I’ve reviewed Jimmyjane candles before; a couple of Embers and a couple of Afterglows.  I still wanted this sampler pack simply because it was a chance to try many scents all at once, without the commitment of having to use up – or throw away if I don’t like it – a large candle.

The Sampler is amazing.  Truly.  From the nice, sturdy cardboard box it comes in – white with gray accents and a pink interior, all wrapped in a pink satin bow – to the individual candles themselves, you couldn’t ask for a nicer set.

Each porcelain container is quite small, about one inch high by just over two inches long.  They are square, pure white, one corner slightly indented with a little flare that makes a pouring spout.  This is a change from the original Afterglows, which came in a glass container and had no pour spout but rather a brush.  The pour spout comes in handy, allowing you to drizzle the melted wax either directly onto your partner’s skin or into your hand.  (I did, personally, rather like the old brush – it allowed us to paint the oil on each other and was very sensual but most reviews I’ve seen made it seem I was the only one in the world who did like it so I guess Jimmyjane is listening to the majority.)

The scents that come in this kit are the five classic Afterglow scents Jimmyjane sells – cucumber water, grapefruit, pink lotus, dark vanilla and bourbon – as well as a scent that is usually only available in the very large Ember candles – truffle and gardenia.  Afterglows are generally single scents while the Embers are a scent pairing.

Inside the box is a nice card stock description sheet that gives suggested uses for combining these scents but it’s truly pretty easy to choose which scents smell best together to you when you go to use them.  Use one scent, two, three, all of them – they all mix together fairly well and don’t leave you smelling like you had an accident in a perfumery.

The six scents are paired into three categories; Kink, Charm and Wit. Each category also has a subcategory; Kinks has Seduce (truffle and gardenia) and Intrigue (bourbon), Charm has Connect (pink lotus) and Flirt (dark vanilla), and wit has Explore (cucumber water) and Provoke (grapefruit).  Mixing and matching scents from within and without these categories makes for a sensory delight but even using only one scent for each massage is interesting and intriguing.

Jimmyjane scents are very grown up, nothing overly sweet or overly perfume-y, nearly all scents working well for masculine or feminine use.  These are complex scents and each one is a different sort of treat for the nose, with layers of aroma that change depending upon whether the candle is cold or burning and work uniquely with your body chemistry to smell different on you than they may have in the jar.

Cucumber water is a light, cool floral scent with notes of cucumber and melon.  I’ve made actual cucumber water before and it doesn’t smell like this, this is much more floral than green.

Grapefruit is probably the most true, simple scent.  It smells like cutting open a grapefruit – zesty, tart and citrus-y.

Pink Lotus is the scent I truly expected to hate, as I am not overly fond of floral smells but it’s actually one of my favorites. It’s a rich, deep, sweet floral that makes you think of secret water gardens and secret trysts.  No grandma floral, this.

Dark Vanilla is a bit more complex than simple vanilla candles usually are.  It is a musky vanilla that smells nothing like food and a lot like sex.

Bourbon is actually my favorite.  It’s masculine, yet I love the way it smells on me.  It’s complex, rich, smokey, caramel-y and if actual bourbon tasted the way this smells I’d be in need of a 12 step program quite quickly.

Truffle and Gardenia is the most complex of all the scents.  It is far less flowery than you expect, smells nothing like cheap gardenia body washes and lotions and is almost a dirty scent. Earthy, deep, musky, like the crook of a man’s leg after a long night of sex or like finding a surprise flower under moss and leaves in a damp woods. It’s almost impossible to explain and people will either love or hate it.

Each of the scents becomes a bit more complex as the candles are burning.  You smell the different notes more clearly and they can become a bit heavy for those with sensitive noses.  In particular, of these six, the cucumber water is probably likely to be headache inducing for those who are sensitive.  You can easily scent a room by lighting just one of these 1.7 oz candles and letting it burn for awhile.  (hell, I keep the box in my closet and my whole closet smells like a slice of heaven just from storing them there)

The wax is body safe and paraben and phthalate free.  It contains jojoba, shea butter, aloe, vitamin e and soy, as well as other cosmetic grade ingredients.  It is a very soft, though solid, wax and you can actually use the candles cold as a massage or body balm just by dragging your fingers across the cold wax. I do this a lot, gathering up just enough oil upon my fingers to rub into my hands or elbows when they’re feeling dry.

Each candle burns cleanly, just like any quality soy candle, with a cotton wick and lead free wick anchor at the bottom.  The melting point is low so they tend to burn evenly but for a long time.  Each of these candles, if treated right, will burn for up to 32 hours – though, of course, you’ll get less than that if you use the oil for massage.

The wax melts into a comfortably warm pool of oil.  It is not at all like a regular wax, never hot but warm enough to almost instantly relax you once it hits your body.  You can drizzle it, once you’ve blown the candle out, directly onto your partner’s body – or your own – or you can dump a bit into your hand or a massage stone and use it that way for a less intense warmth.

The oil is heavy so a little bit goes a long way unless you want to really be slicked up.  A puddle the size of a quarter will do an entire back massage, giving just enough reduction of friction to make the hands glide across the skin but not so much that you’re greasy or slippery.  Start with a small amount, you can always add more.

I’ve yet to have a Jimmyjane candle stain my sheets but if you do spill any on the sheets, clean up as you would any other oil.  Pretreat and wash in hot water.  Same goes for the body.  This does tend to linger, especially if you’ve used a bit too much, leaving you feeling oiled up.  It will eventually soak in – I’ve gone to sleep all oiled up and woke up feeling just soft and smooth – but if you don’t like that feeling, a warm shower and soap will remove all traces of the oil.

When you go to use your Afterglow candles, definitely follow the direction and allow them to burn for long enough that the entire surface is liquefied, all the way to the corners.  Jimmyjane recommends 45 minutes but each candle burns a bit differently, some faster, some slower, so keep an eye on it.  The reason for this is because you want it to burn evenly and cleanly each time, with no wax wasted.  If you blow it out and dump oil out before it has melted all the way to the sides of the container, you will create a pool in the middle of your candle and will have a hard time, next time, getting it to burn evenly. Eventually, you will be left with wax up the sides of the candle that will not burn – wasting product and lessening your burn time drastically.

Follow the directions. They are there for a reason.  If you allow the whole top of the candle to liquefy you will find that your candle, when you’ve blown it out and are finished, hardens flat across with no well in the middle.  Do make sure you also recenter your wick before the candle hardens if you notice it moves a bit.

In my experience these really do have a fantastic burn time.  I lit three of them last weekend in the bedroom with plans to shave a hot bath, get gorgeous and seduce my guy with mutual massages.  Unfortunately, he had to go help a friend and didn’t come home for TEN hours.  The candles were left burning the entire time and, by the time we got around to using them, were about two thirds full.  After giving each other full body massages with these I am left with one candle that is about half full, one that is nearly empty, with just a thin layer of wax on the bottom and one that is about a third full.  Used only as regular candles they would definitely burn around 30 hours.  For normal massage, you’d probably get three to five full body massages out of these along with, I’d estimate, 15 hours burn time.

My guy, however, tends to have a heavy hand.  He dumped half a damned candle down my back when he first went to get busy with them.  WAY too much!

What this means to you, the consumer, is that though the $57.99 price is kind of steep you’re getting 6 candles with at least 15 hours burn time – which translates to almost 100 hours of burn time for your money, plus at least 15 massages.  Worth sixty bucks?  Fuck yes.

As a caution – use care in the genital area with these.  Though they are natural and cosmetic grade ingredients you really don’t want to use them as lube as they could disturb the vaginal flora.  They work fine for a hand job, though!

Also, do not eat them. They are not edible. They taste foul, like licking perfume.  It won’t kill you if you kiss your partner’s oiled skin but it’s not going to taste like a grapefruit or a glass of bourbon – it’s going to taste like cologne.

Overall, I LOVE this set and will likely buy another, as well as some of the scents in their full size.  Before now I’d only tried the Black Current (not included in this kit) and the Cucumber Water in the Afterglows and the Absinthe and Sugar Water and the Ginger and Date in the Ember.  I’m definitely going to get a full sized Bourbon, Dark Vanilla and am eying up the Afterglow Special Editions, too. (Afterglow jars with Ember scents)

Having the ability to mix scents makes this kit very worthwhile, as does the ability to have many scents to choose from.  I really like using the Vanilla and Bourbon together as well as the Pink Lotus and Truffle Gardenia.  It’s intoxicating.

I’ve reviewed a lot of sex toys, lotions, lubes, candles and potions in the past few years.  Jimmyjane candles have always been a treat, one of my favorite products to receive.