Yankee Candle Pure Essence Collection 2017

So in my 2017 goals post, I made a bold statement that there won't be many candle posts this year, and three days later, look what we have... When I first started getting into home fragrance, Yankee Candle was the only brand I really got into. A few years later, other brands invaded my home took centre stage, but Yankee always had my heart and I'm always intrigued about their new collections. In 2015, I reviewed every single new release of the year, but last year I got a little bored and decided not to pick them. When I was going through old posts for my yearly blog update, I realised just how much I missed writing these posts, so I'm back covering Yankee Candle's first release of 2017.

This is the third year running Yankee have released a Pure Essence collection, and it really is the perfect way to start a new year, with everyone wanting a new beginning, and a fresh start. The scents are heavily influenced by these ideals, bringing fresh, clean fragrances, the perfect antidote to all those rich, spicy scents of Christmas. This year, there are three scents in the collection: Cherry Blossom, Wild Mint and Linden Tree. I've picked up votives of all three, and here are my thoughts...

Cherry Blossom is the scent that I was most excited to smell because I love The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom perfume (need to dig that out ready for spring!). Yankee describe it as "an enchanting armful of spring's freshest blooms that turn any room pink and happy" and it has notes of cherry, rose, cherry blossom, jasmine, powdery musk and sandalwood. This doesn't smell anything like I expected. I thought it would be more of a strong floral, like a Cherry Blossom perfume, but it is soft and feminine with a creamy finish, similar to Yankee's Shea Butter scent. There's a touch of fruitiness too from the cherry, and it somehow manages to smell a bit like ice cream. It's a really lovely scent and I can imagine that this would make a lovely candle for the bedroom throughout the spring months.

Wild Mint is described as "Just picked fresh wild mint leaves, fresh, crisp, cool and bracing", with notes of wild mint leaf, spearmint leaves, fresh peppermint, musk and sandalwood. It smells fresh, green and grassy, just as you would expect from wild mint. I'm not sure it's to my personal taste, but I think it would work really well burned in the kitchen. Lastly we have Linden Tree, which has notes of hosta leaves, linden blossom, viburnum, musk and cedar wood. I'm not sure what linden blossom actually smells like, but this is really pleasant. It is a fresh and light scent that would be good in the living room as it is quite neutral.

Overall, I do like this year's Pure Essence Collection. It bares a similarity to last year's, with Linden Tree and Cherry Blossom offering an upgrade from White Tea and Verbena respectively. I think Cherry Blossom is my most favourite, and one I can imagine burning the most, with Wild Mint being my least. I didn't really enjoy a lot of the scents from last year, but Yankee Candle seem to have started 2017 on a very positive note and I'm looking forward to seeing what they bring out next!

Which scent do you like the sound of most?