DROPPIN CANDLE KNOWLEDGE: The History of Unicorn candles

So for the past couple of years, BBW has been releasing what is now known as "unicorn candle" - a rare and unusual bakery/foodie scent that "tests" in certain stores but never goes wide yet a select lucky few manage to get a hold of them setting many others into a jealous rage. Recently test stores started getting phased out and these unicorn scents became more exclusive with even more people being unable to get them. Granted most "exclusive" scents are nowadays readily available on Evilbay with many greedily and unscrupulously selling them at outrageously expensive prices. It raises the question "why are these scents "exclusive"? Why can't they just go wide, even for a select time, to ALL stores, for everyone to enjoy? Tis a mystery that we'll never know the answer to.

So here are a few infamous unicorn candles throughout the years....

Bacon Chocolate Cupcake (Fall 2012)

Thanks to Littleballadeer, Touchthefiretwice and especially, Tinadivalicious, everyone got the good word on this scent and it became an underground hit. You were not considered one of the cool kids unless you had one of these in your collection. When this came out, I had just learned what test scents were but at the time didn't know that you could actually do phone orders; in those days, you could call any test store and make a phone order.  Anyhoo, believe or not, you can find this bad boy on Evilbay, but expect to shell out at least $40-60 bucks for it...ain't nobody got time fo dat!

Dolce (Spring/Summer 2013)

Both this and Villa Bergamot were late additions to this collection; VB eventually made the cut and snuck into stores. Dolce didn't fare so well making appearances in a few stores here and there. At the time, I was still in New Orleans and none of my stores received this, not even during SAS. Just as well, this (if I remember correctly), was just a repackage of Vanilla Bean Noel.

Summertime Soda (Summer '13)

This scent came out of absolutely nowhere. The Summer Lakeside had already been in stores when sometime later reports of this candle started making its way around the BBW community. Touchthefiretwice did a whole review on it and had everybody mouth's watering, including me. Alas, SS never made a nationwide release although it did randomly appear in some stores during the summer SAS sometime later; I was quite fortunate to find a4oz 1wick of it. Alas I burned it all the way instead of just holding on to it as a collector's item. You can find SS on Evilbay but it's far from cheap. 

Lavender Marshmallow (Spring '14)

I think it's a fair assessment to say that out of all the scents in this collection, LM was the one that EVERYBODY was the most excited about. And again, Touchthefiretwice gave it his stamp of approval and spread the good news of this candle throughout the land. And of course, it didn't go wide. But curiousity had already killed the cat and everybody and their grandma was on Evilbay trying to find one. I got into (and lost) a couple of bidding wars for it until one glorious day I snagged one. I've only burned it once, on the very day that it came in the mail; I've been too scared to burn it anymore. Just as well cuz nowadays LM is impossible to find.

Chestnut Glazed Croissant & Malted Pistachio Truffle (Fall '14)

Remember the Greek myth of Paris and the Golden Apple and his choice basically started the Trojan War, spreading discord and chaos throughout the Greek world? That's best of analogy I could think of for when these two candles came out. When word got about these two, everybody lost their proverbial shit! Then, much to everyone's dismay, it was announced that not only weren't they going wide but would only be available to a few select stores. On top of that, a certain reviewer , who shall remain mameless, further pissed people off by mentioning the further exclusivity of these two candles and kinda rubbed it in peoples' faces that she was gifted these two treasures due to her status. All hell broke lose and thus started the Candle Scandal/Candlegate as well as the term "unicorn candles" Madness ensued! Taking advantage of the craziness, greedy Evilbayers were selling them at astronomical prices but people bought them. Eventually the commotion calmed down and these two were practically forgotten.

Snickerdoodle & Holiday Apple Crisp (Winter '14)

In the winter, we saw another dynamic duo of unicorn scents, although there wasn't nearly as much clamor as there was for Chestnut Glazed Croissant and Malted Pistachio Crisp. I for one was quite intrigued - a new cookie scent other than Merry Cookie, sign me up! A holiday apple bakery scent, yes please! But of course, neither went wide...although a wf bulb of HAC was available in stores and online. I got to smell one and I wasn't very impressed - it was just flaky dough with a very slight apple cinnamon note. Honestly Apple Crumble was/is soooo much better. And not too many people talked about Snickerdoodle. It was a shame it didn't go wide, it would've been nice to get some newness in this collection as well as something to replace Merry Cookie

   

Chestnuts Roasting (Winter '14)

Word of this one popped up randomly on social media. Most assumed it was a repackage of Chestnut Glazed Croissant (that and Malted Pistachio Truffle were rumoured to reappear in the winter and they didn't). No one really talked about this one (although one of my Facebook friends said that she thought it smelled slightly cologney). To this day, nobody really knows what this smells like.

Pink Peppermint Twirl (Winter '14)

Just the name alone had people going apeshit! As is often the case, this scent was kept from the masses in favor of less appealing scents. White Winter Petals...really? Not that WWP was a bad scent, just not a very interesting one. It's always the scents that everyone is obsessed about that never makes the cut. 

Tequila Lime Cupcake (Spring '15)

And here's the newest unicorn of '15 to join this exclusive clique! And what sucks about this one is that exclusivity is more blatant. Unlike the test scents of the past, BBW came clean and said that it would only be sold at few White Barn stores across the nation. The question is "does this scent deserve to be a White Barn exclusive?" The answer remains to be seen.

Sadly this is not the end of unicorn candles; expect to see plenty more in the nearby future!