DIY Yankee Tarts.

                                                                        

 Hello!

     The post I am writing today isn't really a new concept, however I know that there are a lot of people out there who don't know how to make their own Yankee Candle Tarts so I am sharing information!

If you are unfamiliar with them, this is a Yankee Tart:

I wrote a big post about Yankee Tarts and this where I explain all about burning the Tarts etc so I won't bore you with going through it all again!

I buy my Yankee Tarts on Ebay, they usually cost £11 for 10 Yankee Tarts, they usually retail at £1.50 so you're saving around £4 by using Ebay. However I saw that there was a seller who had Yankee Candle Samplers (Votives) which are 10 for £14. As the Votives usually go for £1.80, again you are saving quite a bit!

However, as well as saving money from the official site, buying Votives gives you a lot more value for money as I am going to explain!

Votives all a small version of a Yankee Candle, it doesn't come in a jar so you need a container if you want to burn one of these.

Before you start you will need your Votives, a tea towel, a kitchen knife (NOT a sharp chopping knife!) some sandwich bags, a pair of scissors and some tape.

Once out of the packaging we are going to remove the wick as we are burning these in a tart burner they don't need the wick. To do this you turn the candle upside down, run the knife around the metal disk to remove the wax. Ease the disk up with the knife so it pops away from the wax, do this carefully as with two of mine the disk came out without the wick, not a complete disaster but pretty annoying!

This is what an intact wick looks like, you can reuse them if you make your own candles, I threw mine away because I didn't have a place for them.

With the candle still upside down, you will see a hole, you need to align your knife with this hole and press firmly downwards, you may find you have to wiggle the knife around a bit. The Votive should naturally split in half, however I have to warn you that some of them wont crack cleanly in half, a couple of mine had one thin and one thick half, however it isn't too much of a big deal!

This is the Votive split in half, now having half a Votive will be fine for a lot of people who have a Tart Burner that has a big basin, however mine is really small so I will be splitting mine again into quarters. As you can see there is no difference in colour (or scent which I can verify) between the two halves.

To achieve the quarter split I simply cut the two halves into half again. However some of them didn't split and so I have 6 pieces of some of the candles. It isn't that big a deal because you can either just burn a smaller piece or add two pieces to your burner.

I then put the pieces into a sandwich bag and I cut the label off the packaging for the candle and stuck that to the bag with tape so I would know which ones were in which bag. You don't **have** to do that but I would recommend it so you can remember which your favourites are!

This is the mess of wax left over! This is why I suggest using a tea towel, as well as not wanting to accidentally scratch your table, it makes the clean up much easier if you're not having to sweep up wax,although I got it all over my rug so I think I may put a towel down next time!

                                                              This is the finished product!

I know this seems like an awful lot of effort to go to, however the money it saves is amazing. If you pay £1 for a Yankee Tart and use all of it in one go, or even split it in half you are barely saving any money. However if you split all of your Votives into 4 it is the equivalent of FORTY Yankee Tarts and so having paid £14 altogether I have saved £26 by splitting them up. So if you are frugal, spending £14 will give you Yankee scents that are going to last you for much longer and it is so easy to do!

I will be reviewing the different scents as I burn them, however at the moment I am burning Margarita Time and it smells yummy! It is pretty subtle but has a lovely limey smell that smells very summery.

So there we go, I hope that this will inspire other people to do the same thing with their Votives and get the most bang for their buck!

Liv.x

Yankee Candle Tarts.

Hello!

This post is going to be a long one,so settle in! 

    I am a bit obsessive with having nice smells in my bedroom/house. When I was a teenager my room used to be an absolute tip at all times, but when I went off to uni I caught the cleaning bug and now my room is very tidy about 90% of the time! So for me, burning something that smells lovely is the icing on the cake!
 
 I came across theonestopyankeeshop whilst looking for Yankee Tarts on Ebay, they do some amazing deals, I got 10 tarts for £10.95. Given that on the Yankee Candle website they retail at £1.25 each you are getting a good deal, plus it's free postage!

I ordered these on a Wednesday morning and they arrived on Thursday which I thought was amazing!

It arrived in a standard jiffy bag, no markings to tell you who it was from! At first I didn't think it was the Tarts but the smell coming off the bag was unmistakeable!

I had a little peek inside.....

I got a little bit too excited about them! I was happy that none of them had broken because the postman had shoved them through the letter box and not left the parcels in the normal place!

From left to right starting with the top row we have Mango Peach Salsa, Salted Caramel,Midnight Oasis,Lake Sunset, Fresh Cut Roses. On the bottom row is Waikiki Melon, Sweet Strawberry, Garden Sweet Pea, Pink Sands and Summer Scoop.

Yankee Tarts are 22g each, they are disc shaped with a scalloped edge, they taper so they have a slightly bigger circumference at the top.

As you can tell I don't really have a specific fragrance group that I am more fond of, i.e. flowers/food etc. I thought that if I chose some different ones then next time I did an order I could get more of the ones I really liked!

Now, as I have said before in my Marc Jacobs post, I really don't hold with website descriptions of scent and I found the Yankee Candle descriptions particularly dire! They didn't give any indication to me of what they would smell like. However I will include both their description as well as my own as I know some people like to hear what the company has to say!

Mango Peach Salsa.

Yankees description: Sweet and zesty … juicy mangoes and peaches livened with citrus, ginger flowers and pink pepper.

My description: This smells both spicy and sweet at the same time. The pepper is quite prominent and it gives it quite a masculine smell although the citrus does even it out somewhat.

Sweet Strawberry.

Yankee description: The essence of perfectly ripe strawberries sprinkled with sugar.

My description: This does smell exactly like strawberries, although it has a slightly artificial edge to it. It smells very fruity and fresh and I have heard a lot of good reviews about it.

Salted Caramel.

Yankees description: Sweet surrender is yours with our luscious gourmand confection of burnt sugar, sea salt and vanilla caramel.

My description: This smells like millionaires shortbread! It does smell exactly like caramel, although I can't smell any burnt sugar it may come through during burning. It doesn't have much of a vanilla smell but it could just be quite subtle.

Garden Sweet Pea.

Yankee description: The sweet perfume of delicate blooms accented with hints of pear, peach, freesia and rosewood.

My description: Ok so if I am honest to me this smelt like old ladies and parma violets! I really love the smell of fresh sweet peas so I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is going to smell better when its burning!

Midnight Oasis.

Yankee description: Across quiet sands, a midnight breeze mixes with island citrus and warm sandalwood.

My description: This smells so complex to me, everytime I smell it it smells different, it's definitely not a bad thing though! It has a hint of vanilla but it also smells like mens aftershave, which I think is the sandalwood. I don't get any citrus from it at all but it smells wonderful, I am really looking forward to burning this one!

Pink Sands.

Yankee description: It's an exotic escape in the beautiful mix of bright citrus, sweet florals and spicy vanilla.

My description: This smells more berry like to me, almost verging on cherry. It's another one where I can't detect any citrus, it does have a hint of vanilla though. I would say it smells a bit like fruity bubble gum, which I am quite a fan of.

Lake Sunset.

Yankee description: The serene beauty of the suns golden rays as they dip into still blue waters, calling to mind the musky descent of nightfall.

My description: This does have a sweet musky smell to it, I can't really pick out a specific scent, but it smells deep and delicate at the same time. I feel like this will completely fill a room with fragrance.

Summer Scoop.

Yankees description: Delicious memories of creamy, homemade strawberry ice cream on a hot summer day. One scoop or two?

My description: This smells divine! It smells like berries, cream and vanilla. If you were to stick your nose in ice cream this is what it would smell like. It will be a lovely one to burn in the warmer months although I feel the smell might be a bit cloying if there is too much of it.

Fresh Cut Roses.

Yankee description: An intoxicating English garden of fragrant heirloom roses.

My description: This is the one I was most looking forward to, it smells exactly like real roses. When I was younger I used to sleep under my window, we have rose bushes in our front garden and you can smell them from my room, these smell exactly the same!

I haven't done a description of the Waikiki Melon one because I have started burning it and I want to do a separate review.

I hope this has been a useful review. What are you favourite Yankee scents?

x