Fall Fun Series: Halloween Higlights

Happy Halloween and Boo to you, one and all! Today I am melting a festive concoction called All Hallows' Eve by The Scented Squirrel. It's quite the interesting brew of pumpkin, fruits and spices; I love it!

Some other waxy highlights today include my Glitterati flash sale box that came in the mail. Let me tell you, I didn't buy into the "unicorn of wax" hype for a long time, but I must say everything smells incredibly strong and wonderful on cold sniff; I can't wait to start melting these bad boys! 

I also received a super festive giveaway prize consisting of wax, lotion and scrub in the scent Seasonal Madness from The Bathing Garden. "Smells of sweet cotton candy glazed apples, creamed corn, vanilla frosting, and pumpkin pudding." It's absolutely scrumptious; even my husband approves!

Aside from all these smell goods, what am I going to celebrate Halloween? Well, my nails are the only thing that usually dress up. This is one coat of Zoya Storm and 3 coats of a cool old orange shimmer jelly from WnW a friend sent me and some adorable Halloween decals another friend sent me!

I am currently engaged in my favorite Halloween pastime: curled up in a fleecy blanket, watching Hocus Pocus, one of the best Halloween movies ever, sipping on apple cider and nibbling pumpkin donuts from my festive dishes. Oh, and melting my favorite pumpkin waffles candle.

Here is my costume:

I'd like to leave you with a few of my favorite spooky salutations.

Do you celebrate Halloween? What are your favorite traditions?

Recent Wax Reviews

The Bathing Garden Ghostly Brew (apple cinnamon + marshmallow) A yummy sweet and creamy apple cinnamon blend, like apples pie and vanilla ice cream. Throw was moderate for about 4 hours and became light thereafter. Overall grade: B+. Probably wouldn't repurchase.

Lasting Scent Candles Cast A Spell: pachouli, cedar and spices. An amazing and aromatic blend. Strong throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A. Would repurchase.

Candy Panda Midnight Snack: this is absolutely delicious! It smells exactly like freshly baked chicken chip cookies. Super realistic, one of the best tarts I've melted in a while. Super strong throw that lasted all day, could have gone a 2nd  day. Overall grade: A+. Would repurchase.

The Scented Squirrel Candy Corn Cupcake: a yummy vanilla cupcake blend with sweet candy corn type frosting. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A-. Might repurchase.

Sassy Girl Aroma Brown Sugar Pound Cake Latte: an absolutely incredible blend. Each of the notes are present and well balanced. The coffee is particularly strong. Super strong throw that lasted all day. Overall grade: A+. Would repurchase.

The Scented Squirrel Green Apple Caramel Candy: a great sour apple and caramel blend. Light throw for about 6 hours. Overall grade: B. Probably wouldn't repurchase.

OOTD: Rich Colors

Cardi: Mossimo, thrifted

Dress: F21

Leggings: online boutique 

Boots: Target

Earrings: craft fair

Scarf: Payless 

NOTD: Green & Flakie

Trying to dupe Emily De Molly Insipid. (1st pic, not mine.)

I am loving how it turned out! This is 2 coats Julep Betsey and one coat Level Up Lacquer Dark Matter. I could have made it even more like Insipid by adding another coat of flakie, but I like having the green show through. If you're in need of some good flakies, you should check out Level Up Lacquer; they're fabulous!

Once again it was overcast today so I don't have brilliant sun pics, but even without direct sunlight I'm impressed!

Recent Wax Reviews

SGA Crisp Apple Rose: this is a unique and refreshing scent with juicy, realistic apple and fresh rose floral. It smells lovely! Had fairly strong throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A. Would purchase.

SGA Zombie Crunch: This is a great, well balanced berry and vanilla bakery blend. Smells just like Capt'n Crunch Berries cereal to me, yum! One of my favorites from SGA and berries are hit or miss for me. Strong throw for about 10 hours. Overall grade: A+. Would repurchase.

Scented Bliss Melts The Archer: described notes of "tobacco leaf, orange zest, oak, patchouli and sweet caramel."

It smells pleasantly masculine to me; musky and woodsy with hints of tobacco smoke and a slight sweetness. I liked this scent a lot and was pleased with the scent interpretation of the character of Daryl from TWD. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A-. Would repurchase.

Live Love Wax Co Apple Zucchini Noel:

Top notes of crisp apple with a light baked zucchini bread aroma. I would have liked this blend to be a little more balanced, but it did smell good. Moderate throw for about 6-7 hours. Overall grade: B+. Might repurchase.

Kitty's Konfections Fancy A Drink (watermelon jolly rancher + lemonade): This is a yummy sweet watermelon candy scent with a twist of tart lemonade. Smells great with strong throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A. Cannot repurchase because company is no longer in business.

Kitty's Konfections Food Coma (popcorn + glazed donuts.): a yummy scent of cinnamon sugar type donuts but very little popcorn scent, just a slight hint of butter. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: B+. Cannot repurchase because company is no longer in business.

Candles From The Keeping Room Winter Cabin: a fresh air over crisp newly fallen snow with wood and woodsmoke aroma. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A-. Might repurchase.

NOTD: Berry Holo

Another layering experiment! This time I wanted something close to NWP Goblin King. (Not my photo).

I used 2 coats Orly Galaxy Girl. This has a weird, super streaky formula on the first coat but looks nice after 2-3. It's an interesting oxblood/purple color with a subtle blue shimmer. I amped up the sparkle with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Not quite a dead ringer for Goblin King, but similar enough to satisfy my lemming. It's very pretty to me.

The Walking Dead: Melts & More

This will count as my Fall Fun Series post for favorite Halloween movies. I am not much for horror movies; the only Halloween themed things I really watch are Hocus Pocus and the Tim Burton classics. I do however like a lot of sci-fi and especially apocalypse and zombie shows. Like most of the rest of America, I am particularly obsessed with The Walking Dead.

Seeing as how tonight is the much anticipated season premiere, I thought it fitting to do a post on all things TWD.

I must share my predictions for tonight's

episode. I have a feeling we will not find out who Negan kills in this episode. If we do it'll probably be at the very end after a bunch of flashbacks or other story aside. I think it will either be Abraham or Glenn that takes a Lucielle to the noggin, but I really hope that's not the case. I've also heard that maybe two important characters will be killed, but I guess we shall see...

Anyway on to the zombie themed wax melts! Today I am melting Zombie Crunch by Sassy Girl Aroma. It's one of my favorite zombie themed melts; strong throw and it's a great, well balanced berry/bakery blend. It smells just like Capt'n Crunch Berries cereal to me, yum!

Probably the first TWD themed wax collection I ever saw was from Cleanse Your Soul; it's be around since at least 2011. I just received a clamshell of my favorite CYS TWD scent which is Glenn. It is described as "The scavenger, the Asian, the pizza delivery guy.  A jack of all trades fits well with the scent of Chai Tea, and hints of caramel, coconut, and vanilla."

I received this Blank Label Ahh Zombies! scent in a destash. Sometimes pistachio scents are too overwhelming for me, but I quite like this blend. It's a more creamy pistachio and cherry blend.

I also decided to try a new wax vendor when I saw she had a "The Waxing Dead" sampler available. I found Scented Bliss Wax Melts through Instagram and I'm very pleased with her scent interpretations of each character. Today I am also melting The Archer. Here is a description of all the scents in The Melting Dead Sampler.

Have you tried any TWD themed wax melts? I know Super Tarts has a whole collection that I haven't tried. Any others I need to investigate?

I also wanted to share with you my TWD tribute mani. These polishes are by a brand called Native War Paints that has released several collections of beautiful TWD themed polishes. On my nails are two coats of Rotten Zombie Flesh (green) and 2 coats of It's Not The End. I am totally enamored of these polishes; so pretty and easy to work with!

So, are you a TWD fan? If so, I assume you will be watching tonight. In a few hours I will be stocking up on tissues and popping my popcorn. Until then, I'd like to leave you with a few of these gems.

Recent Wax Reviews

Chrislan Candles Twilight Woods:

This scent had a nice soft musky/perfumey woods aroma. It was a fairly good dupe of the original BBW scent. The throw was rather light; I could catch whiffs of it within a few feet of the warmer for about 8 hours. Overall grade: B. Probably wouldn't repurchase.

SGA Cherry Slush Pistachio Whipped Cream Cake: This was an excellent, well balanced blend. Many pistachio scents are too strong for me but this was a nice creamy pistachio that went well with the sweet cherry and rich bakery. Strong throw that lasted all day. Overall grade: A+. Would purchase.

Starry Skies Leaves: This was a dead on BBW dupe, fresh and festive with a pinch of spice. It had moderate throw for about 10 hours. Overall grade: A. Would repurchase.

Starry Skies Bonfire Nights: a yummy chocolate/bakery aroma with a bit of sweet creaminess from the marshmallow. Good enough to eat. Wish it were a bit stronger; moderate throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A-. Would repurchase.

Starry Skies Sweater Weather:

Another good BBW dupe. A fresh and airy yet comforting scent. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. Overall grade: A-. Would repurchase.

The Scented Squirrel Indian Summer:

This is a crisp fall leaves type scent. It's very pleasant. Moderate throw for about 10 hours. Overall grade: A. Would repurchase.

NOTD: Coral Shimmer

Let my layering experiments begin! First up I wanted to try to dupe some shimmery polishes from NWP. This is Cashmere Sweater (not my pic.)

Here is my dupe done with 2 coats NWP Watermelon Bubblegum and 1 coat Revlon Gold Glaze. Obviously since mine is a topper and not mixed into the polish, the gold shimmer is more prominent. It's not a close match but I really like the overall effect; so glowy.

If a person wanted to franken a coral polish with a gold shimmer they could probably get a pretty close match. I'm not much into frankening though.

Anyway, enjoying my shimmery mani

Fall Fun Series: Halloween Decor

Like I've mentioned previously I don't have space to do much in the way of seasonal decor. However a friend did send me this fun tinsel garland with bats in a birthday box a few weeks ago so I hung it up over my wax stash for a bit of festivity.

I also looked high and low for those cute ghost Peeps marshmallows at a few different stores but came up empty handed.

I did find some more general fall themed items at Walmart. Adorable owl towels for only .88¢ and some fox and owl themed pot holders too.

I hope you enjoyed my tiny bit of Halloween and fall decor. Do you like to decorate for Halloween or fall?

Fall Fun Series: Fall Vendor Highlights

I love to try new wax vendors and I would like to highly a couple of lesser known wax vendors I found on Etsy. The first is called Chrislan Candles. You can check out their Etsy shop here.

I was interested in them because they have soy wax clamshells and wood wick candles at quite low prices. Wax clams are $2 each and 8 oz mason jar wood wick candles are only $5.75.

I ordered 2 candles in Pumpkin Creme Brûlée and Sugar Cookie scents. I also ordered 4 clams in Pumpkin Creme Brûlée, Michigan Maple, Twilight Woods and Lemon Soufflé.

I have already burned through both of the candles and performance wise the woodwicks did quite well. The had a deep, even wax pool and provided a nice ambiance, although they did not crackle as much as other brands I've tried. I would say I got a good 48 or more hours of burn time out of each candle. Throw wise the Sugar Cookie was a pleasant but ordinary vanilla scent. It had light throw with the occasional moderate whiff. I would have preferred the scent to be stronger, but it's nice to burn with accompanying tart scents.

The Pumpkin Creme Brûlée scent had strong throw, but the scent itself was not quite what I expected.  It was more of a pumpkin pie spice type scent that sometimes smelled burnt. I know Creme Brûlée can have a burnt note but I was hoping for more of a rich caramel type pumpkin. I didn't hate it but didn't love it either. I also tried the tart in this scent; same scent with a strong theme that lasted a good 8 hours.

I have yet to try the other three tart scents. On cold sniff, Michigan Maple puzzles me; I don't get any maple syrup from it at all, just a faint apple aroma. Twilight Woods smells quite nice, similar to the BBW scent, woodsy and perfumey. The Lemon Soufflé smells like a strong, tart lemon bakery scent.

Overall I would order the woodwick candles again because I enjoyed them and they're so inexpensive, but in different scents to try and find ones I like more. The jury is out on the wax melts until I try all the scents, but I'd probably give them another shot and try some more scents.

Next I'd like to feature Handmade Prim. You can view their Etsy shop here. They are another vendor that has inexpensive wax. 2 small tarts or 1 regular size are around $1.35. 4 oz candles are $4.25. 

This order full of fall goodies is my 3rd from Handmade Prim and overall I'm pleased with their items. I love the rustic way in which they decorate their wax melts. The wax is very soft though and quite susceptible to heat and pressure so most of my melts have ended up squished. I've enjoyed the scents I've tried from my previous orders. Most had a moderate throw. I haven't yet tried the wax scents from this order, but on cold sniff my favorite is the peppermint bark. It looks and smells just like the real thing! I did melt the Maple Pumpkin Syrup candle and it smelled nice, mostly of maple with very little pumpkin and light to moderate throw. It took it a few hours to build a deep even wax pool, but no problems with drowning wicks. I got approximately 30 hours of burn time from it.

Have you tried either of these vendors? Do they interested you? What are some of your favorite lesser known wax vendors?

NOTD: Color Club Miss Bliss

Such a spectacular 1 coat holographic polish! I highly recommend it.

Recent Wax Reviews

Kitty's Konfections Ares' Dessert (caramel ice cream chocolate swirl waffle cone): This was such a delicious scent that had strong throw for about 10 hours. Rich caramel opening notes with hints of chocolate and bakery. Not artificial or overwhelming at all. It's a shame this vendor had problems and I won't be able to repurchase this scent. Overall grade: A.

Glade Hit The Road: a strong scent of pine and fresh air with a hint of apple. This scent had strong throw that lasted all day but it was almost too overwhelming for me and a bit artificial. Overall grade: B. Would not purchase.

Beezy French Baguette: this is the delicious scent of fresh baked sourdough bread and a great BBW dupe. 1/4 tart had strong throw for about 6 hours. Overall grade: A. Would repurchase.

Rosegirls Cider Lane: I was excited for it as I'd heard raves about this scent, but it was disappointing to me. It had very little throw and what I could smell was a vague plasticy apple which I hate, with very little spice. I received this in a destash, so I don't know how old it is or how it was stored. I assumed the bag was polypropylene; I have other RG scents in the same type of bag that seem to be fine. But perhaps it is not and the bag sucked the scent out?

Can anyone who's smelled RG Cider Lane share what it's supposed to smell like? Overall grade: D. Would purchase from the vendor, but did not enjoy this sample.

Swanky Pink Sugar: a typical pink sugar scent. Very pleasant and sweet. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. I enjoyed it but it's not special or unique. Overall grade: A-. Might repurchase.

Flaming Star Scents Lemonade Koolaid Cake: a yummy blend of sweet fruity and vanilla bakery notes. Moderate throw for about 8 hours. I like it a lot, but it's not the best fruity bakery blend I've ever smelled. Overall grade: B+. Probably wouldn't purchase.

Fall Fun Series: Autumn in Nature

I absolutely love admiring natural beauty and there is probably no more beautiful time of year than Autumn. For this post I thought I would show you some photos from my travels of fall in different states.

Painted Canyon Badlands, North Dakota. August 10th, 2012.

Harrisonburg, Virginia. August 21st 2012.

Teeton National Forest, Wyoming. September 2nd 2012.

Julesburg, Colorado. September 16th 2012.

Conley, Georgia. September 29th 2012.

Saffern, Maryland. October 18th 2012.

Pennsylvania. October 21st 2012.

Gateway Arch, St. Louis Missouri. October 23rd 2012.

Mesa in New Mexico. October 28th 2012.

Tolleston Arizona. October 29th 2012.

Dodge City, Kansas. November 22 2012.

Auburndale Florida September 6th 2013.

Snake River Canyon Twin Falls, Idaho. September 16th 2013.

Sanitaria Springs New York. September 28th 2012.

Yakima Valley, Washington. October 7th 2013.

Portland, Oregon. October 15th 2013.

Shasta Lake, Dunsmuir, California. October 25th 2013.

I hope you enjoyed these photos of autumn from around the United States! Have you ever traveled during the fall? What states have you experienced fall in?