If you're a new reader, then you'll soon learn that I'm slightly obsessed with candles and home fragrancing. I love wearing fragrance and smelling nice so I guess it's only natural that I want my home to smell as good as I do, and when your a pet owner sometimes a bit of room spray isn't a luxury, it's a necessity!
Whilst I have my favourite all year round scents at Christmas time, if it's even the slightest bit festive then bring it on. One of my favourite places to buy Christmas home fragrancing products is NEXT. I'm absolutely in love with their Fesitive Spice fragrance, it's full of fruit and Christmas spices, and it makes the house smell fabulous. As soon as the Christmas catalohue comes out - I stock up and this year I may have gone gone slightly daft.
Something that I always buy are the Festive Spice Reed Diffusers. We usually have one in the landing, one in my room, one in the dinning room, and one in the lounge, so I've bought quite a few. They are available in a couple of sizes this year including the absolutely huge, Christmas Tree shaped one that you can see above which is £16, and the smaller one below which is £6.50.
I know not everybody likes candles, so diffusers are a great alternative, and their great for continuous home fragrancing. Another good alternative to candles, and something that is a real essential in my house is room spray. There are room sprays though and their are room sprays. Some are pretty horrid and synthetic but NEXT's Festive Spice Room Spray is a good one and you can really smell all of the fruity and spicy notes. Sorry I don't have a picture but it was just £5. It comes in a pump action, glass bottle, and a little goes a long way, a couple of squirts are more than enough to fragrance a large room in an instant.
I still a little bit of last years Festive Spice candle left but I couldn't resist picking this one up.
Based on previous experience NEXT candles are pretty decent and this is a soy based, 3 wick candle that has the same beautiful Festive Spice fragrance which I love. What really sold this candle to me though was the packagaing. Packaged in a beautiful red glass holder, the holder iteself comes with a gorgeous cut out, Rob Ryan style, silver tone metal design overlay.
I do love my Festive Spice, but this year NEXT have really spoilt us when it comes to holiday home fragrancing. One of their newest scents is Mulled Wine. In one of my previous home hauls (read it here) I got one of the Mulled Wine candles in a mini set and I loved it so I had to buy the full size.
Packaged in beautiful and so on trend, red mercury glass jar, this candle has a fruity, spicy, sweet scent that reminds you of Christmas with just one sniff. As I said previously this was very similar to Yankee Candles Mulled Wine scent and at just £7 it was a bargain to boot.
I must admit I automatically lean towards more foodie, spicy and fruity scents at Christmas but some people I know love fresher and greener scents. Well if that is more to your taste then Next definitely have something for you.
This small diffuser which was just £5 comes in their Festive Spruce scent. If you prefer these greener, pine scents, this is definitely the one to try/ We have a fake Christmas tree so I'm planning to put this diffuser behind the tree so you get that real tree scent without the mess and the hassle.
As well as home fragrancing bits I've also a couple of other home things from NEXT recently including this super cute graphic alphabet cushion x
I love alphabet and text related things and I love cushions so this is a great combo, the letter L is printed on to a white cotton / canvas feel fabric, and the reverse of the cushion is in plain, short pile, black velvet. It was just £12 and it also includes the cushion pad.
As well as the cushion I also couldn't resist getting one of these little cute, wooden Monogram LED lights. Unfortunately these don't appear in the video towards the end of this post but I couldn't resist showing you them anyway. These letters are just £6 and they come with batteries and a hanging loop, in case you want to hang it on the wall or on the Christmas tree. I think these are really cute and I may have got a couple for some friends from Santa ;)
Although I keep trying to branch out, one candle brand that I just keep coming back to is Yankee Candles, and I've got yet another Yankee Candles haul to show you know.
First up is the festive addition of the Yankee Candle Seasonal Hamper that I got from QVC UK. This was my third auto delivery of four and this was the one that i was really looking forward to.
The hamper itself has almost a creamy, cable knit type of finish and it comes complete with a little pom pom key ring or bag charm.
The hamper contains 12 Yankee Candle votives, in 6 different fragranced In this particular set you get 2 in Red Apple Wreath, 2 in Macaron Treats, 2 In Winter Glow, 2 in Festive Cocktail, 2 in Star Anise and Orange and 2 in All Is Bright.
You also get two boxes of 12 tea lights, in both the Festive Cocktail and the All Is Bright Fragrances as well as 2 red glass bucket holders to burn your candles in.
I've loved receiving these hampers over the last few months, and I've really enjoyed trying all of the new fragrances, and I'm already looking forward to the last shipment in January. I'm really hoping that QVC and Yankee Candles do something similar next year. In the meantime though I think that this particular hamper is still available on the QVC UK website if your interested in trying it out for yourself x
As you might, if you've read my Royal Quays beauty haul post (see it here) then you'll know that I also visited Boundary Mill in nearby Shiremoor. Boundary Mill stocks pretty much everything from clothes and kitchen wear, to dried fruit and candles, and since they have an amazing Yankee Candle selection, I ended up buying a few bits including a rare double wick tumbler in Australian Eucalyptus and a couple of wax melts in Mango Peach Salas and in Vanilla Chai.
Melts or tarts are a really quick way of giving the room a real fragrance hit. In a small room like my bedroom, I normally only leave them on for about 5 minutes but you can melt them for as long as you like. You just need either a specific melt warmer or oil burner and a unscented tea light, and now if you aren't a fan of naked flames you can even get electric melt warmers which are probably a little bit safer.
Speaking of electric I'd wanted the next item that I'm going to show you for the longest time. They make look like a normal plug in air freshener but these are Yankee Candle plug ins. You basically buy the plug in unit and then you can buy a whole range of refills which come in some of your favourite Yankee scents. I went for this lilac, blue plug in and I also bought a duo pack of refills in my favourite Lemon Lavender scent. Basically you just plug, them in switch them on and leave them to gradually fragrance your home, while your at work, or even sound asleep. There are 3 different setting strengths to choose from so you can have as much or as little fragrance as you like.
If you're a fan of the fragrance of Yankee Candles but again you don't like the idea of a naked flame, then you could try one of their latest innovations, Fragrance Spheres.
I picked these up in both the Lemon Lavender, Red Raspberry which you can see here and in the Cranberry Pear fragrances.
What they are, are little plastic pots which are filled with fragranced gel like spheres, all do is unscrew the lid, peel back the foil and screw the lid back on and voila up to a month or so of fragrance, wherever and whenever you want it. They are basically just posh gel air fresheners that come in all of your favourite Yankee scents, and if you have a cat little tray, or a shoe cupboard or a cloakroom, then these are a must.
I know this has been a pretty long post but hopefully you're still with me, anyways I only have a couple more things to show you including this lovely, mercury and frosted glass candle.
I picked this up from a local garden centre, and although it was in with their Christmas bits, this is something that I will be keeping out all year round. The silvers and lilacs go perfectly with my room, and I love the star detail. I think it's too pretty to use it with real candles so I'll probably be using it with battery operated tea lights. The final thing that I got was this metal hanging plaque from Boohoo.
I know a lot of people find inspirational quotes quite cheesy but personally I'm a huge fan, what can i say sometimes I just need a bit of positive reinforcement. This is one favourite quotes and I really helps me to remind myself that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel and there is always something to be positive about x
I've made a little (okay a very long!) video to accompany this haul which you can either see below or via this link.
If you have any questions on anything in this haul then please leave me a comment and let me know.
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