Yankee Candle Helps Make A House Smell Like a Home

I remember when I was house-hunting I would scour the weekend paper looking for Open Houses in neighborhoods I liked. Walking into someone else's house is always a bit strange and sometimes it can be difficult to imagine living there, but when the house smells like a home it can make all the difference in the world. The houses I really liked inevitably had a warm and comforting scent. Sometimes it was a baking aroma like someone just pulled a batch of cookies from the oven. Other times it was just a fresh, clean scent that made me feel like the house was well-maintained. Though the actual fragrance differed from home to home, I always found the source to be the same: a lit Yankee Candle® jar or Yankee Candle® Electric Air Freshener!

If you look at any "Top 10" list of tips for a successful real estate open house, you'll see that my experience isn't just happenstance. In fact when staging your house for a showing, giving it an appealing scent goes a long way in making it feel more like a home. This added element triggers happy thoughts and memories, ensuring that all senses are engaged in a warm and inviting way.

Yankee Candle products are available at all Yankee Candle Company retail stores, on our website, and at gift and home stores nationwide.

Top 10 Last Minute Gifts for Fragrance Fanatics

Are you looking for quick and easy ways to finish your holiday shopping? Here is my list of the Top 10 Last Minute "Guaranteed To Be Loved" gifts for fragrance fanatics:

1. A Festive Yankee Candle® jar candle - Whether you are looking for something that smells like a freshly cut Christmas Tree, the magic of the North Pole™, or like you've been baking Christmas Cookies™ all day, Yankee Candle has that "smells just like the holidays" scent!
2. New 2011 Yankee Candle® jar candle - Searching for something someone can use long after the decorations are put away? Pick up one of the new 2011 scents like Fluffy Towels™, Bahama Breeze or Orange Dreamsicle!
3. Yankee Candle® gift set - No time to wrap? Yankee Candle has gift sets in every price point!
4. Candle accessories - For the best-dressed candles in town, choose candle accessories in glass, ceramic, or metal!
5. Fragranced reed diffusers - Know someone who can't light a candle? Yankee Candle fragranced reed diffusers are the perfect flame-free solution!
6. Tarts® wax potpourri - Want something truly unique? Select Tarts® in several different scents so that the recipient can create their own custom mix!
7. Bayberry Tapers - New Year's Eve tradition says that "Burning a bayberry candle from tip to socket puts luck in the home and gold in the pocket"!
8. Candle tools - For the true candle connoisseur, put together a package of useful tools like wick snips, candle snuffers, and a butane candle lighter.
9. Samplers® votive candles - No fragrance lover's stocking is completely filled until there is a votive candle in the toe!
10. Scented Gift Card - When all else fails, let them choose their own gift with a scented Yankee Candle gift card in any denomination!

Yankee Candle's "Scent of Your First Boyfriend" Turns 16!

I just read that actress Kate Walsh is developing a perfume she hopes will remind you of a boyfriend. The article reminded me of a favorite Yankee Candle scent. Officially described as "an intoxicating and masculine blend of musk, patchouli, sage and mahogany cologne" Midsummer's Night® by Yankee Candle is better known to its millions of fans as the "first boyfriend scent". Since its debut in 1994 Midsummer's Night® has been there for first dates and weddings and it often provides soothing comfort for the brokenhearted. It’s one of those candle scents with an unmistakably powerful aroma. I once blogged about candles that become the “scent-track” of your life in the same way that special music can become the soundtrack of your life. Midsummer’s Night® is one of those fragrances. It is the underscore for a new romance and the trigger for memories of an old flame. And like every great romance, once you experience it you will never forget it! Happy 16^th birthday Midsummer’s Night®!

Midsummer's Night® is available in candles and home fragrance products online, in Yankee Candle Company retail stores, and other fine gift shops.

New From Yankee Candle: Fragranced Figurines

I have a new way to add round-the-clock fragrance to my home and boy is it cute! No, I haven't given up on candles - not by a long shot. But there are times that I want to add scent without lighting a candle. Of course I use electric fragrancers but in my old home I don't always have a convenient outlet. That's why I was delighted to find these new fragrance diffusers from Yankee Candle®. They're pleasant to look at and pleasantly scented, adding seasonal charm wherever they are. The key is in the unglazed porcelain stem and leaf at the top of the pumpkin and apple. When you fill the vessel with MacIntosh or Spiced Pumpkin fragrance, the oil wicks up the porcelain and wafts through the room.
My home feels so warm and inviting even when the house has been empty because these darling little figurines are working overtime!

Yankee Candle Serves Up a Slice of Americana

When I close my eyes and smell Yankee Candle's new Apple Pie fragrance, I am immediately brought to another place and time. It's Nana's kitchen and I'm about 8 years old. My Nana, who just turned a youthful 97-years-old made the very best apple pie that I have ever tasted. The crust was flaky and my favorite part was when the juices from the apples mixed with sugar and spices and oozed out of the corners and crevices. How our master candle makers and fragrancers captured Nana's pie, I will never know. The only thing that's sure is that lighting this candle will always make me feel warm and happy - just like being in Nana's kitchen!

How to Create Your Own Custom Yankee Candle® Scent

A favorite activity among candle fans is creating their own custom blend with Tarts® wax potpourri. Dubbed Fragrance Mixology™ by the Yankee Candle Company, this kind of DIY home fragrance is two parts art and one part science. It's sort of Iron Chef meets Bill Nye the Science Guy! For the artistic part, mixologists need to know which fragrances would make a great blend. Would you try mixing Coconut Bay™ and Midsummer's Night®? What about Honeydew Melon and Storm Watch®? Just as different foods will bring out different tastes when combined, different scents will also bring out the best (or the worst) in each other. Once you decide on the combo, you need to determine how much of each fragrance to combine. That's the science part. Do you make each part equal, or would you rather have more of one scent shine through? Through trial and error, mixologists will come up with just the right recipe and then don their artistic cap again to craft the perfect - and perfectly clever - name for their creation.

Fragrance mixologist extraordinaire Leigh Silas Hanrihan catalogued all of the recipes tried in the test kitchens of Yankee Candle® fans around the world and posted them on this website:

http://candlemixarchive.weebly.com/ .

The next time you want to provide just the right fragrance for your home, have fun developing your own custom blend!

Scenting The Way To College Life

'Tis the season for graduations! We went to one graduation party last weekend and have two others to attend this weekend! It seems like just yesterday that they graduated from kindergarten and now they're packing their bags heading to the halls of higher learning. One of my favorite ways to prepare someone for life in a dorm is to give them a box of lifesavers. Not the fruity candy kind, but the kind that you can really turn to when the road gets kind of rough. I buy a plastic tote and fill it with things like microwave popcorn for late-night studies, breakfast bars for early morning classes, a dictionary because spellcheck doesn't catch everything, ear plugs for snoring roommates, a roll of quarters for the laundry, and a gift card to a local grocery store. And, of course, I include the e-scentials for dorm life: flameless fragrance! Things like Yankee Candle® Electric fragrancers and reed diffusers in a favorite scent really turn a stale dorm room into a little home away from home. Add in Good Air™ room sprays to eliminate the stench of overcooked microwave popcorn (among other unpleasant odors) and your co-ed will be the envy of the floor! I finish the box with personal care products for young people who like to light the candle at both ends: vitamins and anti-bacterial hand sanitizer. While life will always take an unexpected turn, at least you know your student can open a little box of love and care and think of you!

Yankee Candle Fragrance Boosts Your Scent Appeal!

I first realized the emotional appeal of Yankee Candle fragrances when I was house hunting. When my husband and I were newly married and living in a small apartment, one of our favorite pasttimes was scouring the neighborhood for real estate open houses. We loved visiting houses of all types and styles and dreaming about our "some day" home. In those days my favorite houses were the ones that not only looked pretty, but they smelled good too. There was something about a fragrant home that made it feel happy and loved. Inevitably I would find that the source of the scent was a lit Yankee® candle in the kitchen or living room. The warm, friendly aromas of Home Sweet Home® or MacIntosh would fill the air and the house would take on a completely different feel.

On their blog "Real Estate Advice, Answers, and More" Nothnagle Real Estate references the impact of a home's scent on its market value. They write, "there is a direct connection between smell and people's moods so light fragrances can help create 'scent appeal' when used properly in the home ... A light floral fragrance can put people in a more pleasant mood while citrus scents tend to have an energizing effect. Vanilla is often found to be comforting and relaxing." And they further recommend that, "a small reed diffuser in a bathroom can keep the room smelling clean while not overpowering the space."

It makes sense, doesn't it? To make a house a home, you add curb appeal to the outside so why not add scent appeal to the inside?

Yankee® Candles Glow With Style

Last week, super model and business woman Tyra Banks asked her Twitter followers if they light candles. She tweeted that although she loves candles she very rarely lights them and she wondered if there were others like her. Almost immediately many of her followers responded with their own tweets proclaiming their addiction not just to candles, but to Yankee® candles! And, just as strongly, they talked about their love for lighting candles. Yankee Candle fans know that the beauty of a scented candle is not just the cold fragrance that you get when you lift the lid of the jar, but it is also in the glow and the warming of the fragrance. When the scent is warmed, the fragrance will intensify and it will spread throughout the area. Beyond the fragrance, the glow from a lit candle adds ambiance like no other light can. A lit candle joins music and accessories in really defining your personal style. I say, don't hold back Tyra - let your candles glow!

Hamburger Scented Candles? Really?

When the hamburger chain White Castle debuted their hamburger-scented candles this week, it really piqued my interest. I remember when I was a child my family (lovingly) referred to me as Wimpy after Popeye's friend because I could smell hamburgers from miles around. However, a hamburger scented candle seems a bit of a novelty, don't you think? I mean food fragrances are my favorites bar none and I love when those warm and cozy spicy scents come back into season, but there are certain foods that don't lend themselves to the way in which you'd want your home to smell. Baking scents like Blueberry Scone and Vanilla Cupcake, sweet aromas like Buttercream®, and fruity fragrances like Fruit Salad™ and MacIntosh are so delicious when they fill the house. But, do you really want your home to smell like sauteed onions or fried fish? It is true, though, that over the years, Yankee Candle has fielded some unusual requests to make candles that smell like pizza or bacon or Indian food. Who knows, maybe there will be a barbecue sauce candle somewhere in our future!