voluspa

i've recently fallen in love with candles. or, at least, placing nice candles all over my apartment. although it may seem like a frivolous obsession to some, i strongly feel otherwise. a well-placed candle is like a little perk to having a well-kept apartment. it's a little treat that you don't need that will, in fact, add that certain je ne sais quoi to your home.

this small obsession began when i discovered voluspa candles. i am in love with this company. have you heard of them? first of all, what distinguishes these candles is their wax, which is formulated through a combination of several different waxes and comes out soft and moist, as opposed to most hard wax candles. seriously, if you graze your finger atop a volupsa candle, it feels almost like hand moisturizer. this wax is also extremely long lasting, in some candles yielding as much as an 85 hour burn.

the second reason i fell in love with voluspa (and candle culture) is their price! these candles are actually affordable. unlike other luxury candle brands like votivo candles or diptyque, which run from $27 to $57, the average volupsa candle ranges from $8 to $20. and the cheaper ones are in beautifully decorated tins and burn for 45 hours, so they're not some cheapo, flimsy candles either. the $20 ones are larger, glass candlepots that are classy looking and burn for 85 hours.

looking around my room, i have 7 different voluspas: sake lemon flower, vintage tobacco vanille, yashioka gardenia, santiago huckleberry, baltic amber, french cade & lavender, yuzu rose bubble bath. although i haven't opened all of them, so far my favorite is the yashioka gardenia, which is very soft scent, but nicely takes the place of the fresh bouquet of flowers i only wish i could maintain in my bedroom. plus, i'm a sucker for gardenias. that's why i've worn this scent since it first came out.

so, where can you get your own luxurious collection of voluspas? well, at first i could only find them in a few stores around l.a. and was completely unsuccessful in stumbling upon them in new york. however, it only took me a few minutes on the company's website to brand myself an idiot when i saw, thanks to the store locater, that a gift shop called exit9 on avenue a and 4th (literally TWO AND A HALF BLOCKS AWAY FROM ME), sells them. hmph. well, at least you all don't have to make a mass candle exodus out to l.a.