by Julia, added 11/17/10

Brand: Stormy Mountain Candle Company

Type: 16oz Soy Jar candles and Soy Snap Melters

Fragrance: Crème Brulee Pumpkin Butter
Mountain Laurel

Cost: $15

Scent Strength: Varied

Introduction to my Stormy Mountain Candle review:

You may not have heard about Stormy Mountain Candles before, but folks in Connecticut sure have. After all, Stormy Mountain Candle Company has been hand crafting candles for more than 20 years so their local popularity is no surprise. Thanks to a sharp new website and a dedicated customer service mindset, Stormy Mountain Candle Company is ready to expand their loyal customer base. I’m telling you, this is just one more reason to embrace technology.

Stormy Mountain Candle Company has a clean, streamlined website that made shopping for a new candle simple and fun. Soy candles are their specialty, but they also offer reed diffusers, hand sanitizers, goat’s milk soaps, and even lip balm. I, of course, zeroed in on the candles and melts. The scents were set up into logical fragrance collections that were easy to navigate. I found my way to the kitchen collection and the floral collection for this review, but there were plenty more scents that tempted me. Their Home collection takes all the guess work out of making a home smell inviting and the Fruit collection has a list that I will surely be back for come spring and summer.

A note for you chocolate scent lovers, Stormy Mountain Candle Company’s chocolate scented candles are featured in all of the Hershey Company’s retail locations including the most famous one in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Don’t miss the chance to sniff a Chocolate Kiss.

These 16 ounce jars each had a black metal lid and a Stormy Mountain Candle Company label. The labels had an aged parchment look and listed the scent name, candle size and Stormy Mountain Candle Company logo of a mountain peak. The labels could be removed with a little work, but were made to stay on the jars, and since they looked sharp, that was just fine with me. The Crème Brulee candle was cream colored. The Pumpkin Butter wax was a light orange and Mountain Laurel was a pretty pale pink. The Soy Snap Melters were in standard clamshell packaging with labels that matched the candles. Each clamshell was filled to the top and the wax colors matched the candles of the same fragrance. Stormy Mountain Candles are as naturally made as possible and they even have a new line of Interlude candles that are kept color free.

Stormy Mountain’s Crème Brulee is one of their top sellers. They describe it quite simply as

“A traditional base of vanilla custard with a hint of caramelized sugar”

Crème Brulee is French for burnt sugar. It’s a sweet, decedent treat of vanilla custard with a top layer of sugar that has been burned or caramelized. I’ve never attempted to make my own Crème Brulee at home. Using a blowtorch to caramelize sugar is beyond my culinary skill set, so I’ve always left this dessert to the professionals. My favorite part of Crème Brulee is cracking the thin layer of caramelized sugar on the top. If you haven’t had the chance to taste Crème Brulee yet, this scent from Stormy Mountain will give your senses a sneak peek into the creamy sweet vanilla goodness. The scent was very true to its description… one of the truest Crème Brulee scents I’ve ever smelled in a candle. I can see why this candle scent is a top seller. It had a sweet vanilla custard smell with a bit of toasted caramel. This scent smelled exactly like the real thing.

I found the melts to be about the same strength as the candle in this scent. I kept the candle burning close to where I was sitting and enjoyed the scent immensely. The Crème Brulee melts filled my kitchen well, when I used two cubes at a time from the clamshell.

Pumpkin Butter is described just as the name implies.

“ Smells just like a piece of Grandma’s pie with a huge dollop of melting butter”

This scent seemed really interesting to me… I couldn’t wait to try it. I can’t recall smelling a pumpkin scented candle with butter before, and I’ve smelled my fair share of pumpkin scents. Since this was something new to me, I couldn’t resist checking it out.

Sure enough, I smelled rich, salty butter in this fragrance. Pumpkin Butter went easy on the sugar and spices and let the butter scent melt through. At first it reminded me of a pumpkin cheesecake scent. It had a similar dairy note but as the candle burned and established a decent melt pool, I could smell the butter clearly and for me it lost that cheesecake note entirely. The more this candle burned, the more I enjoyed the scent. The pumpkin part of the scent had a decidedly baked quality but wasn’t overly sweet, which made the combination of pumpkin and melted butter work well together… even better than I had hoped for.

This candle nicely scented a medium sized room, but this was one of those scents that I wanted to huff up close and stronger so I kept it near me as much as possible. The scent strength from the melts smelled a bit more intense than the candle in this scent and I found that two cubes from the clamshell were sufficient. The cold sniff of Pumpkin Butter only hinted at the scents notes and as often happens, the fragrance only fully developed while burning. I was quite pleased with this scent and would reorder it.

I’ve always liked the smell of Texas Bluebonnets and I thought Mountain Laurel was the same blossom, so I grabbed up Connecticut’s very own state flower.

“A true to life scent. Great way to honor the state flower. Thanks Connecticut”

Come to find out, Mountain Laurel is not the same as Bluebonnet at all. The blossoms look totally different, and the scent was not the same either. Realizing my error, I did some further research into Connecticut’s famed Mountain Laurel. It’s a beautiful flower that blossoms in profusion along the roadways of Connecticut in late spring and early summer. The blossoms look like pretty little hoop skirts straight out of Gone With the Wind.

The fragrance from this candle was light and pretty. It smelled similar to a jasmine scent and at times it also reminded me of lilac, but it was really it’s own unique fragrance. It smelled a little bit sweet and was definitely springtime fresh. The throw was light and airy as well, best suited for a smaller sized room. I experienced the same scent intensity with the melts as I did with the jar candle.

I can see why Connecticut chose Mountain Laurel as its state flower, considering this fresh floral scent from Stormy Mountain Candle Company and the brilliant show of pink and white blooms each year.

All three jar candles that I tried from Stormy Mountain Candle Company burned cleanly. They each had good longevity. Even with the long burn time, the wick flames stayed strong throughout. I trimmed the wicks occasionally during long marathon burns. The melt pools reached the sides each time I relit the candles, which left very little residue on the sides of the jars.

Shopping Stormy Mountain Candle Company’s website is a breeze. It’s well organized and uncluttered. The cart functions well and checkout is a easy with a credit card. Although they do not use Paypal, they accept credit card payment as well as checks or money orders. Of course, if you are fortunate enough to be in Connecticut, Stormy Mountain Candles are available in several locations there including the many Grand Union Family Stores.

I enjoyed all three of these scented candles and melts from Stormy Mountain Candle Company. The fact that they have so many other scents and products available makes me want to try even more from this growing company.

Keep your nose happy.

~ Julia

Visit Stormy Mountain Candle Co