new vendors have been appearing because I don't know how the masses would have been satisfied otherwise! I'd like to do a series on my blog this year of the new vendors that have emerged in the wax community. I don't plan on ordering from all of them, of course, but I'd like to highlight someof the ones here that seem to stand out from the rest. I hope you enjoy coming along with me on this journey as I explore scented wax's latest and greatest.

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First up is the highly anticipated Vintage Chic Scents, or VCS for short. VCS was pioneered by Kirby Welsh, otherwise known as VintageChic1927 on YouTube. Kirby is one of the most well-known members of the wax community with her highly successful YT channel and her presence in the Facebook groups. For me personally, Kirby was actually one of the first waxies that I watched on YT that got me addicted to wax and is one of the reasons why I am here today. Also, Kirby was one of the first members of the wax community to support my blog and I am forever grateful for that. She is just an all-around great girl. So naturally, when Kirby introduced us to her company late last year, the wax world was aflutter with excitement over this new brand.

VCS offers the following types of wax: 1.5 ounce scent shots, flower tart 3-packs and clamshells. While we've seen 1.5 ounce scent shots with LSC, 3-pack tarts from Tiffany's and decorated clamshells from TBG, Kirby puts her own spin on these tried-and-true wax standbys through her vintage theme. Every scent that Kirby carries is inspired by an old school movie, person, song, or concept. I'm a theme kinda girl myself so I was sucked in immediately. Though vintage movies and actors aren't necessarily my thing, I can always appreciate a well thought out motif and brand. And of course, the wax itself is beautiful. Kirby does a lot of two-toned wax, often with decorations and little embellishments. While wax doesn't have to be pretty for me to buy it, it certainly never hurts!

Kirby's business plan for the foreseeable future seems to be an RTS (ready to ship) model. She will be doing mainly silent openings with limited amounts of stock. The grand opening featured all three types of wax and all the scents, and each subsequent opening has included limited shapes and scents. I haven't had any problems procuring the scents that I have wanted, but that is thanks in part to my team of fellow VCS stalkers. VCS has the advantages and disadvantages of most RTS companies out there: fast TAT but limited selection and availability. Pretty standard, no surprises there. I love having a variety of custom and RTS vendors in my lineup and I'm happy to have another RTS vendor join the bunch.

Kirby's scent list is fairly limited at this point in time, I believe she has around 40 or so blends that she is currently carrying with plans to have more in the future. Sometimes being faced with endless scent options can be overwhelming, so I am enjoying the simplicity of picking from a limited number of blends from VCS. Kirby and I seem to have a lot of the same scent tastes so I have found myself drawn towards the majority of blends that she has. While there are several scents that seem to dominate her lineup (pink sugar, watermelon, and strawberry are a few that seem to have found their way into a lot of VCS blends), her scent list is pretty well rounded and there is certainly something for everyone. There are definitely some notable holes in her scent list that hopefully will be filled with time.

Usually with new vendors, I try to order small and go from there. But knowing Kirby and knowing how meticulous and detail-oriented she is, I jumped right in with VCS and went a bit crazy. The blends all sounded so good and I just couldn't help myself. Did my leap of faith pay off? Keep reading to find out =)

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Over the course of the month, I made three separate orders from VCS and also got some scents that I missed out on from a good friend. The following products are from all of my current stock of VCS products.

THESE DESCRIPTIONS ARE COLD THROW FIRST IMPRESSIONS ONLY

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Scent shots: Let's start out with scent shots. VCS has 1.5 ounce scent shots, which are a bit smaller than the standard 2 ounce version. However, I knew this going in so no problems there. I love the idea of having a smaller version of wax to try out first instead of having to commit to a bigger size. Here is what I got in scent shot form:

• Sweetheart Smoothie - sweet candy and marshmallow. This one is fantastic! The moment I opened up this scent shot, I was instantly reminded of Sweet Tarts candy. I'm generally a huge proponent of candy scented fragrances (like cotton candy, lollipop and jelly beans) and I think this is the first time I've smelled such a true sweet tarts kind of scent. I don't get much marshmallow from this but that's okay because it's fantastic either way.
• Afternoon Petit Fours - blackberry jam butter cookies and lemon. I always really enjoy lemon/berry blends so I knew this one was right up my alley. I smell mostly a sweet, creamy lemon in this scent with a slight hint of the BJBC. I would have preferred it to be a little bit heavier on the berry but she really has a great lemon scent so I am definitely pleased with this blend.
• We'll Always Have Paris - exclusive fruity blend. This mystery blend smells mainly of watermelon to me, with a hint of some other sweet fruit...strawberry? Cotton candy? I'm not quite sure what this scent is exactly but I do know that I like it. I'm curious to melt it to see if other notes make an appearance while warmed. I'm not the hugest fan of mystery blends myself, it drives me crazy not knowing what I'm smelling! But yeah...watermelon. Definitely watermelon! Let me know what you guys smell in this blend.
• The Plaza Hotel - lemon mint leaf (BBW type). Lemon mint leaf is a favorite of mine from BBW so I was excited to have it in tart form. It's just a nice fresh, clean scent without having that cloying laundry or cotton-y factor to it. You smell the tart lemon and the crisp mint equally. This is a dead-on dupe of the BBW candle for sure. Very strong on cold sniff.
• Beverly Hills Hotel - strawberry, raspberry and guava. Love this one! I've smelled other Strawberry Raspberry and Guava scents before that were a tad too sweet for my nose but this one is perfect. It almost has a milky sweetness to it that helps cut down on the sugary sweetness for me, if that makes sense. I'm not sure I necessarily smell each note in there but what I do smell is a nice, sweet (but not too sweet) berry blend.
• Rosemary's Baby - lavender and mint. There was a lot of raves about this scent so naturally, I was super excited to smell this one. Unfortunately, I just don't know if it's working for me. The lavender has a bit of a cleaner note to it, kind of like TC's Fabuloso but softer. If I had to classify it, I'd say it's an herbal lavender. And mixed with that mint note makes it feel a bit astringent to my nose. However, I am going to melt it and give it a try because I know that a lot of people have loved this scent. 
• Gumshoe Detective - bubble gum and marshmallow. I'm currently in the throes of a full-on bubble gum obsession so I knew I had to have this scent. On cold throw, it's pretty simple, mostly bubble gum with a hint of marshmallow sweetness. But bubble gum doesn't need much more to smell fantastic on its own so I'm majorly loving this blend and I can't wait until it's cured so I can melt it!
• Over the Rainbow - rainbow sherbet and cotton candy. I'm generally not a huge rainbow sherbet fan, but I really like it in this blend. It is softened quite a bit by that cotton candy note, but the predominant note here is definitely the creamy citrus from that rainbow sherbet. Good, but not a favorite. I'll have to melt it to see if that CC tones down the rainbow sherbet enough when warmed.
• My Favorite Things (accidentally left out of the picture)- strawberries, fresh baked bread, and vanilla butter fudge. I was so hoping this would be one of my favorites of the bunch but one of the notes in this blend isn't hitting my nose quite right. Maybe it's the bread scent in there - I'm generally not a fan of the fresh baked bread kind of scents (I much prefer zucchini) so maybe that's it. And if the bread in this blend really is zucchini bread, then I'm stumped. This is another one I'll have to melt to see how it turns out.

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Clamshells: Because I made it to the initial grand opening a little late, most of what was left were the clamshells, so my first order consisted mostly of clams. Unfortunately, I did detect a strong skunky, plastic-y note in several of the clamshells. This is a common occurrence in clamshells and though most of the time it only affects the cold throw, sometimes it can affect the warm throw as well. Often times, the longer the wax sits in the clamshell, the stronger the plastic smell gets. I wanted to let Kirby know and she was great about it. She sent me a few flower packs to make up for it, and let me know that she would be changing her clamshells. Excellent customer service! However, I'm not the hugest clamshell fan in general so I'll probably stick to scent shots or roses for my next purchases anyways.

Top, L-R: Elvis in Hawaii, I Feel Pretty
Botton, L-R: The Drive In, Imagene's Serendipity Cream Pie

• Elvis in Hawaii - Coconut Leaves and Palm Beach Cooler (BBW types). Well, I love Hawaii (we are going back in May!) and because my cat's name is Elvis (and of course because Elvis Presley is intricately connected to Hawaii as well), I knew that without a doubt I had to have this scent. In fact, it was the first one I added to my cart. I mostly smell a fresh, coconut scent in this blend. I love Coconut Leaves, but I've never smelled Palm Beach Cooler so I don't really have anything to compare it though. It's a nice fresh, tropical scent without having that syrup-y sweetness that a lot of coconut scents have. This one is definitely coming to Hawaii with me in May!
• I Feel Pretty - Pink Sugar, watermelon and strawberry. I smell mostly strawberry in this blend with a slight hint of the Pink Sugar. I'm not getting too much watermelon on this one off of cold throw. I'm a huge fan of all three of the scents in this blend though so I am going to melt this soon and hope the watermelon comes out more when warmed. It definitely has potential
• The Drive-In - blue raspberry and watermelon. I am not normally a fan of blue raspberry scents so I'm not quite sure why I got this one. Regardless, this one was one of the ones with quite a strong plastic scent to it, and that seems to overwhelm my nose while sniffing this one. It's definitely heavier on the blue raspberry scent, but I smell the watermelon in there too. I imagine blue raspberry fans will really enjoy this one!
• Imagene's Serendipity Cream Pie - serendipity and coconut cream pie. Serendipity and coconut cream pie is one of my favorite scent blends so naturally I had to pick up this one in my order. It's definitely heaviest on the serendipity, but I can smell a faint sweetness from that coconut cream pie. Being the serendipity nut that I am, serendipity smells great to me mixed with basically anything. A definite win for sure.

Top row, L-R: GG, Bates Motel
Bottom row, L-R: Spoonful of Sugar, Norma Jean

• GG - cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew. On cold throw, I'm just not loving this one, you guys. I am really loving melon scents lately so I was hoping this one would be a hit for me. There is an odd note to what I believe is the watermelon scent in this blend. I am going to have to melt this one to see if I like it better when warmed. This scent gets a lot of love in the VCS group so I'm going to give it a shot!
• Bates Motel - crumb cake, cinnamon and spices. I was hoping for a bit of a different kind of scent with this one, I think (maybe more of like a cinnamon struedel) but I still really like it. I smell a sweet, cinnamon bakery scent. It almost smells like the way graham cracker crust smells. I love cinnamon scents so this one will certainly be well-loved in my stash.
• Spoonful of Sugar - tres leche cake and sugar cookie dough. I'm not so sure about this one. I kind of pick up on a bit of a buttered popcorn type of note in this, which I think is the sugar cookie scent because I pick up on it in another one of VCS' sugar cookie blends. And on top of that, I'm not sure I'm really a tres leche cake fan either. I've heard good things about this blend though so I'll have to melt it to see if that buttery note subsides a bit. As of now though, this is not a favorite.
• Norma Jean - Serendipity and Vanilla Bean Noel (BBW type). This one is definitely rocking the clamshell scent vibe, but I can still distinctly smell both the serendipity and the VBN in this blend. Serendipity Noel is always a favorite blend of mine and I know this one will be great too. Nice and strong!

Top row, L-R: Ziegfeld Follies, Jackson and 15 Minutes of Fame
Bottom row, L-R: Happy Birthday, Mr. President and June Cleaver

• Ziegfeld Follies - mulberry and pomegranate. This was definitely one of the ones I was most excited for due to my affinity for mulberry scents. Off of cold throw, all I can smell is sweet mulberry with the slightest hint of that tart pomegranate. I have noticed that in a lot of VCS blends with pomegranate, the pom tends to get lost. That's a-ok with me though because I just can't seem to get enough mulberry these days.
• Jackson - pie crust and blueberry cobbler. I mostly smell the blueberry in this one, with a slight underlying crusty note. The blueberry in this blend is just the kind I like, a nice, sweet creamy blueberry without that strange artificial note that some blueberry scents can have. Pie crust is generally a lighter scent do I didn't expect to smell too much of that note anyways. Jackson is a great blend but somehow not one of my absolute faves. Still good though, just didn't really wow me. 
• 15 Minutes of Fame - pomegranate and fruit loops. I've also been loving Fruit Loops scents lately so this was another must have for me. Again, the pomegranate seems to get lost in this scent and pretty much all I can smell is the fruit loops. I may blend this scent with something else, as I generally don't really like to melt plain fruit loops scents. It's much better blended. Not a strike out but not a home run either.
• Happy Birthday Mr. President - strawberry, birthday cake, and Pink Sugar. This one probably had the strongest plastic scent out of any of the clamshells I ordered so of course, it just smells off to me in general on cold sniff. I can definitely smell the strawberry and the sweetness from the birthday cake, but not so much the Pink Sugar in here. Maybe it'll come out once warmed. I transferred this clamshell to a cell bag after these photos were taken to see if it would help the plastic smell. Not yet but I still have hope!
• June Cleaver - caramel butter cookie.  This was another one of the worst offenders for the plastic clamshell scent. However, the scent itself was not my favorite either. In fact, out of every VCS scent I've smelled, this one was by far my least favorite. I love caramel scents and I love butter cookie scents but this smelled like neither. It has a weird, almost powder-y note to it, and no caramel. It did have a slight bakery-ish tone to it but I'm not sure if it smells like a cookie. It's just really not good, I'm sorry to say. However, out of all the scent I've tried and having this be the only true dud is pretty darn good, I'd say.

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Roses: This is by far my favorite option that Kirby offers. I don't know of any other vendor that offers this shape so I was of course eager to get my hands on them! I wasn't able to snag many during the grand opening because they sold out so quickly, so most of these were given to me by a friend. Thanks Michelle <3 Some of the roses are two-toned, others are solid, and some of the 3 packs come with a combo of solid and two-toned roses. They are absolutely stunning and have come to be VCS' signature product. For curious minds, the roses are 1 ounce each. Here are the roses that I got:

Top row, L-R: Princess of Monaco, Oh What a Beautiful Mornin', White Christmas, Jackie O, Tara Will Never Go Hungry Again
Bottom row, L-R: Atlantic City, Film Noir, Lucy & Ethel, Art Deco and The Saturday Evening Post

• Princess of Monaco - lemon and marshmallow. Though this is a very simple blend, this is definitely one of my favorites of the bunch. It is very strong on cold throw, and I can smell the lemon and the marshmallow equally. Yes, it does smell very similar to the famous FP Lemon Marshmallow, which is one of my all-time favorites. The lemon in here is a sweet, bakery lemon with a slight tart note, and the marshmallow adds a nice creaminess to the blend. Yum!
• Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' - buttermilk pancakes, maple syrup and sugar cookie dough. I have been really enjoying sugar cookie & pancake blends lately, and I'm so glad that Kirby decided to add one to her VCS' lineup. This is different from all the other similar blends that I've smelled. I pick up on that buttered popcorn note here that I got from the other sugar cookie blend, but it seems to work better here blended with the maple and pancake notes. I did melt this one, and while the buttered popcorn note was present, it didn't bother me as much as I would have thought. Nice blend, though not a favorite.
• White Christmas - buttermint and Vanilla Bean Noel. I really, really love this one. I love peppermint scents, and this one has a nice creaminess to it from that VBN. Not much else to say about this one other than it is strong in the bag and I'm hoping that it will be as strong when I melt it because I can see it becoming a favorite for sure.
• Jackie O - marshmallow, birthday cake and Vanilla Bean Noel. Being that Jackie O is my namesake, I of course had to get my hands on this one! The blend in this one is fantastic, I can smell the marshmallow and birthday cake mostly but I can get hints of that VBN as well. It smells like an almost exact dupe of my beloved Sugar and Spice Marshmallow Birthday Cake Noel. Unfortunately, it was not nearly as long lasting as the S&S tart  when I melted it but I still have a certain affinity for this blend because of the name =)
• Tara Will Never Go Hungry Again - wildberry mousse, marshmallow and zucchini bread. Yummmmm! I am really loving zucchini bread scents lately, especially when they are mixed with berry scents. I can smell all three notes in this blend, the strongest being that zucchini bread but the other two notes are definitely present as well. VCS' zucchini bread isn't as creamy as some others I've smelled, I'd say it's on par with TBG zucchini bread or CFTKR zucchini bread if you've ever smelled those, though not as creamy as say RG or UTC's ZB scents. Still delish though!
• Atlantic City - strawberry, peach and snow taffy. Last year I WAY overdid it on peach scents and sort of wrote them off, but now that spring is (maybe?) rolling around here soon, I'm willing to give peach another try. It is definitely the dominant note in this blend, with the strawberry and the snow taffy adding a nice sweet base to the peach. I go back in forth with this one. Some days I sniff this and really like it, other days I'm not so sure. Today, not so sure. The true test though will be melting!
• Film Noir - glazed cinnamon donuts, snickerdoodle, and marshmallow. For those of you who have ever smelled Tiffany Candles Ultimate Donut Shop, this is a very similar blend. I'm always a bit nervous about cinnamon donut scents because I have smelled some pretty terrible ones, but this one is yummy. It's definitely a sweet, creamy donut scent with that undeniable scent of fried dough. I can smell the marshmallow in this with a slight hint of the snickerdoodle too. Very good!
• Lucy & Ethel - pistachio, coconut and marshmallow. This is definitely one of my favorites of all the VCS that I have sniffed so far. A lot of vendors carry a Pistachio Coconut Fluff oil and while I do enjoy that scent, it does have a bit of a perfume-y note to it that I wish wasn't there. This is Kirby's custom blended version of that scent and it is so good. The pistachio is no doubt the most prominent scent here, but the coconut and marshmallow add a fantastic sweetness that tones down the pistachio and makes it creamier. I would say this is probably a great scent for people who are weary about pistachio scents. Give it a try, you might just like it!
• Art Deco - pomegranate and watermelon. Yum! I have really been loving this scent combo lately ever since I got a sample of it from RG several months back so I'm glad VCS has it now as well! I don't really smell a whole lot of pomegranate in this, mostly just a sweet watermelon scent with the slightest tartness from that pom. Really, really good scent, even if the pom is light! This will be a great one for summer for sure.
• The Saturday Evening Post - zucchini bread and Vanilla Bean Noel. Out of all the standard zucchini blends, I'm pretty sure that Zucchini Noel is my least favorite (sorry Sarah!). I don't know what it is but VBN sometimes seems to enhance that corn chippy note that I get sometimes in zucchini scents. I think I'll definitely be mixing this one with Jackie O to tone down that ZB. I know that for people who do like ZB Noel scents though, this one was a hit!

Top row, L-R: The Golden Age, Imagene's Serendipity Cream Pie, June Cleaver
Bottom row, L-R: 1927, My Funny Valentine, Aunt Bee and War of the Worlds

• The Golden Age - butterscotch and snow taffy. This was one of the 3 packs that Kirby sent to make up for the clamshell plastic scent issue. I would have never ordered this one on my own but I'm so glad Kirby sent it to me! It's just a really nice, sweet, creamy butterscotch scent that would be great on its own or blended with something else. Oooh maybe I can blend this one with Saturday Evening Post too! Very nice scent.
• Imagene's Serendipity Cream Pie - serendipity and coconut cream pie. Another 3-pack Kirby sent for the clamshell issue. Smells just as good in the roses, if not even better! One of my favorite VCS blends for sure.
• June Cleaver - caramel butter cookies. Nope. This is not a good scent in the roses either =( It's such a mystery because I love both caramel and butter cookie scents so I'm not quite sure what went wrong here. This was another 3-pack Kirby sent as replacements. Very sweet of her to do!

(the rest are samples from my orders. Some were duplicates and some were passed on to friends so this is all I have remaining)

• 1927 - fresh strawberries, Pink Sugar and sugar milk. YUM! I believe this one is considered VCS' "signature blend," and for good reason. I definitely smell all three notes in this blend. I've had Pink Sugar Milk scents before and Strawberry Milk scents before but never altogether! This is a really fantastic blend you guys. I'm so glad to have gotten a few more of these from Michelle too so now I have a whole set of roses in this scent! Definitely a favorite.
• My Funny Valentine - rose jelly, lemon curd and marshmallow. Another winner! Kirby sent this to me along with the above mentioned 3-packs so I was ecstatic to get to try this scent before it went live on the site. Lemon Curd and Rose Milk is one of my all-time favorite Bathing Garden scents so I was thrilled that Kirby would be carrying a similar blend now as well. Dare I say I almost like this one better than TBG? I think that marshmallow adds an extra kick of sweetness that really rounds out the blend. Love love love!
• Aunt Bee - apple pie and zucchini bread. This is another scent that I'm not sure I would have ordered on my own but I'm so glad I got it as a sample because I really like it! It's definitely heavier on the apple pie but I can smell a decent amount of that ZB as well. Really nicely blended, and I'll have to revisit this scent again this coming fall!
• War of the Worlds - serendipity, fruit loops and marshmallow. HOW DID I MISS THIS SCENT?! I don't understand why I didn't purchase this scent for myself because it has three of my favorite things in it! Anyways, I'm so glad I got a sample of it because it is incredible. I can smell all three notes in here equally. Why do more vendors not carry a fruit loops/serendipity blend? The two are fantastic together. It smells like a fruity frozen yogurt concoction that you would eat on the beach during vacation. Need. More.

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I really enjoyed the majority of these scents cold, and although some of the blends were a bit heavy on one note, I think Kirby has a solid mix of great oils in her repertoire. Now, here is my overall thoughts on VCS as a whole.

PLEASE keep in mind that these are my opinions and my opinions alone. I am in no way glorifying or bashing this vendor, but simply stating my experiences. Your experiences may vary vastly from my own.

• Customer service - As I touched on above, several of the clamshells had a very strong, skunky, plastic-y smell. I contacted Kirby and right away she offered to send some flowers to make up for the clams. Not only did she send a few 3-packs of roses, she sent some samples of a new scent she was working on too which was just awesome. I loved how quickly she responded to my message and how great she was about it. It is a common occurrence in the wax community that some vendors do not take kindly to feedback, but Kirby is the complete opposite. She not only sent me replacements, but said she is going to find new clamshells for the next restock. Kirby is consistently in touch with her customer base, answers messages quickly and is always trying to improve her company. A win in my book for sure!
• Scents - Like I mentioned before, Kirby has FANTASTIC scent blends in her lineup. The majority of the products I got smell really delicious on cold throw. While most of the blends are ones that we have seen before, there are a few unique blends and the rest are solid and hold up with the rest of the blends in my wax collection. Like I mentioned before, there are still some holes in the lineup and I'd love to see more bakery make it's way in to the collection, with some caramel, coffee and chocolate scents especially. I know her scent list will expand over time and overall, a great start for a new company.
• Brand experience - I just love the concept of Vintage Chic Scents. Her labels are simple and to the point, but with a bit of a vintage flair. I love how she puts the pour dates on everything, I truly wish all vendors would do that. Her wax is GORGEOUS, with her roses being at the top of my list. I love the little hand-written notes she send with orders that are written on doilies. Those two-toned roses just make me smile. I love the inspirations behind the names, and I love that in her FB group, there are always vintage-themed contests going on. VCS is a very well thought out brand, no doubt about it. As a fellow wax addict herself, Kirby has really gone the extra mile to add touches to her company that she knows consumers will appreciate.
• Website - While the website is very beautiful, I have a bit of a hard time with it. I love that it has a wishlist feature to make it easier to load up your cart during the restocks, but I'm not sure how I feel about it beyond that. First of all, there is no master scent list. There is a search bar at the top to find scents, but because the scents names often don't give any indication of what is actually in the scent, I'd love to have a quick reference guide to the scent descriptions. I'd love to be able to search scent notes as well, not just scent titles. Secondly, when trying to figure out what is in stock and what is not, it is a very time consuming process. Because her products are separated into scent categories and then further into wax types, it is frustrating to have to go through each and every scent and category to see what is in stock. Thirdly, it has been mentioned in wax groups that there are a few features to the website that are not available on mobile and some people have had issues ordering on their phones. I never did personally but it is certainly something to consider. It's definitely not the worst website I've seen and it's workable.
• Prices - Dollar per ounce, VCS is one of the most expensive wax brands out there. Kirby's initial prices were $3.80 for clamshells, $3.25 for 3-packs of roses and $1.60 for the scent shots. However, for the next restock the prices were suddenly listed as $4 for clamshells, $3.50 for the roses and $1.75 for the scent shots. I understand having to raise prices, but I think what irked a lot of people was the fact that these prices were increased without any announcement to the fact. In the end, it is Kirby's business and she is free to make any necessary decisions for her company. It is in no way imperative to let us know first, although it would have been nice. Was this little discrepancy enough to make me stop ordering? No. Was it for some people? Yes, it was. Either way you look at it, VCS is definitely one of the more expensive brands and that is a factor that many people take into account when purchasing wax. 
• Shipping - As of right now, VCS only ships to the US. Also, they are not combining shipping on any orders. Sometimes RTS can be a bit of a rush, so often times people make several orders to ensure they get everything they want. While it would certainly be nice if they were able to combine shipping, I can understand why not doing so helps keep things easier for them. I do hope in the future they would consider combined shipping, however, as the current flat rate of $7.95 shipping can add up quickly when placing two to three orders per opening. But in the meanwhile, I am just going to be sure to get everything in one order. 
• Performance of the tarts -  I have melted several things since getting my orders in, and I have to say that my experience is mixed. I've melted 9 things from her so far, so this is by no means a comprehensive review, just a quick take of my experiences so far. Some scents have a strong, long-lasting throw, however a lot of what I melted threw strongly at first and petered out only after a few hours. Also, I melted a few scents that had a very light scent throw from start to finish. From feedback I've seen in several wax groups, lots of people seem to have come to the same conclusion that I have about VCS wax. Of course, the nature of fragrance oils is that some are going to be stronger and more long lasting than others. Not all fragrance oils will kick you in the face with scent for 12 hours straight. And anyways, I have enough wax in my stash that changing out a scent only after a few hours isn't that big of an issue for me. I'm willing to power through the mixed performance because I genuinely love her scent blends. Generally, I have gotten at least some sort of throw from what I've melted from her, with Princess of Monaco (1.5 roses in a 20-watt), Art Deco (1.5 roses in a 20-watt) and Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' (1 rose in a 20-watt) having the strongest and longest throws of what I've melted so far. Though I was slightly disappointed with the performance overall, her formula is not bad for a new vendor. I am sure that as VCS grows, their performance will as well.

Overall, my feelings are a bit mixed. I wanted so much for VCS to be a home run for me, but it's not quite there yet. I think this company has a lot of potential and I know that Kirby is dedicated to making VCS the best it can be. I think a lot of my initial disappointment had a lot to do with the pre-game hype surrounding VCS. To be fair, I think I was expecting a bit too much from a brand new vendor. Not once has a new vendor ever had this much buzz surrounding it and I think I got swept up in it all. I need to remember that VCS is a homegrown company that is new and is still working out the kinks. Will I be a repeat VCS customer? Absolutely! I know this brand has great potential to become one of my favorites. I wish nothing but the best for Kirby with her VCS endeavor and I know that VCS will continue to grow and shape into a powerhouse brand in the wax world.

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LONGEST BLOG POST EVER! Thanks for stopping by everyone and I will see you all soon =)