Bumble & Blue Candles

It’s no secret at this stage that I am an absolute candle fiend.  Usually you will hear me harp on about commercially hyped candle brands that produce amazingly scented candles in attractive packaging.  Well, I have recently come across something a little bit different (in a good way) and I wanted to tell you about it.

A couple of weeks ago I received a beautiful package from a company called Bumble & Blue.  The package contained two candles and a very cute reusable shopper bag.  I have been putting the candles to the test over the last few weeks and thought I would share my thoughts with you.

Bumble & Blue is an Irish candle company that makes hand-poured soya and rapeseed wax natural candles.  The company is owned by a lady called Jemma who began making candles in her country kitchen.  With a background in psychology and counselling, Gemma started her candle making business with a desire to produce therapeutic candles using vegetable based waxes and essential oils.

When asked whether I would like to review some of Bumble & Blue’s candles I went straight to the website to read about the company and products.   What appealed to me most about these candles was the ingredient list and the non-treated wooden wicks.

Firstly, I am always very happy to support Irish brands from overseas and secondly, because I live in a small apartment and do love to burn candles, I often worry about toxins released from certain types of candles which can be especially overpowering in a small space.  When I read that the Bumble & Blue candles were made from vegetable oil and had wooden wicks I was really keen to give them a go.  I have never had a candle with a wooden wick before, so I was really interested to see how it burned. Also, vegetable waxes are apparently 50-70% slower burning, so they should be much more economical.

I was also very impressed by the huge selection of scents available.  There are two different ranges to choose from – the ‘Classic’ range and the ‘essential oils’ range.

All of the options are shown on the Bumble & Blue website but I have listed a few (from many) that sound appealing to me:

Classic Range

• Feng Shui Wood
• Fresh Linen
• Neroli
• Himalyan Bamboo
• Neroli
• Sweet Jasmine
• Verbena
• Mint and White Jasmin

 The classic range candles are all available in mini, medium and large and range in price from £5 to £16.

The burn time for the candles is as follows:

• Small 200g burn time 10-12 hrs
• Medium 300g burn time 35 hrs
• Large 550g burn time 70 hours

The Bumble & Blue essential oil candles all sound appealing to me.  I absolutely love essential oils.  My sisters and I were introduced to essential oils by our mum at a young age – she has always been a big fan of them and I appear to have developed the same love for them.

The essential oil candles by Bumble & Blue include:

• Balancing Rose
• Calming Verbena
• Cleansing Citronella
• Herbal Tea Tree
• Lively Lemongrass
• Refreshing Tea tree & Lemon
• Revitalising Sweet Orange
• Soothing Lavender
• Stress Relieving Orange, Cedarwood & Clove
• Tranquil Lemon & Lavender
• Uplifting Lemon & Bergamot

The essential oil candles are only available in one size (300g).  They cost £20 each and have a burn time of 35 hours.

Bumble & Blue get their scents from the most reputable natural resources and like to give them fun and appropriate names dependent on the scent.  For example, the earl grey tea scent has become ‘Me Time’ and the coffee scent is named ‘But First Coffee’.

Their seasonal scents such as ‘Cinnamon’ and ‘Jingle Bell Berries’ have become so popular that they now sell them all year round.  Gemma also informed me that their ‘Daily Meditation’ and ‘Lemongrass’ candles are their current bestsellers, which I am not surprised by.  Daily meditation sounds great to me and lemongrass is one of my absolute favourite scents in general!!

As I mentioned, Bumble & Blue very kindly sent me two of their candles to try.  I received the the ‘But First Coffee’ candle and the ‘Sandalwood’ which are two of their new scents and will be available on the Bumble and Blue website soon.

 

I absolutely love the smell of coffee (I think most people do, even if you don’t like the taste) so I was very excited to have a candle that could make my apartment smell like coffee all day long.  As soon as I opened the box I could smell this one.  This coffee candle doesn’t just smell like any old coffee, more specifically it smells like a caramel latte to me and has more of a sweet scent. The scent was quite strong to begin with but became more subtle the longer I burnt it, which I actually prefer.

The sandalwood candle has a very strong earthy, woody aroma – my favourite kind of scents.  I think you either love or hate this kind of scent but personally I am a big fan.  The scent is very unusual and to me it smells a bit like a smoky bonfire which I really love.

My absolute favourite thing about the candles is the wooden wick which I mentioned earlier.  The wick is extremely easy to light and it makes a crackling sound as it burns which I absolutely LOVE! I find this to be such a comforting and relaxing sound.  The sound of the crackling wick and the scent of the sandalwood candle allows me to pretend that my apartment has an open fire (which is what I miss the most about not living at home).

I don’t know whether it is the ingredients or the wooden wick but these candles just seem to burn so cleanly and I really appreciate that.  There is no smoky sparks or black flames – just one nice fat clean flame that burns without any mess.

As with every candle I light, the first time I lit my Bumble & Blue candles I made sure to let it burn long enough for the melted wax to reach both sides of the jar.  This extends the burn time of your candle and helps to avoid that tunnelling effect which happens when you blow out your candle before the entire top of it has time to melt.  When this tunnelling happens the flame will be starved of oxygen, it will burn slower and eventually extinguish itself.  If you make sure the wax burns all the way around the top each time your candle will burn perfectly and you will waste less wax.

I also make sure that the burnt wick never gets too long.  With these wooden wick candles it is so so easy to just break off the blackened end before relighting.  This helps to avoid any smoky mess that can sometimes happen when a candle wick is too long.

The candles are sold in glass jars with Bumbles & Blue’s simplistic brand stickers.  The jars are then packaged in pretty cardboard boxes, complete with Bumble and Blue’s signature blue ribbon which represents elegance and energy.

I would definitely love to try more of the Bumble & Blue candles in the future and I would love to hear if you have tried any of them too.  As well as being able to order the candles directly from their website, I believe they have also just opened their first shop at the Linen Green in Dungannon, County Tyrone.  I will definitely try and pay a visit to the shop sometime soon.  Please also let me know if you have visited the shop :).

As always, I have left included direct links to the shop’s website and products below so you can have a look for yourself :).

I hope everyone has a great weekend 🙂

Claire x

 

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