Do you love chocolate? I know I do. I love to eat it, and I also like the scent of it. When I was offered a chance to check out Godiva’s new Chocolate Strawberry Rose candle, I knew I had to give it a whiff.

The scent is inspired by Godiva’s freshly dipped chocolate strawberries. The scent of strawberries is wrapped in rich milk chocolate and accented with delicate rose petals. It’s a great combination, and smells very true – no off notes or overly artificial scents. The candle has really good throw – it definitely scented my whole kitchen where I had it burning.

The candle comes in a heavy glass jar, tinted red. Each candle is 7 oz. and has a 50-60 hour burn time. This would be a lovely Valentine’s Day gift for someone special. You can find Godiva candles at CandleLuxury.com, and they are offering a free shipping special right now too.

My favorite companies are bringing out their fall home fragrance products, and I’m in heaven! There’s lots of great stuff to choose from, from diffusers to candles to oils.

L’Occitane has introduced two new home fragrances, Provencal Landscape and Fig Tree leaf, in candle form and in a reed diffuser. Both are really nice scents, and I especially like the Fig. Might have to get the candle…

The Body Shop has four new oils for fall, in Mexican Cocoa, American Pumpkin, Indian Fig, and African Red Tea. The Mexican Cocoa is DELISH, with coffee notes and vanilla mixing with dark chocolate. Indian Fig is my other favorite, since it’s all green and woody and figgy. I love fig, can you tell?

Yankee Candles has added new reed difusers to their lineup as well.

I have been very remiss in not mentioning these sooner. My bad! It’s not too early to think of Mother’s Day and if your mom is hard to shop for, a luxe candle could be a nice gift!

The Delirium & Co. Candles are large container candles, that come in GORGEOUS reflective glass jars. The scents are very sophisticated and the throw is excellent – light one, and it will definitely scent a room. So far I’ve burned Scarlet Grapefruit, and it’s lovely. The candles have about a 55 hour burn time. The trick for getting the most out of any container candle is to let it burn each time you light it until it’s evenly melted across the top of the jar before you blow it out.

The Silver line is more feminine, and the Blue line is more masculine, in my opinion.

These candles are the whole package – beautiful scent, beautiful jar, long burn time. They’re a little pricey, but totally worth it if you need a little splurge. Two thumbs up!

Valentine’s Day is coming, and one of my favorite gift ideas is a lovely candle or candle set. A great way to set the mood is to present your gift, then turn down the lights and enjoy the romantic flicker of candlelight. For gifts, I’d pick jar or container candles with beautiful packaging and quality fragrance. Here are a few I recommend.

Diptyque candles are known for being super-luxe, and the limited edition Pink Roses candle is no exception. The scent is a mixture of antique rose petals, and aromatic geranium leaves, and the candle and its jar are tinted a delicate pink. Even the box is pretty! You can find Diptyque candles at Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as online at Smallflower.com.

Chesapeake Bay Candles is a company that is new to me, but I’m just knocked out at how beautiful the scents are and how elegant the packaging is. The candles are made with soy wax and 100% cotton wicks for a cleaner burn (and soy wax is more sustainable than petroleum-based waxes) and did I mention the scents are amazing? I think the small filled votive sets would make great gifts, and the filled candle sets are even more luxurious. You could also pick one or two of the large filled candles, which feature a silhouette of a tree on the glass jars. All the scents are stunning, but my favorites are Honey Lemon Creme and Nutmeg Cardamom.

Pacifica is based in my hometown of Portland OR, and their combination of lovely scents and decorative packaging make their candles great gifts too. The soy candle gift box comes in two varieties, Fruits and Flowers Of Paradise or Beloved Woods and Coveted Spices. If you are looking for individual scents, I think Vanilla Vera Cruz, Sandalwood, and Tunisian Jasmine are particularly romantic. For extra fun, you can also purchase coordinating body care products and perfumes.

Earlier this summer I bought a lot of Henri Bendel candles when Bath & Body Works had them on sale. I thought perhaps they were being discontinued because they were all 50% off – I was prepared to be crushed! However, it would seem that they were doing a packaging change instead. Bath & Body Works doesn’t offer all the ones listed on the Bendel website (I’d love a Lily of the Valley), but they do have what I think are the best ones.

What they have now are new reed diffusers and a new scent – see here. Those diffusers look awesome, and the new scent is Vanilla Woods. I ended up doing a splurge and getting the Quince candle instead, because I’ve been waiting for it forever, but the Vanilla Woods is next on my list. It’s very smoky and sweet. Nice for winter. I want Apricot and Black Fig too.

I love these candles because they burn very clean, and they are quite strongly scented. If I light one in the kitchen, which is the central room in our house, the scent does spread throughout the house. They are also quite large and burn for a LONG time, so I do think they are worth the $26 price tag. It just means I can’t get all the scents I want at once, or I’d be dropping $100 on candles and even I’m not that extravagant…

Bath and Body Works is having their Big Sale and the candles reeled me in this time. I now have way too many Slatkin & Co. 6 oz. candles. They are container candles, in heavy glass, so so elegant. Bath & Body Works’ site is hideous for linking to, but here’s a link to one: the White Flowers candle. I bought this one, and several other scents, including Bamboo Jasmine, Espresso, and Herbs Vinaigrette. The linked candle is full price – I got mine 75% off.

The Henri Bendel candles are also fabulous and I’ve been a fan for a long time. Limited Brands, the parent company of B&BW also owns Henri Bendel (the department store I fell in love with in New York), so the HB candles are carried at Bath & Body Works stores. The Henri Bendel candles were 50% off, so I snagged a Grapefruit, Citrus Blossom, and Fig. If I could afford it, I’d be tempted to get one of each of the ones on the Henri Bendel website. They are that good.

The Body Shop is also having a sale, but I wasn’t quite as taken with their selection as I was with the candles (I did some serious damage with multiple trips for candles, lol). But I did pick up a Blushing Daisies blush and one of the eyeshadow buds. I blogged about these back in March and was happy to get them on sale now.

Let’s not forget that Yankee Candle is ALSO having a sale (they do this on purpose, I swear!!) and I stocked up there too. I went to town on the $1 votives (Greenhouse! Fudge Ripple!) and was seriously tempted by some of the jar candle specials. But given the candle haul from Bath & Body, I withstood temptation. I already know I’m going to have to get some of the new scents next month (when I don’t feel so guilty about buying so many damned candles) because Chocolate Cupcake and Cafe au Lait and Cinnamon & Sugar are just too good to miss.

Sales kill me. I always end up with a haul.

I’ve discovered a few new (or at least new to me?) scents at Yankee Candle that I’m really enjoying. I’ve definitely been on a spring kick lately, favoring “green” scents and more floral scents over the spices and woods of winter.

Greenhouse isn’t new, but it is great. It has notes of roses and herbs, and does really remind one of a greenhouse. It’s such a plant-y scent, it reminds me so strongly of fresh gardens. I’ve burned a tart in this scent, and now feel like I must stock up. It’s that good.

The new scent is Fresh Cut Herbs. The notes are basil and spearmint with apple and patchouli. I love how fresh and green it is. It has a savory-ness (or maybe it’s just a lack of sweetness?) that I really like for springtime. I have a tart in this scent too, and I think I’ll get a few more.

The Body Shop has a new scent, Cherry Pie, that is also delectable. While it is neither fresh or floral, it is super yummy. I kept walking by store thinking some new bakery place must have opened in the food court before I realized it was their store. It’s quite good!

Ooh, all my favorite companies are rolling out their holiday special editions. I’m so excited!

Bath and Body Works leads off with Tree, a new scent I’m loving. It’s Douglas fir, sweet musk, and vanilla, and it makes the whole kitchen smell so nice when I burn it. Yankee Candle has gotten into the home fragrance oil business, and their Autumn Leaves makes my toes curl. Unfortunately, the Yankee store in the mall where I work has started playing holiday music, and thus must be avoided at all costs. While I am not enamored of any of The Body Shop’s seasonal offerings, they do have the prettiest burners. I think I need a new one, like this one.

L’Occitane pleases with their Fir Honey candle, which adds a nice sweetness to the otherwise crisp fir scent.

Last, but definitely not least, Method has rolled out the holiday goodies. Hooray!  The hand soap scents are Hollyberry, Cinnamon Bark, and Peppermint Vanilla. I bought Peppermint Vanilla last year, and loved it. They also have candles in those scents, and these new aroma bead burners that look very cool. They also added Gingerbread and Fig to their home fragrance lineup, and I can say these are two amazing scents – I have the room sprays.

I love this time of the year!