Beautiful Scents from Belisama Candles

Belisama Candles is a family-run home fragrance brand hailing from South Wales. The venture, started by Sharon and David, started life making tea-lights over a stove post-injury, but has grown quickly and the pair now have a purpose-built workshop in which they craft their candles. There is so much passion and energy put into the products, and this is evident through the charming hand-crafted feel and the perfectly curated scent descriptions. You know they are made with love and care.

Their products range from candles, both traditional and cosy crackling wood wicks, to burners and wax tarts. All of their products use vegan and vegetarian friendly EcoSoya® wax instead of parafin wax. This has many benefits including less toxins and soot, meaning you get a cleaner burn where the scent takes centre stage.

Over the last few weeks, I've been testing out four of Belisama's wax tarts, in some of their most popular scents as well as a few from their Christmas collection. Belisama have so many scents to choose from, ranging from festive, foodie, floral and fruity, as well as some exclusive speciality fragrances, including Welsh Dragon. This brings back some memories for me. Cardiff was my stomping ground for a few years and I still love supporting welsh brands, even though I've since moved back across the pond Bristol Channel...

On cold sniff, my initial favourite was the Tangerine Wax Tart* (£2.20). This is described as having lively citrus notes, good enough to eat. Tangerine is indeed sweet and sugary, yet one of the most true to life orange scents I've experienced. You know when you've been slicing oranges and your hands smell really fresh and citrussy afterwards? This is honestly how my hands smelt after picking up this tart, amazing! Often orange scents can be a little too sharp, but this is perfect.

Snuggles* is another of Belisama's best-sellers. This is a scent that on cold-sniff I didn't enjoy as much as the sweeter scents. However, when I popped Snuggles in the burner it transformed into a warm, cosy scent. It is reminiscent of a sweater fresh from the dryer, or clean sheets day (A.K.A. the best day!). This is a well-blended scent that somehow oozes freshness despite being a warm and snuggly scent, and this is what makes it one of the best cotton scents that I have tried. The soy wax works in its favour here, and means you get a really clean scent.

Moving onto the Christmas collection and Amaretto* was another winner with me. Described as "a heart-warming Christmas blend of cinnamon and sweet spices", this was more mellow than expected. On cold sniff, the sweet cherry notes really stood out, but on burning it was a well rounded deep, sweet scent. This is something that makes a lovely change from vanilla whilst still being a relatively neutral scent. It wasn't as sickly as I expected, and settled into a lovely milky scent.

Last but by no means least is Elf's Sweat*. Elf's Sweat is "a bubbly, magical blend of candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup, with effervescent spicy soda pop bubbles to provide a unique, magical top note". This is such an interesting scent, and smelt differently every single time I picked the tart up. The combination of notes give a sort of Coca-Cola scent, kind of like the fizzy cola bottle sweets you get, and really does smell magical. You can imagine the little elves working in the factory to get all the presents ready for the big day. Snaps to Belisama for thinking outside of the box with this one.

After trying these four scents, I can wholeheartedly recommend Belisama Candles. What really stands out to me is how clean the scents are with soy wax. You don't get that "heavy air" feeling like when you burn traditional candles, where it feels like the air has been sucked from the room. You can really appreciate the subtlety and complexity of the scents. I would usually use a quarter of a wax tart, but I found these more difficult to break, so I'd end up using half instead. Despite that, I still think these are great value, as they burn for around 15 hours, maybe even more. I am looking forward to discovering more scents from their range, particularly the Bubblegum, Caribbean Coconut, and not forgetting Belisama Buns, which just has to be tried.

What's your favourite candle scent?

FOLLOW BEHIND THE SCENT

Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest