Little afterglow sampler - massage candle by Jimmyjane - review by Jul!a

Massage candles are great because you can set the mood before you start your massage. This set not only gives you 6 differently scented candles to choose from, but also lets you decide which of those candles you might want to purchase in a larger size. That's the beauty of sets like this one.

The box that it comes in is nothing short of awesome. It can be used for storage, or presented as a gift. It does say JimmyJane on it, but that's as "risqué" as it gets. The bottom of the box has a large label that has all of the ingredients of each candle. Inside the box is a little card that covers all the candles and lets you know what work goes with each scent and which situation they might work in. Like Wit has explore (cucumber water) and provoke (grapefruit), Charm has connect (pink lotus) and flirt (dark vanilla), and Kink has seduce (truffle & gardenia) and intrigue (bourbon).

Each of the candles consists of a white porcelain container (think like their massage stones) about 1 1/4" tall by 2 1/2" across each side and the wax. In warmer ambient temperatures, it holds pretty well and doesn't seem to look like it's sweating at all. In its solid state, it resembles a regular candle with the small difference of being able to melt it with the temperature of your finger if you wanted to rub your fingers around and get some quick moisturizing. As a liquid, it pours almost like water, complete with the dribbling down the sides a little bit. In either state, the wax will soak into the skin nicely, but leave a slightly oily residue for a short period of time.

The pamphlet also included in the package says that you should light your candle and let it melt all the way across the top the the edges before blowing out and drizzling on your partner, and this should take about 45 minutes. In my experience, I haven't been able to get the wax to melt all the way to each edge yet, even after being lit about an hour. Close, but not quite all the way there. Once you decide to pour, you should end up with about a quarter size pool of wax and that was enough for my husband to rub my back about 15-20 minutes before it soaked in too much. My husbands pores are fairly large, so this soaked in on him a little faster, but I still got 10-15 minutes or so before it was all soaked in. If you end up feeling like you've poured too much on, you can wipe off any extra with a spare towel, or a warm washcloth and soap should do it. When you're done, the scents will linger on the skin some. None of them have proven to be too strong, more like a lightly scented lotion, and last anywhere from a few hours to overnight.

This particular set comes with 6 scents; Cucumber Water, Pink Lotus, Truffle + Gardenia, Grapefruit, Dark Vanilla, and Bourbon. JimmyJane offers more in depth descriptions of the scents on the product page for this set, but I wanted to tell you what they all smelled like to me. Cucumber Water smells like a crisp, clear, watered down version of a cucumber melon scent, and is quite possibly my favorite. Pink Lotus has a decidedly floral scent to it; not overpowering but definitely there. It's hard to pinpoint anything more specific than "floral" for me on that one. Truffle + Gardenia (the special edition one, also available as a regular Ember candle) is also hard for me to pinpoint. It smells like an earthy floral to me, a more involved scent. Bourbon smells sweet to me, almost like molasses or something else I'd bake with. Dark Vanilla still smells like a generic "vanilla cookie" scent to me. And Grapefruit. To me, there's a hint of citrus and a whole lot more of something I can't put my finger on. When I first smelled it I thought back to the Habanero + Grapefruit mini Ember I have, only this is a little less spicy to the nose. JJ claims notes of grapefruit, bell peppers, and mandarin for this one.

It's no secret that I like massage candles, and even less of a secret that I love the candles from JimmyJane. I've got a few of the larger Afterglow candles, but I really wanted a chance to test out more scents without having to buy the large size of all of them, especially if I wasn't sure I was going to like them all. Overall, I'm pretty happy. The few that I'm not as fond of get burned as regular candles when I go crazy and light all of my candles at once and surprisingly there's no real clash of scent. All scent just sort of, stops. It's weird and hard to explain. But if you've been wanting to sample these particular scents, get this!