HOT MESS AWARD: Cranberry Woods (LAST CANDLE FOR THE FALL)

Products: candle and bulbs 
Area used in: living room
Time Period: mid-October - December

Description: Fresh, tart cranberries, blackcurrant and warm cinnamon bark combine in a delightful fragrance inspired by the magic of the woods during harvest time

Missing notes: raspberry, cedarwood and amber


Along with Leaves, Cranberry Woods is one of my top all time favorite quintessential fall scents. It's usually my go to scent for the second half of the autumn season; usually during the week of Halloween and on thru Thanksgiving. I think CW is the perfect scent for that time frame; it captures the dark mysteriousness of Halloween night as well as the warmth and togetherness of Thanksgiving time. And it's a perfect segue scent into the neighboring holiday season.

Once my Leaves candles and bulbs were dead and gone, I could not wait to move on to CW. I plugged in the bulbs and lit up the candle and everything was all to the good...at first. Then things took a turn for the WTH?! With a heavy heart, I must give my dear CW the dreaded HOT MESS AWARD!!!

I'm sure you're wondering why. I'll tell you...

Performance wise, things were fine in the very beginning. The flames were dancing high and the wax pool was even. The throw could've been a tad stronger but I wasn't complaining. Then I noticed that with every light, the throw got weaker and weaker to the point of being almost non-existent. Then once it got to the cursed mid-range, it just went downhill. The flames were like "Screw this BS, our asses are tired!!!" The wicks and flames were stubbing out and it took forever for the wax to pool out. And by this point the throw was like "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya! I'm out this biotch!" I'd have to hover over the flames and inhale deep to smell anything. I shouldn't have to do that with a BBW candle, especially this one. CW's throw, while never knock you out strong, was powerful enough to fill a room. This one, not so much and this raises a concern and quandary...

Is it just me or are certain White Barn candles from this past fall and this current winter not nearly as strong as they were in the past? I've burned 3 White Barn candles so far - CW, Black Pepper Bergamot and Fireside. In the past, all three of these scents have been pretty potent. But this year, they are significantly weaker to the point of sometimes being non-existent. Me no likey!!!

Anyhoo, back to the CW....

The scent...I can not stop hyping up the scent. It has a lil someth'n someth'n for everybody's tastes; it's dark, it's warm, it's fresh and fruity, it's tart and it's spicy. You get a great combination of juicy and tart dark berries - cranberries, blackcurrants and raspberries with the cranberry being the strongest of those notes. Then right behind that, you get a hint of spice from the cinnamon bark; it's not red hot spicy like Cinnamon and Clove Buds or Spice but more like the cinnamon note in Leaves. Trailing behind that is the cedarwood note which gives the blend an outdoorsy woodsy almost pine-like note. Then finally the amber wraps all of the other notes together and adds an unexplainable yet noticeable warmth.

I love the wallflower bulbs, those suckers are strong and stayed strong to the very last drop. The oil kinda has a perfumey body spray feel to it, think Midnight Pomegranate. I also think you smell of the notes more in the bulbs than in the candle.

In conclusion, I truly hated to give CW the HOT MESS AWARD as it is one of my favorite fall scents. I debated whether or not I would and almost didn't. Unfortunately in the end I had to; under normal circumstances I would've sent this back to the store for an exchange. I wondered if I just got a bad batch although according to most of the reviews I read and heard, they're all duds. Littleballadeer said in her review that she had the exact same problems with her CW and I believe she sent it back...which is what I should've done. But honestly I just couldn't be bothered and I just let it burn out.

Dammit BBW, why did you have to eff this candle up?! Hopefully next year's CW will be back to normal. *sigh