Party News and Ideas

We all like to impress during X-mas, and what better way than by throwing a drinks get together or just laying an attractive table for a celebratory dinner. Glasses and flutes are the key elements for both occasions, but if you’re tired of using the same glasses you’ve had for ages, be bold and choose something a bit more colourful and intriguing to look at. Concerned about decorative glasses clashing with the remainder of your table? We say embrace contemporary style – it’s incredibly modern this season and a whole lot more enjoyable. Help make your glasses twinkle on your holiday dining table with our useful ideas. Blending old styles with trendy ones is popular and makes the most of whatever you own in your cabinet. Flaunt your style, set the atmosphere with assorted kinds of glasses. Long-stems and Champagne flutes seem elegant, while a combination in various heights and hues will make an impact on your guests. Adorn your table and your house in general with appealing scented candles. You will find there’s enormous range available but make an effort to choose superior companies including True Grace candles or Yankee candles. One can choose from a large range of aromas and shades so you should be able to find something which will complement the colour of your preferred glasses. Some other ideas to spruce up your room include standard Christmas favourites – ribbons, bows, baubles not to mention tinsel. Going back to your glassware, if  you are cleaning glasses yourself, either before or after your drinks get together,  use hot water accompanied by a squirt of washing-up liquid – a mild cleaning fluid like Fairy Liquid is perfect – and then rinse in cold water for the best results. You know they are properly clean when they “sqeak” Afterwards, place them on a clean tea towel and leave to dry naturally, ready for your next occasion  

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Technorati Tags: scented candles, true grace candles, yankee candles

Scented candles can add the final touch to any room.Just imagine you have changed your decor, perhaps adding new furniture or carpets along with carefully chosen accessories to give your home a more welcoming feel.  You look around and realise that something is missing from the space. What could it be?

You have added items which enhance the senses with the use of colour and space in the room, the eyes are pleased by what they see, the textures used provide a good mixture and are lovely to touch, but something seems missing.That certain something that finishes off your room, giving it that little touch of luxury. That little extra is the way the room smells:  its scent.

A scented candle stimulates the senses, and completes the decor and feel of a room. They come in a huge array of designs, from the tea lights sitting in attractive holders or floating in a beautiful glass bowl, to tall pillar candles adding dimension to a large room or the short squat thick candles more suited to smaller living areas.

They come in different sizes and a range of attractive colours to blend with your room decor, or artistically clash with your colour scheme. However, the most attractive part of the scented candle is the wonderful aroma that it gives off when lit. Not only is the dancing flame of the candle an added attraction to any living space, but the delightful fragrance it emits also contributes to the final design feature for  your home.

There are many different fragrances that you can have in a candle, ranging from fruit aromas such as orange, clove or grapefruit, to the smell of English roses, lavender or vanilla. You could even use a candle of formed pure essential oil in wax which will affect your mood while relaxing in the evening. The choice of fragrance is purely personal, but with so many scents to choose from you can happily ring the changes whenever the mood takes you.

Scented candles can be very long-lasting, some burning for up to 50 hours, and you have a choice of either paraffin wax or the more eco friendly soy wax which is better for you and for the environment. However, it is important for you to balance the various scents available from such candles since there are a very large number of possibilities, and just like perfumes, not all go well together.

Not only do these candles add to the look and feel of your own living space, be it the living room or the bedroom or even scented tea lights floating in the bath,  but you can also improve someone else’s living space by offering them a scented candle as a gift. They are available in strickingly stylish packaging, with the added bonus, unlike, for example, reed diffusers, that the aroma of the candle may “leak” through, permeating the atmosphere with a promise of beautiful fragrance once the candle has been lit.

If you have your own birthday coming up why not drop a few hints that you would like a scented candle and see what lovely gift you receive. You could hint on the scent that you would prefer, or leave it up to others and find out what they think would suit you and your living space. It is also worth bearing in mind that in addition to their beautiful fragrances, scented candles also offer a decorative element to any room. Scented candles can be extremely striking, as can the containers used to hold them.

You don’t place a beautifully fashioned scented candle in a pot more appropriate to a house plant or in a pint tumbler. There is a wide variety of beautiful candle-holders online and in mall stores and gift shops, and it is not unusual to find candles presented in engraved crystal or beautifully coloured Caithness glass bowls.

Once you have your scented candle there will be no need to put on the lamps in the room: the glow of the candle will give you a lovely low lighting, and that, coupled with the beautiful scent filling your space, will make you feel relaxed and happy that you chose scented candles as your final design feature.

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Technorati Tags: candles, reed diffusers, scented candles

When you are considering home fragrances, do your thoughts turn to scented candles or the more modern electrical diffusers?Most folk will spend a lot of time choosing home decor, from fabrics, to wallcoverings to furniture, so as to make their home as beautiful as possible. You take time in choosing the sofa and chairs, the coffee table and the pictures.

Then you turn to the accessories which add that extra something to your decor. The little things – the pictures, the photoframes, the ornaments – make a difference when decorating your home and help stamp your personality on each room.  One important factor to add to the ambiance of your home is the use of perfumes to make the room not only look good but also smell good.

Using scented candles offers four distinct advantages to a room that cannot be emulated by any form of diffuser, particularly by an electrical oil diffuser:

A.  The Smell

Scented candles give off a fabulous aroma and you have a massive range of scents to choose from that not only smell great but also can help to change your mood. There is a broad spectrum of scents available, from the soothing such as lavender, to the invigorating like ginger or bergamot. You can have a variety of floral smells, and others such as the popular vanilla or peppermint aromas. 

The scent given off from a candle seems to be more natural than that of an electrical diffuser. There’s nothing like walking into a room with lovely scented candle.  Some people prefer incense sticks, but they can’t hold a candle to a candle!

B. The Looks

The looks of a candle are far more attractive than an electrical diffuser. There are many different types of environmentally friendly candle such as those made from soy which last twenty to thirty times longer than normal paraffin wax or stearine candles. The looks are fashioned not only by their colour, but also in their wide range of shapes and designs.

There is the simple tea light, used not only as accent lighting but also as decorative floating candles and to heat scented oils. They are also used as votive candles (candles used for prayer), and get their name from their origins as small candles used to heat small teapots or kettles. Larger candles, fashioned from layers of differently coloured wax, are available in a wide range of sizes, colours and designs, and are much more decorative than scented oil diffusers.

C.  The Stands

The ornamental stands available for candles can make a tremendous difference to an otherwise ordinary room. You can use the traditional style of candlesticks for longer candles, and a variety of ornamental stands and trees to hold shorter votive candles, both inside your home and out in the garden. Scented candles bring a beautiful perfume to your patio on warm summer evenings, or you can place them around your batch when bathing. You can also purchase extremely attractive candleholders to add to the creative design of your room.

D. The Light

The fourth advantage is that of the light a candle produces. There is nothing more attractive than the flickering glow of a scented candle. Just imagine the lights switched off in your living room or bedroom and the shadows given off by the low glow of a flickering candle. The dancing flame of a candle cannot be beaten – it creates a comfortable, romantic ambiance that just can’t be replicated by lamplight.For this reason alone it is much better than an electrical diffuser.

The wonderful thing about candles is that they can be placed in any room and they will not only add to the decor, but the scent will fill the room with a beautiful aroma changing its feel as you enter it. From having tea lights floating in your bath to using decorative candles in your bedroom for a lovely romantic glow, they offer a degree of flexibility in their use that an oil diffuser can never match, particularly an electrical diffuser.  

Your lounge could be made into a cosy area of rest with the scent of lavender floating around the room as you relax after a busy day, the warm glow of the candle attracting your eye. You can also create a delightful atmosphere in the kitchen while cooking by enjoying the lovely aromas from home fragrances.

Why choose an electric oil diffuser and use up your electricity when you could use something far more attractive which stimulates your senses with light and smell, and can be part of a great design feature for your home? If you are worried about melting wax then choose a jar candle or tea lights which do not have the problem of wax dripping down the candle as it is all contained in the jar. These are most attractive and safe for your home.

That is how you make your house a home, with attractive scented candles topping off the creative design of each room. That is why so many people use them and why they are so popular.

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Technorati Tags: home fragrances, reed diffusers, scented candles

As more and more people are choosing home fragrances and, in particular, scented candles for their home, soy wax candles are increasing becoming the candle of choice for discerning homeowners, replacing the traditional type of candles which tend to be paraffin based. As the name suggests, soy wax candles are derived from the ubiquitous soya bean. So how exactly do you get wax from a soya bean and what makes soy wax the best choice for home fragrances?

Well, soy wax is actually made from hydrogenated soya bean oil. This may sound a little strange, but it is essentially the same process which is used to convert seed and plant oils into everyday products such as food spreads and butter substitutes.

Soy wax candles have been available for around 20 years and now come in a huge array of styles and fragrances. If you have never used soy wax candles before there area number of very good reasons why you should consider them when you next choose scented candles.

Firstly there is the question of cost.  Let’s face it, we are all influenced to an extent by budget and the good news is that scented soy wax candles are less expensive than the traditional alternatives, meaning you can afford to indulge your scented candle habit more regularly with soy candles!

These days we are all acutely aware of our carbon footprint and soy candles are undoubtedly the environmentally-friendly choice. Most traditional candles are made from paraffin wax, which in turn is derived from crude oil, a non-renewable resource and major contributor to global warming. It is perhaps not surprising to learn that soy wax candles offer a cleaner burn than those made from paraffin wax but in addition since they are made from a renewable product, namely soya bean, you can take comfort knowing that burning your scented candles is not contributing to damaging the environment.

Because scented soy wax candles burn for longer than traditional alternatives they offer better value for money as you do not need to replace your candles as regularly. High quality, hand-poured soy candles should burn for up to 50% longer than traditional wax candles, so you get better value-for-money from soy candles and you will not need to replace them as often.

All of this is convincing, but at the end of the day you buy scented candles so that you can envelope your home in luscious fragrance. Once again soy wax candles come up trumps. Scented soy wax candles are more effective at diffusing their fragrance throughout your home and since they offer a cleaner burn than paraffin wax alternatives, they help create a better indoor environment for you and your family.

Here’s the science bit: soy wax burns at a lower temperature than paraffin wax which means that your chosen fragrance will fill your living space more quickly once the candle has been lit. Soy wax also has a lower melting point than traditional wax which means that soy candles quickly produce a large reservoir of molten wax, and because it is from this molten wax that the fragrance is dispersed, you will receive a better fragrance ”throw” with soy wax than the alternatives.

All candles emit some soot when they are lit, but soy candles emit approximately 90% less soot than traditional candles, which helps to keep your home cleaner and the indoor atmosphere fresher.

Scented soy wax candles are the ideal choice when you want to envelope your home in beautiful aromas. So to summarise, scented soy wax candles are better value than the alternatives, they are the eco-friendly choice and, last but not least, they lend their fragrance to your living space more quicly and effectively than traditional paraffin wax alternatives?

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Technorati Tags: home fragrances, scented candles, scented soy wax candles

At one time, scented candles were a rare luxury to be enjoyed only by the rich while the rest of us made do with the ordinary white candles during power cuts and at Christmas time.  However, that has all changed, and an endless variety of fragrances are filling our homes and relaxing us. Scented candles are one of many choices of home fragrance available today but they are immensely popular because they offer the combination of beautiful aromas with attractive design.

Scented candles can float or burn forever in the form of large church style candles.  Votive candles hang in bunches from metal trees and sit in gardens during warm summer evenings. You can get them in jasmine, ginger and juniper and just about every floral scent you can imagine. They are also available in a vast range of colours and, of course,  prices. 

So what are the benefits of using scented candles? Sure, they give light during power cuts which is the reason our grannies used to keep them in the cupboard under the stairs, but what makes them different is their colour and particularly their smell. People choose scents to remind them of holidays in the country, with the smell of the apples ripe in the orchards, the ginger and cinnamon of their mum’s baking or just to have the smell of fresh spring flowers in their home all year round.

These scents come from a combination of natural plant extracts, such as genuine vanilla, sandalwood or rose petal, and the type of synthetic odorants that are also contained in perfumes, shampoos and soaps.  Also used are substances such as amber and many oils and they are all safe to use and to burn.  Commercially available candles have undergone stringent health and safety tests to make sure that the combustion products are safe and also that they can burn out without becoming a fire risk.

However, it is possible that a few people can be allergic to some of these, just as they are allergic to other common household smells and dusts, and it is wise to burn candles in well ventilated areas. People allergic to candle smoke can use reed diffusers instead, and these are becoming increasingly popular.  Candle makers choose from approved lists of aromas and essential oils that are safe to be burned and emit safe and pleasant odours when incorporated in candles.

What was once an expensive indulgence is now an affordable commodity and they are used by anyone and everyone to enhance the sensual aspects of their home. You can now even choose candles to match your home decor.  Although there is still a reluctance by many to use them, perhaps borne from old belief that candles were not for ordinary people, they can enable you to enjoy a lovely smell throughout your home all day, every day, or perhaps just on special occasions. 

They also have a practical application if you have a cat or dog, because you can also use them to mask pet odours that can occasionally be very difficult to dispel without using equally unpleasant-smelling room deodorants. They are also invaluable on those rare, but infuriating occassions, when there is a power cut!

Many people prefer a candle to a normal perfume diffuser to freshen up their house because of its looks and much wider choice of perfumes, and although you can also purchase aromatherapy candles, many people like to use fragrance reed diffusers that can be used with aromatic essential oils or aromatherapy oils.

There are few things better when returning from a hard day at work than to enjoy a relaxing drink beside a floating candle offering the marvelous smell of sandalwood or lavender.  So make your choice of candles from the wide range of perfumes available, and decide if you want them in the tradition design, sitting in a candlestick, floating in water, hanging from a metal holder or in any of the many other candle designs available.

A specialist candle store – either online or on the High Street - is one of the best ways to purchase candles because you have a massive range from which to make your selection, and it is so easy to choose, pay and then have them delivered to your door. Most candle outlets will be able to help you with the most appropriate scent for your needs, and many also have other interesting facts about candles that you can read.

Scented candles are popular worldwide, and if have not used them before you will be pleasantly surprised when you try them out. One can find an enormous range of fragrances nowadays – try whichever appeals to you and you’ll soon discover how they can help freshen up your home.

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Technorati Tags: candles, scented candle, scented candles

There are many reasons why a scented candle in a decorative tin makes a perfect gift.. A scented candle in a tin can of course still be used to give light as candles have done for centuries. But they offer so much more than that..

It is an interesting alternative to a normal scented candle, and is of particular interest to many because nobody knows what it is until the lid is opened and they see the candle.  They can have one wick or a number of them, and for wider tins three wicks are a good average.

A candle in a tin is an ideal means of masking pet smells and also to provide a pleasant environment when visitors are invited for a dinner party or some other get-together.  This is particularly true when there is a smoker in the house:  a scented oil candle in a tin can perfectly hide the stale smell of old tobacco smoke. Thus, a scented candle becomes not merely decorative.

Lavender, for example, is well known for its soothing properties, and its ability to help you relax and sleep well at night. Recognised for it’s uplifting, invigorating properties, a mint scented candle may be useful to give you a boost when you most need it.. You shouldn’t need one though if you have burned the lavender candle at bedtime. If you are feeling a bit depressed then it’s amazing how burning a candle containing the essential oils from grapefruit or roses can help you to feel more like yourself.

You can get all of this and more from scented candles and offering one as a gift to a friend or relative indicates that you care for them. Take some time to choose a suitable fragrance, then why not leave a brief explanatory note detailing the properties of the particular aroma or the most appropriate circumstances in which to use the candle.. A gift indicating that you are thinking of the recipient when you choose it is the best type of gift that somebody can be given.

That is the personal reason for offering a scented candle tin as a gift, but there are also practical aspects of giving a candle packaged in this way. Candles in tins can be burned just as easily as other candles, whether they are large candles in candlesticks or small votive candles in candle trees.  One of these ways of using candles is in outdoor use.

Let’s say you are having a barbecue or a party on your patio. Many people use garden and patio lights in addition to the normal house lighting coming through the windows, but ordinary candles rarely last long because they are impractical: the first gust of wind and they are blown out.  A scented candle tin, however, will be a lot easier to use because the tin lid can be used as a windbreak.

Most candles in tins are hinged, so that you can have the lid open and situated in a position whereby it will protect the candle from being blown out by the prevailing winds. You can’t do much about swirling gusts, but you can stop the candle blowing out continually. You can’t do that with a regular candle.

Another practical benefit of a candle in a tin is that you simply close the lid to snuff out the candle. The result – no more misguided men risking a trip to Accident and Emergency as a result of burns caused trying to put out candles with their fingers instead of mundanely blowing them out? Maybe they had problems blowing out their birthday candles which have stuck with them through adulthood.! No worries – with a scented candle tin they don’t have anything to worry about. Just shut the lid!

Candles in tins can also be decorative, whether they are left open or closed.Indeed a scented candle in a tin can itself become a topic of discussion, provoking guesses about the tin’s contents, until the tin is opened and the contents revealed to an intrigued audience!Yes – it’s a candle!! Then you can light your scented candle tin and fill your room with a beautiful perfume. The man of the house will probably ignore the lid when extinguishing the candle, relying instead on using his fingers. . . .

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There are many benefits of scented candles other than just the aroma and the light they give. In fact, candles are very rarely use for lighting today, but more for ‘mood’ or decoration, and scented oil candles in particular will add a fragrance to any room that can help to soothe nerves and enable you to relax after a hard day at work.

Many feel relaxed just by looking at a lit candle, even without a scent, so it is not just the smell that is effectively relaxing. Perhaps we have developed a special connection with candles, dating back over the years when they were our only source of light at night.. In days gone by, our ancestors were dependent on basic candles fashioned from animal fats to lift the gloom of long, dark winter evenings..

Even up until fairly recently candles were the prime source of light in the home, just before gas lighting became common and well before electricity was available in all homes.  Even today, in some areas of the USA and the UK oils lamps and candles are used for lighting, though likely only because of the cost of installing ‘the electric’ as it was once named.

However, back to the benefits of scented oil candles –  in today’s modern world where they are often used for little else other than nostalgia or decoration. Or is that true? They are also used by many as a form of aromatherapy, and candles are available in a wide range of fragrances, such as wild lime, Moroccan rose and Capri fig in addition to the more traditional lavender, jasmine, clover and spice.

Each of these will fill your room with a marvelous floral scent that will remind you of these warm summer evenings in the country or picnics by the river. After a difficult day there is no better way to unwind than lighting a scented candle, putting your feet up and savouring the beautiful aromas as they soothe your worries away..

Not only that, but handmade candles can look really beautiful. So attractive are scented candles, that many people buy them for display purposes only, with no intention of lighting them.. Which is a shame because candles are made to be used: they may have been designed to look beautiful, but candles are functional and should be enjoyed to the full. This can only be achieved by lighting them and enjoying the relaxation that their aroma and flickering flame can provide.

However, many prefer to purchase scented oil candles just for their decorative beauty than to burn them – and who can blame them? In many cases such candles are so artistically made that it seems a shame to ruin them by lighting the wick and watching the beautiful sculptures and carefully layered colours of wax disappear before their eyes.

Oil scented candles are made by melting the wax and then adding a quantity of essential oil (essential meaning scented – from ‘essence’) to the melt. The wick of the candle is then placed in the jar or other container while the molten wax, infused with aromatic essential oils, is poured around it. Just allow the wax to solidify and you are left with a scented candle in its simplest form.. The secret is in the waxes used, the wick and the other ingredients that are used to control the burning rate and reduce the smoke to a minimum.

Paraffin wax can be used, together with stearic acid or stearine, and you can also add oil-soluble dyes that provide the colour. Different coloured waxes can be layered to create the most artistic of scented candles.. However, these candles can be very expensive, and you won’t spend a whole load of cash just to burn it away in one night.

Most scented candles are of one or perhaps two colours, and contain enough essential oil to provide you with an exquisite smell in your home when it is burning. They should be priced sufficiently low to be consumable, so that you can burn the candle without it costing you an arm and a leg. There’s nothing wrong in purchasing one or two expensive decorative candles to complement those that you burn, but nobody likes spending a lot on something that is to go up in smoke.

The scents used in such candles are often included for specific purposes. For example, rose and grapefruit fragrances help relieve depression, jasmine and lavender are relaxing and help you sleep at night and mint and a blend of fruits and flowers are invigorating and energizing. With the variety of scented candles available today, collecting them is fun and you can light a different candle depending on how you are feeling.

Irrespective of your personal beliefs, scented candles affect you in more ways than you would care to admit, which is why they are popular the world over even though there are now very few areas where they are necessary for the provision of light. If light was the only consideration all candles would be made of plain white unscented wax. But there is so much more to candles now. While dancing candlelight is attractive in itself, the appearance and, of course, the fragrance of candles is now equally important.. Enough said!

Scented oil candles are soothing and can also affect your mood in very specific ways according to the scent – or it might be due to the oils themselves that are used to provide the aroma to the candles. You can keep you candles for decoration only but there is no doubt that to get the most from your candles you should light them.

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