Little afterglow sampler - massage candle by Jimmyjane - review by LivingandLoving

I bought Jimmyjane's Afterglow sampler for a Christmas present to myself, though my fiance has come to appreciate them as well. I find massage is really the best use of the melted wax/oil, especially on cold winter nights. The temperature when melted felt very warm to me, but not burning hot. I'm always cold, so I think it's a great way to warm up. My fiancé though, thinks the wax/oil is too hot when poured directly onto his skin, so I pour it over my hand or into my palm. I recommend trying to gauge your own heat tolerance by pouring a small amount on your skin first.

When cooled, the wax/oil is solid, and when you rub your finger over it, it has the consistency of lip balm. When melted, the wax/oil is liquid of course, and it pours out. The package suggests letting the wax melt all the way to the edges of the ceramic container. This takes a long while, and with the sampler size, you might find that the whole thing needs to be liquid to have to pour out evenly.

On the skin, it feels smooth and slick. There's a definite waxy feel to it once you start rubbing it in, especially if you take a long time or pour on too much. Surprisingly, though, the waxy texture doesn't make it sticky or greasy. Once rubbed in, it's just like an oil, absorbing into your skin like a moisturizer. I've never noticed any stains from rubbing off my skin, though if you spill a puddle of it, it may stain the sheets or clothing. I'm still searching for a way to get a large amount (accidental over-pouring) out of the waistband of some of my favorite sleep shorts.

I wouldn't recommend tasting the wax/oil. It tastes just like candle wax, and it's not very pleasant.
The six scents you get in the sampler are Grapefruit, Cucumber water, Pink lotus, Dark vanilla, Bourbon, and Truffle & Gardenia. I'm listing them in order of my most favorite to least favorite.
#1 & #2. Our favorites are Dark Vanilla and Truffle & Gardenia. In fact, my fiance has declared the Truffle and Gardenia scent to be "perfection!" which is high praise from the man who isn't really into scents. I wrote a more in-depth review of the scent here because we eventually bought the Ember candle in this scent. Best investment ever! Dark vanilla is a very high quality, natural vanilla smell. It's not the sweet, sugar cookies kind of vanilla that so many home and room scent candles have. I would recommend it to almost anyone, because vanilla appeals to so many people's sense of smell. I'm definitely ordering more.

#3. Pink Lotus is a very floral and "girly" scent. Think of walking in the water gardens of Degas's paintings, and you'll know how I felt when we tried it. I personally like it, but my fiance doesn't like it very much, and he said it was a bit strong for him. I probably won't be buying a regular size Afterglow, at least not at first.

#4, #5, and #6. I wasn't really impressed with Cucumber Water, Bourbon, or Grapefruit (and they go in that order). Cucumber water was so light that there wasn't much to it. It's another one that probably won't bother many people's noses. Bourbon was *far* too strong for my liking, though it smells exactly like alcohol to me. It reminded me of my time waitressing at a sports bar, and getting drinks spilled on me, so not the best memory to tie to a scent. My fiance liked it, but he said he could take it or leave it. Finally, Grapefruit was terrible! From other reviews, it seems like it's a love or hate kind of scent, and it was nauseating to me. It smells more like antiseptic cleaner to me than natural citrus, even when melted.

I loved the variety of scents that a sampler offers. With high-quality (read: higher priced) products, comes the need to commit to buying exactly what you want, and samplers allow you to buy-and-try with less risk that you'll hate it. In fact, I wish EF offered samplers on more things...like lube or massage oil. If there's one thing I would have changed though, it would be to replace the Grapefruit scent with Gingersnap. I really want to try it, but I'll have to order a regular size, and hope that it's worth it.

As for the performance of the product itself, a pool of wax/oil about the size of a half dollar can last for 20-30 minutes before your skin will probably absorb it. That same amount covers the back, neck, and either upper thighs or arms for a massage. If you use too much, though, it gets a bit smeary and waxy. Depending on the scent, the wax/oil cools more or less quickly. You may want to re-light the candle (after you extinguish it to pour the wax/oil) just to keep more oil ready and melted.

I never felt the need to wash it off, except when we used too much. If you use it for massage at night, your skin feels fantastically silky in the morning. It washes off with soap and water if you don't like the feel of it on your hands.

Jimmyjane does discreet, classy, gift-worthy packaging extremely well, and I would have no qualms with giving these candles as gifts to my female friends. The Ember packaging was nicer, but I think the sampler box was nicely packaged too. The box came tied up with pink ribbon, and inside is a thin cardstock sheet of the scents and how strong Jimmyjane thinks they are. The Afterglow instructions were thorough, and gave some good tips for making your candles last longer (like keeping the wick trimmed to 1/4"). I also appreciated the sealed adhesive on all of the candles to keep the scents from escaping and mixing with each other. I wrapped them with plastic wrap between uses for the same purpose, though it wasn't quite as effective.

I loved that the ceramic containers are reusable. Once the wax/oil was too low to burn the candle, I used a plastic knife to pry out the wick and I melted the remaining wax/oil and poured it into a snack-sized Ziploc bag. Then I washed the container out by hand or in the dishwasher and used it to set seed containers for gardening.

Among massage products, massage candles are unique in offering warmth without extra chemicals to make your skin "feel" warm. Since I like to keep my life as organic and green as is reasonable, I prefer and recommend this method of warm massage to warming oils and lubes.