I obtained these candles in two of the three available scents: "Don't Worry, Be Apple" (Apple Cinnamon) and "Choc Your Socks Off" (Chocolate Chili). The third, "Livin La Vida Coco," is a Coconut Vanilla aroma. These were a gift from a fantastic friend of mine who knows that I love massage, and arrived just in time for me to try them out with my partner before I had to move. These are best suited to an evening where you have knowledge of your intent at least half an hour before you are planning on using them, as it will take quite some time for the candle to melt enough to be useable. They're intended to add a sensual air to an otherwise regular evening or to spice up a romantic night, and are definitely far too pricey and inefficient to be used on a regular basis.





These candles arrive in a small, circular, metal container with a diameter of 1.75", which makes them slightly shallower and wider than a standard tealight. They also have a small lip, where the plastic covering is thoroughly stuck, and this actually makes it more difficult to wipe excess wax off of your fingers than a straight-edged tealight would, because of the curve. There is 15mL (0.5 fl oz) of product included, which is about the same amount of wax in an average tealight. The difference here is that the product page lists the burn time as one hour (I blew the candle out to use it, so I cannot confirm this first hand) and tealights generally burn for 3.5 hours. Because of this, if you're getting it simply for the scent, there are much cheaper, longer-lived alternatives out there.



The ingredients of these candles differ only in which fragrances are used, and are as follows:





The Coconut/Vanilla scent contains aldehydac-18, milk lactone, ethyl vanilla and decalacetone for fragrance. If you are frequently sensitive to scented products, you may wish to avoid these based on that.

This section is where the candle really fails to shine. After just over half an hour of burn time, I found that the candle had burned almost all the way through, right out to the edges of the container. I was honestly not expecting this based on reviews that I had read of this product, so it was a pleasant surprise. I am unsure as to whether this is because I trimmed the wick to a half a centimetre, as instructed inside the packaging, or if I just lucked out. The interior of the packaging contained a warning that the entire candle should not be allowed to burn - it was ambiguous as to whether this meant that the whole candle shouldn't be melted or that the candle shouldn't be left to burn away all of the oil.



Once the flame was extinguished, I then checked the temperature with a finger to make sure that it wasn't too hot. When the wax first went on my skin, I was quite excited because it seemed to run just enough to make for a good massage. It didn't feel overly greasy or waxy at first, and I was happy that that was going to be the case. Within moments of it touching my skin, however, it all but solidified.



At this point, trying to actually use it for massage was almost impossible. It would have been slightly more doable than using a regular candle, but not enough to make a difference. The melted wax that remained inside the candle remained liquified for quite some time, however as soon as I tried to remove it, it became unusable. I was actually able to scrape the wax off, which was kind of disgusting. I apologize for the blurry picture - this was difficult to photograph.

The Apple Cinnamon candle did smell like your standard apple cinnamon product, however the Chocolate Chili smelled nothing like either chocolate or chili. It smelled like chemicals and vanilla, but not quite enough for me to think that it had simply been packaged improperly. It occurred to me that that perhaps they had used too much vanillin in this batch, and though I am not sure of the reason, it was rather disappointing. I really like the light, fragrant aroma of vanilla, as well as the deep, heavy scent of chocolate, however neither of these were the case with this candle.

The smell itself did not travel very much at all - even a small room could not be filled with the fragrance. The scent was noticeable a couple of feet away, but any more than that and you wouldn't know that there was a candle lit unless you were staring straight at it.

As for the taste, the packaging specifically warns against eating it (or allowing it to come into contact with your eyes). I imagine that it tastes like wax, but I do not suggest that you find out.

Trying to give someone a massage with this waxy mess was almost inconceivable to me, but I did my due diligence and massaged it in as well as I could. After attempting unsuccessfully to massage it in and succeeding only in dragging it about, I scraped it off with a fingernail and wiped the wax off my nail into a Kleenex. The one noticeable plus was that my skin felt quite soft afterwards - I definitely think that the shea butter played a part in this - if a bit waxy. To get the waxy feel off of my skin, I washed with grease-fighting dish soap and hot water, which luckily made short work of the film that I felt on my skin. Normally, I do not wash off massage products after use, simply let them absorb into my skin, but since the product did not retain the scent very well after it had hardened again, I didn't see much of a point of leaving it there.



I had the displeasure of spilling a small amount onto a cotton bedsheet, which means that I can luckily report on the fact that it doesn't stain. I simply ran the sheet under hot water for five minutes and wrung it out. I let it dry to see if all the wax had been removed, and luckily it had.

If you find that you have trouble getting the wax to melt easily, you could melt the candle a bit in a bowl of hot water, pull it out, remove the wick and place it in a fondue pot or in the microwave. If you do this, however, make sure that you're very careful with the temperature of the candle, because you could easily heat it too much with this method.

The packaging was one thing that I think that they did a fairly decent job on. The candle came with a sort of "lid" in the form of a sticky piece of plastic attached to the lip. There is a small, curved protrusion that acts like a handle - this also made it easier to peel the lid off of the top.



The candle was slotted inside a piece of folded cardboard, which was essentially an economical sort of box - warnings were included in English, French, Spanish and German, and printed directly on the cardboard. The warnings are essentially the same as you would find with any candle - not to leave it burning near flammable materials or when children or pets could knock it nor to leave it unattended. It also recommends that you discontinue use if you experience any irritation, not to swallow it or allow it to come in contact with your eyes.

I've been thinking about a way that this candle could actually be useful, and after recently reading about Hot Yoga, one occurred to me. If you were in a very warm climate - too warm for the wax to harden - this might actually be great, because it's thicker, so it wouldn't run the same way as a liquid oil would, nor would it heat up the same way and cause a burn. If you're taking a vacation to a hot locale (or happen to live in one), these could potentially be great for massages there, however I suggest that you avoid application in the sun unless your skin is accustomed to tanning. They travel well, and are small enough that they're disposable, so you wouldn't have to worry about saving whatever was left over after the massage. As far as any other uses, however, I can't say that I would ever want to use this for massage outside of this situation.

This was altogether unpleasant, and we didn't actually get to use it for a massage. I was disappointed that the scent failed to travel and the wax hardened too much to be of actual use. I would not use something that required me to wash thoroughly after every use, and as my first experience with Lelo, I must say that I'm incredibly disappointed that their quality doesn't stand up across the board, despite the fact that their price does.