Deep Fried Orchids

The intended use for a massage candle is to aid in giving a massage. I know, seems obvious doesn't it?

However you can use a massage candle for a few other things as well. If you don't have somebody to massage (or massage you) you can always use a massage candle like this as a moisturizer after a shower or bath, or if your skin is feeling particularly dry that day. If you like the scent but aren't as keen on how it feels, go ahead and burn it as just a candle. If you don't like anything about it, feel free to send it to me, I love candles.

On the whole, you're receiving a quality candle, although since there isn't a price available yet that I can find, I'm not sure how to give you a summary of the bang for your buck. I've seen the suggested retail price at somewhere around $35 and at that price, you're competing with the Afterglow candle from JimmyJane. While this is a nice candle, it's not quite worth $35 to me.

It's possible to get one of a few different consistencies from this. The first would be while it's still in a hardened state. At this point, it'll be much like a solid perfume; where it melts a bit from the heat from your finger. If you have shorter nails you can run your finger around the wax, melt it a bit, and dab it on like perfume.

The next stage you'll experience if you leave it out in a warm area, like a hot bedroom with no air conditioning. It'll get a little mushy looking, sort of like really soft butter. You can obviously dip your finger in here and get a swipe that you can use for a massage or moisturizing.

The third stage is the completely melted stage. In this stage it'll swish around in the container like any ol' massage oil would really. Between the fingers here provides an interesting sensation, since it'll be super liquidy until it has a chance to cool slightly. Then it takes on the appearance of the soft, butter like consistency, but still spreads almost as easily as an oil might. It does obviously feel oily, but doesn't feel greasy at all. My husband likened it to playing with dish soap.

FunFactory has this candle in a few different scents, this one being their Orchid scent. They classify it as a sensual light scent of orchid refined with lilies. I've always sucked at being able to name flowers based on their scents with a few exceptions, but there is a definitive floral note to it. At first it smelled a lot lighter, but after burning it has a different scent that I can't quite put my finger on. It definitely reminds me of something in the kitchen, I'm just not sure what. A cooking oil is as close as I can come to figuring out exactly what it is, which I think may be related to the vegetable oil in the candle. It does still smell flowery, although I go back and forth on the cooking oil smell. On the one hand, it's not really an offensive scent, and it comes across as a bit neutral to me. On the other hand, smelling this candle makes me want to deep fry things.

On the skin though, it wasn't bad at all. I had a light floral scent on my skin for a few hours. Noticeable if I was super close, but otherwise not at all. As for the taste, well, I have longer nails and I have a tendency to chew on them a little bit. So I have tasted this, and no, it doesn't taste all that fantastic. It does taste pretty much exactly like it smells like it might.

If you're using it as just a candle, it's going to lightly scent a room. If you're sitting in there with it you won't be able to notice it for more than a minute or two after you light it, but if you leave the room and come back in you'll be able to smell it.

Aside from the scent, this candle does work admirably. There wasn't anything that gave any indication as to how long it would take for a pool of melted oil to form, but for us it took about an hour each time. It is possible to pour this without having it drip all down the side, but be warned that you'll probably still end up with that happening most of the time. You can instead use a makeup brush from the dollar store or just dip your fingers in and scoop some out.

The first time we used this for a massage, the candle put itself out when my husband picked it up from the wax sloshing around. The wick then became basically encased in this soft wax, and was a bit of a pain to relight for future uses. The wax hitting my skin was very warm; about as close as you can come to scalding yourself without actually scalding yourself. It did cool down quickly though.

This wax is going to work best if you're looking for a shorter massage or just looking to moisturize. Ours lasted only a few minutes before the oil really started to soak in. There was still some ease of movement, but I definitely wanted a little bit more. It does spread around very easily and does soak in nicely, even if it is a bit too quick. Afterwards I did feel nice and smooth, and even the next morning I was still smooth, with just a hint of the scent of the candle. I didn't feel the need to wash it off of myself, but my husband did go wash his hands afterwards. Soap and water took everything right off, but you can also wipe off any extra you may happen to still have off with a towel.

The packaging is on par with just about everything else from Fun Factory; pretty darn classy. A mostly red and silver box, the top has FF's signature of "Love Yourself" and the front also says "amorous massage candle for lovers" on it. The back also shows a photo of a man and a woman on a bed in their underwear with the candle being poured on the man. While I like that it's realistic in that the oil is clearly dripping down the side of the candle, it's also probably not the best choice for packaging if you're giving it to somebody who might be uncomfortable with something sexy on their packaging.

Inside the box is a small pamphlet that covers all of FunFactory's new sensual products in 8 different languages. The bottom of the jar and the side of the box both have instructions on how to use the candle and the bottom of the jar lists it as being 3.4 fluid ounces and 100 ml. The side of the box also lists ingredients as glycine soja (soybean) oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, elaeis guineensis (palm) oil, coco glycerides, fragrance, tocopheryl acetate, and benzyl alcohol. It's listed as being dermatalogically tested, but if you've had issues with any of these ingredients in the past, you're best off avoiding this one.

The jar itself is relatively small. It is on par with an Afterglow candle for size, even a little bit smaller. It has a matching "amorous massage candle for lovers" tag with the scent that the box has, but on the plus side it can be easily peeled off if you want to gift it this way or leave it out in the open without people asking "What's up with the lover's candle?". Something else that I really like about this jar is that it has a lid. I'm not 100% sure what it's made of, but it feels a lot like the silicone clips on my garter belts. Either way, it's soft and flexible and actually does a great job at sealing up the candle so that if you leave it out it doesn't collect a bunch of hair or dust.

My picture is a little lame, but this is the candle with the lid and the box:

I'm seriously torn on this, for a lot of the same reasons I was torn on the Lelo candle. I haven't seen a concrete price on this yet, but what I have seen puts right around that Lelo candle, and the JimmyJane Afterglow candles, so it does have some competition. It does have things in its favor for the price, like the lid and the fact that the oil does feel very nice. But it also has things going against it, like how long it lasts and that cooking oil scent. Overall, there's nothing that really sways me to be all "get this candle it's like omg totally awesome!". I want to like it a whole lot because I do like FunFactory's stuff in general, but I have no "wow" impressions about anything other than the lid. The scent before being burned made me sooooooooo happy, but the post-burning scent just makes me kinda sad.