Alrighty, so I've had this stuff for over a year, and it took me forever to get around to using it enough times to write a good review. It's hard for me to give a less than amazing rave review on a product from a company I love so much! Unfortunately, as my first massage candle experience, it hasn't gotten me running out to try another type since I tried it. The process of burning the candle, viewing and smelling it, then using the warm oil for massages was very sensual and pleasant. It was the aftermath that I did not appreciate. I found that the oil, after being massaged in and cooling on the skin, left me feeling waxy, not moisturized. The process was lovely enough that I have used this a few times, but I've never not gotten up to wash it off of me immediately after, and it's not a product you want to use to lead up to sex.

There are a lot of great things about this product, though. For one, the scent is great, it's easy to use, and the ingredients are very body safe. They include: Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Coco Nucifera Oil, Fragrance, Prunus Dulcis Oil, Carthamus Tinctorius Oil, Persa Americana Oil, Sesamum Indicum Oil, Vitis Vinifera Oil, Tocopherol.

This candle is solid when it is opened (or it should be). It is not the consistency of a regular candle though. If you press into the candle with moderate pressure, you will surely make a dent in it, smooching the wax. If you wipe your finger across the surface it feels like a semi waxy, body cream lotion.

The consistency is so soft for a candle that it doesn't take much heat to turn the candle to mush. Once it has been burning an oil will emerge from the soy wax. I expected it to cool on my finger like a wax when I dipped it in, but it didn't. The oil really is OIL. It doesn't have a waxy feel at all, when it is warm. I also expected the oil to be hot, too hot to touch at first. You don't have to let it cool at all. It is very free flowing, thick, but still easy to spread. The way it moves reminds me of the wax in a lava lamp.

The feels very high quality in the way it spreads and how thick it is. It lasts a long time and makes for good, deep, lengthy massages.

After the oil cools on the skin, which doesn't take long it feels really gummy and gross. This isn't skin I'd want to stroke. It took a whole 12 hours or so for the feeling to turn into a feeling of moisture (I left a good amount on the back of my hand). Oddly enough, if I take cooled wax/oil and put it on me the day after using the candle, this doesn't feel gummy. As long as I use it in small quantities it feels like a salve. It works for rough patches like the elbows and soles of the feet very well.

The Shunga Massage Candle comes in four scents: Fruit, Lavender, Vanilla, and Rose. I have tons of Shunga products and all of them have been scented or flavored wonderfully. If I had been able to choose which scent I got, I would have picked fruit, but I received vanilla. If you've ever read any of my reviews about a vanilla scented product before, you will know that I HATE vanilla unless it is not artificial. Not this one! It smells good enough that I want to eat it! It sort of smells like vanilla birthday cake! The smell is very strong, but not sickening to me. I could see how it might be for some people, though. The candle has the ability to fill my apartment with the scent in about a half hour. The scent also stays on the skin for a long time, hours! It doesn't seem to have a taste. Sad!

The instructions are simple. Simply light the candle and enjoy its scent and lovely flame for about twenty minutes to allow for enough oil to accumulate for a massage. It won't hurt if you let it burn for longer either. When you want to use the oil, I recommend blowing the candle out. The candle comes with a small spoon to help scoop the oil out and put it where you want it. I found that one spoonful was enough to cover about half a back, an entire fore arm, or calf.

Applying the oil is easy and it feels amazing once the warm, silky, substance makes contact with the skin. You can use the spoon to smooth it around a bit, but ultimately, you will need to use your hands to really work it in. I immediately released an "Ahhh! Mmmmm..." When my partner began to swirl the oil around my back and shoulders. I only wish the warmth lasted longer! It seemed to only last for about 15 seconds or so, then it cooled to body temperature the good thing is that you don't have to worry about being scalded with this stuff. It's almost dummy proof. The oil seemed to work into the skin well and stayed "fresh" throughout very long massages. Since this is not meant to be used internally, we stayed away from my lady bits and his member too. We used the oil on backs, chests, arms, legs, and even feet. The smell continued to fill the room from the oil even while it was not warm.

The lovely feelings didn't last too long. Once the oil cools on the skin, which takes about 15 minutes to finish, it becomes unpleasant to touch. Instead of having sex after we got all worked up, we went to go take a shower. It ruined the mood for a bit. This doesn't make a good foreplay item if you want to have sex immediately after, not for us anyways. I felt gross after the oil cooled. It was like a crash and burn after the climax of an awesome movie or book...horrible ending. I can say that we never had to reapply this and the feeling of it lasted REALLY long.

24 hours later...

The candle has never returned to its original firmness (if you could ever have called it that). Oddly enough I found that the candle didn't "solidify" evenly either. Some parts were "candle like" while others were still much, almost like a home made lip balm. The mushy parts proved to be an EXCELLENT salve for rough patches of skin or a hand moisturizer that lasts all day. It oddly feels even less gummy than the oil does when it cools.

The Shunga Massage Candle is a black metal tin with a lid. It's really quite pretty and great for gift giving. It is also discreet and artist looking. The tin has a Shunga art piece on the front that shows a couple in an embrace.

The side explains how to use the candle, safety instructions about trimming the wick, the ingredients, and the length burn time - 45 hours. Included is also the small shit, plastic spoon that fits inside of the package. It's best if you wait a little while to place the spoon inside so that it doesn't sink into the wax while it cools and then gets stuck.

I do not recommend this candle for travel since it gets pretty mushy with even moderate heat. It has the potential to leak all over if it melts too much during transport.

So even though I didn't like the end result, it was still fun to use this candle. I hope to try more in the future, but this candle didn't get me excited to go get another right away. I do recommend trying a product like this because it is unique and very sensual. And if you end up hating it, you will still have 45 hours of amazing smell time.