Mugler Alien Candle

Finally, the nights are drawing in, and we have perfect candle weather!  I love candles, own hundreds, but this Saturday was the first night we've lit a candle in the new flat, and we've been here nearly six months now! 

And what a one to start candle-season off with.  Recently released by Mugler perfumes, this Alien-scented candle is a joy.  I love Alien, with its unapologetic oddness (space jasmine, anyone?), but still beautiful in its own right, it's a perfect scent for room fragrance, and candle. We burned this for several hours on Saturday night, and the flat still smelled amazing the next day.  My nose doesn't detect a lot of household fragrances these days (the fault of my olfactory nerve damage, not the products), but this has a surprising amount of "throw", so even I could detect, and love it.

So, what does Alien smell like?  It's white flowers, amber, woods and jasmine, with just a tiny, tiny, tiny hint of licorice, in my view. it's sweet and flowery, but very sophisticated, however, if you don't like jasmine, you won't like Alien at all.  I like jasmine.  A lot.  Which is lucky.

 

Winter, wine, candles and (not pictured) Strictly Come Dancing.  The perfect autumn evening.

I love the way the purple glass glows whilst the candle is burning, and the scent is great (have I mentioned it smells great?  I should have, it does), every home should have one.  Mugler have also released an Angel-scented candle this autumn, if you know someone who loves Angel or Alien, then here's your Christmas present sorted.

The Mugler candles cost £39 each, and are available wherever Mugler fragrances are sold.  I'll be getting a backup. 

The Fine Print: PR sample


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Fornasetti L'Eclaireuse Candle

Fornasetti is the most whimsical design brand around, and I can never resist it.  This is a surprise to me, as I'm not really a fan of whimsy. I generally prefer strong graphical design, bright colours and geometrics to more representational art (basically, give me art deco over almost anything else, and I'm a happy woman), but somehow, Fornasetti's sense of the surreal and absurd appeals to me in the most delightful way.  The RIP design which debuted in time for last Christmas actually made me laugh in delight (I like skulls, sue me) when I first laid eyes on it, and whilst this year's L'Eclaireuse hasn't quite made me giggle, it is definitely beautiful, and a lovely addition to my collection.

Half Maharani, and half pirate; Fornasetti's muse Lina Cavalieri gazes out from the candle jar bedecked in either a golden eyepatch, or (my favourite) adorned in golden eastern-style jewels.  Jewellery, I can also get behind!

Inside the jar is a new fragrance for this year; Mistero. This is a spicy blend of pink pepper, incense and cedarwood, which fizzes gently on the nose when sniffed from the jar, but I'm just waiting for the nights to draw in a bit so I can light it and see how the scent throws out in a room.  Fornasetti candles generally burn well and very cleanly, and the other scents I have in my collection throw well, scenting even my high-ceiling-ed rooms gently but decisively, so I can't wait to light this one.

Or, it turns out, not. 

It's not a shrine.  It does need some plants though.

 I do have a small Fornasetti problem in that I can't bear to burn them at all simply because they are so damn beautiful! What a dilemma, I know ... They are gorgeous objects in their own right, not just as candles, and I should just get over myself and burn them so I can use them for other purposes but I just need to finish admiring them first.  Don't I?

The Fornasetti L'Eclaireuse candle will be available from September, and will cost £125.

The Fine Print: PR samples.


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Diptyque Rosaviola Candle and Solid Fragrance

Good grief I fell hard for Rosaviola!  I didn't intend to, it's pink, it's girly, and it's very, very, very sweet.  But I have, and what's done is done.  I went to the Diptyque store in St Germain (I think I may have mentioned that I've been in Paris recently?) fully intending to buy something super-exclusive and incredibly French (not to mention achingly chic), and I came back with ... pink.

Balls.

Rosaviola is, essentially, a blend of rose and violet, and it smells like lipstick.  There's not much more to it than that, to be honest, but it's so pretty, and so friendly and good-natured that I couldn't really help myself.  Violet fragrances speak to me these days in a pretty visceral way, that they never used to before my nose got brain damage, and so this is a lovely and easy to wear perfume for me.  The violet also tempers the rose to my nose - roses still occasionally smell dusty or burned - so it's a light and fresh, and yes, girly and friendly smell.

I hate myself.  But it's got lips on, so it's okay.  The lasting time can be measure in literally minutes, but I don't really care.  It's lovely.

I think I need help.  If anyone wants me, I'll be drowing myself in a bucket of Muscs Kubla Khan by Serge Lutens until this phase passes ...

The Fine Print: Purchases

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Iiuvo Emmie Candle

Candles.  I fupping love candles, and I love finding new candle brands, especially when the scents they are offering are a little different to those you can find on the market already.  Iiuvo, an independent British candle brand, founded by Leo Gibbon and Tomi Ahmed (whose experience runs the gamut from Commes Des Garcons to Dover Street Market), offer beautifully minimalistic candles with interesting scents.  

This one,  Emmie, smells of an evergreen hedgerow, just after a light rainshower at the beginning of spring.  Galbanum and cedar combine with a mossy, bosky base to make this quite the greenest and most interesting candle I've smelled in a long while.   They're clean-burning and good-looking, and the scent - even when unlit - will fill a room really well.  I love the jar, and am looking forward to keeping my favourite coloured pencils in it once the candle has burned down completely.

Iiuvo candles cost £50 and they're available from Liberty. 

The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Annick Goutal Noel Candle

We don't actually have that many Christmas traditions at Lippie Mansions, now I come to think of it (stuffing your face, drinking booze for breakfast and watching too much telly are pretty much universal, aren't they?  AREN'T THEY?) and we don't really go in for Christmas decorations that much - we have a couple of muji Christmas trees, but that's about as far as it goes - but one thing we do go in for is Christmas candles, and we go in big.

For my money - and even for yours, for that matter - the Annick Goutal Noel candle is one of the best.  It smells of orange, pine and balsamic resins and is the nearest thing to spending your Christmas Eve in the forest you'll ever get in the comfort of your own home.   It burns cleanly, and will scent out the whole house in just a few hours. 

Christmas isn't Christmas until we've lit the Annick Goutal Noel in our house ... 


The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Maison Francis Kurkdjian - Mon Beau Sapin Candle

Yes, yes, I'm having a bit of a candle moment this week.  But, you know, 'tis the season and all that.  This Christmas Francis Kurkdjian is treating us to a golden tribute to the balsam fir:

Housed in a blingy golden container, etched with representations of fir trees Mon Beau Sapin is a smokey-pine-patchouli blend that definitely feels both foresty and wintry.  It's really lovely, I'm burning it now as I write this and it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ....

Available from November, MFK's Mon Beau Sapin will cost £xx 

The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Clinique Aromatics in White Candle

I hoard my Clinique Aromatics Candles.  They don't come out every year, and I always like to have one around, because Clinique Aromatics Elixir is one of my favourite perfumes ever.  EVER.  I have a couple of the originals around at the moment, and I'm saving them for when winter really, really sets in.  

You can imagine how happy I was when I found out that this year they were launching candles in the flanker fragrances Aromatics in White, and Aromatics in Black.  I have the white version here,  and it's a lovely version of the original "White" fragrance, softer than Elixir, and brighter with rose and violet to the fore, it's a genuinely lovely candle.  They're launched exclusively in Harrods at the beginning of November, and I'm tempted to pick up a "Black" one whilst I'm there too, even though I didn't get along with the fragrance as well as the white because of my parosmia.  I think I'd be able to habdle it better in a candle, and hey!  I'm a completist ...

Perfect Christmas gift for the Aromatics Elixir fanatic in your life, these ... 

 The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Cire Trudon Gaspard Candle

The coming of winter, and the turning back of the clocks is my favourite time of the year because to me that means blankets on the sofa, better programmes on the telly, and candles.  Mainly candles, admittedly.  The arrival of the Cire Trudon Christmas collections always makes me smile, and when I initially thought the new candle was called "Gaspode", I was delighted*.  It's actually called "Gaspard", and, it turns out, I'm just an idiot.

Cire Trudon insist this is a "black" candle, I think it's actually a rather splendid and unusal (for a candle) battle-ship grey.  It fits perfectly with my rather monotone coffee table decorations, anyway. I love the gold interiors that Cire Trudon always outfit their christmas collections with, it looks so beautiful and welcoming when the candle is burning.

Scentwise, Gaspard is a warm and slightly orangey, bouyed by a base of sandalwood and incense.  It also has some vanilla in there, so it is a creamy-orange, rather than a traditional Christmas-sy orange-spice confection.  

Cire Trudon candles are always clean-burning and last a good 30-40 hours.  You can now find them in John Lewis, where the Christmas candles will cost £70 each. 

What's your favourite part of winter? 


 The Fine Print: PR Sample 

*If you don't know who "Gaspode" is, then we can never be friends


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Flamingo Candles - The Melt Crowd

Meh.  I'm so over box schemes for beauty, I can't even begin to tell you.  But there are so many other companies using the subscription-box model to send out interesting (and more useful!) things, that I couldn't resist getting involved with this one.  Flamingo Candles do a range of funkily-scented candles and wax tarts to use in a burner, and now, for £10 a month, they'll send you a selection of eight of their latest scents (and in your first box you get the burner shown above too) for you to scent your home with.

Included in the September box were melts in:

White Lilac and Rhubarb
Grapefruit Orange and Lemon Peel (which I'm burning as I write this - I find grapefruit great for heightening concentration) (exclusive to subscribers)
Lemon and Lime Mojito
Rose and Marshmallow
Earl Grey Tea and Cucumber (I'm a bit obsessed with cucumber at the moment, so I'll be burning this one next!)
Circus Candy Floss  and
Crème Brulee (a preview of a scent to be release by Flamingo in the future)

 

Personally, I find a lot of this months selection quite sweet, but there are enough citrussy/cucumbery scents in there to keep me going.  Plus it turns out, I really don't like the smell of lilac (but that's personal taste rather than a fault of the tart)!  Shame, as I love the smell of rhubarb.

The melts last at least 8-10 hours in burning, and are powerful enough to scent the whole flat, I've found.  If you're a fan of Yankee Candles at all, these foody scents are a great natural-wax replacement, and best, they're British!  And so much cheaper (and nicer) than Yankee. 

You can find out more about the Melt Crowd scheme here.  One of the greatest things about it is that the £10 fee includes postage.  Individual melts normally cost £2, so the Melt Crowd box represents a great saving every month.   

The Fine Print: Purchase.


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Jo Malone Mimosa and Cardamom

As a result of losing my sense of smell last year, I'm attracted to smells that stimulate my trigeminal nerve as well as my olfactory one, and, from a perfume point of view, that means spicy fragrances are my friend, so when I heard about Jo Malone London Mimosa and Cardamom fragrance being launched recently, I was intrigued.

The last fragrance I really took to from Jo Malone London was the fruity-herbal Blackberry and Bay - all their releases from 2014 were released when I couldn't smell, so are a bit "lost" to me right now, but I fully intend to at least properly smell Wood Sage and Sea Salt if it kills me this year.  Mimosa and Cardamom is a slight departure for the brand, being slightly less lady-like and inoffensive than some of their releases in recent years - the "English Desserts" collection in particular turned my stomach somewhat I'm afraid, and it's all the better for it.

It starts with a puff of musky saffron and spicy cardamom before the tickly scent of mimosa kicks in.  Later, once the spices have dissipated slightly, it's a milky tonka and sandalwood, with just a hint of flowers in the background.  It makes an excellent house-scent, being warm, welcoming, and ... strangely lovable, without being over-sweet.

As a layering fragrance, it works astonishingly well over the Cologne Intense in Tuberose Angelica from the brand too, the clean bubblegum scent of Tuberose adds a depth and narcotic sexiness to the spicy green cardamom of Mimosa & Cardamom.

So nice to see - and smell! - a new direction from Jo Malone London.  As we turn into autumn, this is a perfectly-timed release from the brand, too, the spicy warmth makes a great addition to knitwear and tweedy jackets.  The candle version in particular is great for lighting on cooler autumn evenings.

The Fine Print: PR Sample

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New Fornasetti Launches: RIP, Losanghe and Mille Bocche

I was at the  Fornasetti offices recently to look at their lastest candle releases and I fell in love - seriously!  I have a tiny collection of Fornasetti candles at home, but they're so lovely that I have a hard time bringing myself to burn them, however this (tiny) collection of new designs surpasses, for me, anything they've done before.  Here's a whole bunch of pictures of candles for you.

First off, RIP, the collection that literally made me gasp when I saw it (look, I have a thing for skulls, okay?):

Depending on which way you display them, you can have a full-on goth memento mori, or a prettier view:

Available in the brand's signature "Otto" (roses!) scent, the RIP collection comes in small candle, large candle and room scent.  They'll be in-store in October.

Then there is Losanghe and Mille Bocche, guess which one I think is perfect for a blog called "Get Lippie"?

Mille Bocche - a thousand kisses - is something I really, really need ... again, these are in the Otto scent.

And following on from last year's green Malachite candle, this has been updated in a new white "Agatti" design with the same black-waxed malachite fragrance, which is rich and warm with elements of smoke and cedar:

And finally there's the Selfridges exclusive Zodiac candle, which also comes with the malachite black wax:

I need the RIP collection ASAP!  Prices in the Fornasetti scents range from £80 for a room scent to £390 for the large candles.  The small candles are around £120.  My purse is going to have a little weep come October, how about yours?


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Jo Loves: Candle Shot

There's no doubt whatsoever, that Jo Malone is the queen of packaging, every brand she has been involved with has understood the power of making boxes and bags so pretty (for every purchase, at every price point) that they're ideal for gifting, making the concept of "gift wrapping" totally redundant in the process.  The latest launch in her newest brand, "Jo Loves" takes the concept up a notch, allowing you to create a "bespoke"  shot candle in a very simple process (which was actually three years in the making), and have lots of fun doing it, too.

Tucked away in the back of the brand's flagship store in Elizabeth Street in West London, is the Jo Loves Shot Candle studio, and here you pick a "base" scented candle, and a complementing "shot" to go with it.  The two are then fused together in one large candle jar, and presto, your own bespoke scent!

In the glass is the base scent, and you pick a "shot" to go with it

The bases are available in four varieties: Mint Mojito a fresh and bright minty scent, Charcoaled Lemons, which is both authentically citrus and slightly smoky, Tahitian Gardenia, which is flowery, waxy and almost bubblegummy in the glass, and finally Fig Tree, which reminded me of nothing so much as Diptyque's Philosykos in candle form, it being green and figgy and woody and rather delicious.

You then pick a shot to complement your base scent.  You can either choose from the four bases as already mentioned. or from three other "shot only" scents, Mango, an almost photorealistic slice of mango, lemongrass (something my nose didn't like at all, sadly) or petitgrain, which is reminscent of orange blossom, but with an added hint of wood and leafy greenness.

Once you've selected your base and your shot (you're given the scents to smell on painted canvas tiles), your candle is created. Using a blow torch to melt the base candle, the plug-shaped "shot" is pushed into the jar, and pressed down to create your "bespoke" candle, then the whole caboodle is packaged up ready to either burn for yourself, or to pass along to someone else as a present.

Whilst there's nothing particularly new about separate cores in candle making (it's a particular bugbear of mine when you buy a "handpoured" candle, only to find when burning it that all they have done is "handpour" a tiny amount of fragranced wax around a separate - unfragranced - core and wick.  It's why many people don't think scented candles actually smell of anything when they're burning. I shan't name names though) the presentation here is beautiful, and as both the shot and the base are scented, it's actually a rather nice present for anyone, including yourself.

If you can't make it to the Elizabeth Street store, you can make your own shot candle online at http://www.joloves.com/shot-candle/ where they will cost £75 each.

As for me, I chose Tahitian Gardenia and Petitgrain.  But I'm rather coveting Charcoaled Lemons and Fig Trees for my next one ...

 The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Cire Trudon Josephine Candle

 
Me, I can't resist a candle at any time of the year.  I know that some people think candles are just for winter, but in this dark and damp late "spring" that we're having at the moment, it seems like an ideal time for having candles around to brighten up the dark afternoons, and cool evenings.  Josephine, the latest fragrance from Cire Trudon (long one of my favourite candle brands), is perfect for summer. 

Prettily clad in pale frosted blue, instead of the brand's signature dark olive glass, Josephine is a soft and gentle floral composition, a slight departure from Cire Trudon's slightly heavier and usually rather masculine scents.

Inspired by the gardens of the Empress Josephine (she of the "Not tonight ..." infamy), it's a really very pretty, very flowery and very lovely candle indeed. The smell has hints of citrus from bergamot and kaffir lime, then I mainly smell powdery rose and iris. Ladylike is definitely the word that springs to mind.

As always, Cire Trudon candles burn cleanly and evenly, dispersing their scent both throughout their burn time and just when sitting wherever you put them. 

The blue glass version is limited edition for the summer, but the scent will be in the permanent collection (in the green jars) later this year.  All in all, a lovely way to bring a beautiful garden indoors in this sun-deprived "summer" we seem to be having this year ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Neom Perfect Peace Candle

Christmas, quite frankly, really isn't a proper Christmas without a Neom Christmas candle on the go.  Every year I buy and light a 3-wick  Christmas Wish, and that's how I know that the festive season is really underway.  I didn't finish last years Christmas Wish, so I still have that to look forward to this year.

This year's addition to the Christmas collection is Perfect Peace, which is a lime and pine-centric piece of Christmas wonderfulness.  It smells gloriously sharp and fresh, which is unexpected in a Christmas candle, but the pine underneath the line is sappy and sharp, and rather lovely, without ever heading into disinfectant territory.  This might be my favourite Neom Christmas scent ever, as even to my damaged olfactory nerve, it still smells like Christmas, just in rather an unexpected direction.

The single wick Perfect Peace candle can still be had for £32 from Neom.  Sadly, the 3-wick edition has now sold out.  I really hope it'll be back next year!

The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Ormonde Jayne Etoile Candle

Housed in a handsome, but unexpectedly brown glass jar, the Ormonde Jayne Christmas candle this year is a creamy-smooth blend of cardamom, amber and tonka.  Slightly spicy, with a hint of smoke, Etoile is a gorgeously grown-up scent for Christmas.

It is smooth-burning, and comes with an incredibly high percentage of perfume oils in the formula, so this is one candle this will make your whole house smell good even after a relatively short burn.   It costs £68, and smells almost good enough to eat.

The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Jardins d'Ecrivains "Dickens" Christmas Candle

 Possibly the most "traditional" Christmas scent we're featuring this week, the Jardins D'Ecrivains Christmas Candle inspired by Charles Dickens is a gloriously spicy mandarin, pine, clove and ... oud(!) scent.  

Set up in 2012, and inspired by founder Anaïs Biguine's love of literature and fictional characters, Jardins d'Ecrivains is an unusual and lovely little niche fragrance house to keep an eye on over the next year or so.  Back in the "before", in the time when I could still smell properly, I was fascinated by the house, and was looking forward to smelling stuff from them. 

Alas, now I can't smell properly, but I can tell you that even with my nose woes, this smells wonderful, rich and citrussy, with hints of wood, spice and warmth, but mainly glorious oranges.  Oranges were one of the first scents to "come back" for me, and this is a lovely reminder that my nose does, on occasion, let me smell nice things too!

This candle is a WHOPPER, by the way, it weighs in at a hefty 500gms, and I estimate that you'd get at least a 40 hour burn time, even with the double wick.  You can find the candle here, and it costs just £60.  That's a long of burn for your buck!


The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Maison Francis Kurkdjian Scented Candle Set

If you're looking for a cute and pretty candle set, which is also well made, and will definitely give huge delight to the lucky recipient, this is the set for you.  Maison Francis Kurkdjian do lovely candles, and this box of little ones is no exception.

S

Scented with a mix of powdery iris, spicy gingerbread, and with hints of peppery cedar - all of which, even to my damaged nose, smell pretty and sweet, with some spikiness from the wood -  the candles, which are decorated in gold with iconic Parisian landmarks are good-looking enough for the christmas table, and the scents won't overwhelm your Christmas dinner either.

The candles will burn for around 20 hours each, the entire set costs 65 euro, and is available from here. 

The Fine Print: PR Samples

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.

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