Early Halloween Decor Shopping

Each year around June, seasonal depression kicks in for me. I know that for most people, seasonal depression occurs during winter. For me, it's summer. Knowing I have to get through several months of extreme temperatures makes me absolutely miserable. I think my brain's way of coping is to go into complete denial and start planning for Halloween by searching online for decorations. It's still early and most stores aren't putting their Halloween items out just yet, but I did want to post about a couple things I purchased recently. Have to kick off the Halloween festivities at some point, right?

As I said, I've only bought a couple things so far. The first is this adorable Halloween-themed Ouija board from MeantToBeeCreative on Etsy.

I debated bringing this thing into my home, even though there's no planchette, I never plan on using it and I don't exactly believe in ghosts. (I could be wrong.) I have nightmares about my bedroom on a regular basis, about the room itself being possessed and evil. I almost felt like bringing a Ouija board in here was asking for trouble. Yet, here we are. And I love it. (The pumpkin in the picture is from CVS last year.)

I also bought a light up skull wax warmer. Normally, I prefer candles, but I'm really terrible about trimming the wicks and it results in a lot of black smoke, so I thought, maybe, I should go with wax melts for a while. Which brings me to the last part of this post...

I ordered wax melts in some of my favorite fall scents (excluding Magical Mermaid, that's a summer scent) from my favorite candle company, Candles by Victoria. Victoria used to offer these melts in mason jars, but she recently switched over to packaging them in bags, so I bought and labeled my own jars. I wanted to put them on display. She has a ton of different shapes available, but my favorites are Fall and Halloween. I'm bad at describing scents, but these are all incredible and I've ordered them multiple times. I like to mix Granny's Pie Crust and Caramel Apple together, it's the nicest bakery scent.

Hopefully within the next couple months, more Halloween decorations will be available and I can make another post with some fun decor.

Fall Candles From Candles by Victoria

I know candles aren't technically horror related, but for me, they're part of the Fall experience, which is the best time for horror. Reading a scary book? Watching a scary movie? Playing a scary game? A good way to enhance your experience is to dim the lights and burn some candles.

I started ordering from Candles by Victoria six years ago and since then, I've been buying candles exclusively from them. Victoria's candles are just better than brands like Yankee or BBW. The scent throw is always strong, the candles never lose their scent, no matter how long you burn them. Victoria's decorative candles are to die for. And I love that she genuinely enjoys what she does, you can see how passionate she is about her business by watching her vlogs on Youtube. And she's constantly creating new candles and scents, so there's definitely something for everyone. Each candles is made when you place your order, they're not sitting around on a shelf forever, waiting to be purchased. This can sometimes mean longer processing times during sales or holidays, but trust me, it's worth it. Victoria is amazing at what she does.

As far as scents go, for me, personally, I prefer bakery and Fall scents. All year. Those are my favorites, they put me in a good mood. I love to open my windows in October and let the crisp, Fall air inside while burning a candle and reading a book. That is my happy place, there's nothing better. And since it's almost that time of year again, I recently placed an order for more of Victoria's Fall scented candles. (I also received one from my mom as a gift.) I've actually already ordered several of these in the past and I loved them so much, I had to have them again.

Since I'm bad at describing scents, I won't even attempt to. All the scent descriptions are coming straight from the website.

Sweet Treat - Pumpkin Cheesecake - $15.50, 15 oz.

This candle has two scents to it, beginning with Spiced Pumpkin Chutney on the bottom and a layer of cream cheese on top. I love this candle. Pumpkin scents are some of my favorites (I also love apple and cinnamon and Victoria has a scent called Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Bread that is incredible), but the main reason I bought this is because of how it's decorated. It's topped with a really cute pumpkin and wax crumbles and it's sprinkled with cinnamon. I know it's a candle and it's meant to be burned, but I think this is really nice as a fall decoration, too. I stopped buying decorative candles for a while because I never wanted to burn them, but all the candles I'll be talking about have such a strong cold throw, you don't even really have to light them if you don't want to.

Maple Butter Pumpkin Frap - $25, 24 oz.

This is one of the candles I've purchased in the past. It's a mix of maple butter and pumpkin frappuccino and it has pumpkin embeds sprinkled with cinnamon. This is a great coffee scent, especially if you don't enjoy straight coffee, the pumpkin helps dilute it.

Pumpkin Patch Coffee Cup Cutie - $22.50, 18 oz.

Victoria's Coffee Cup Cutie line is made up of candles housed in, you guessed it, coffee mugs. The Pumpkin Patch scent consists of pumpkins, apple cider and leaves. I've already said, apple and pumpkin are two of my favorite scents. When they're mixed together, it's magic. This candle is topped with pine cone, acorn, pumpkin and leaf embeds and the rim of the cup is lined with glitter. Of all the candles I just ordered, as far as scent goes, this is probably my favorite.

Dutch Apple Pie Coffee Cup Cutie - $22.50, 18 oz.

This candle is in the scent Dutch Apple Crunch, a blend of vanilla and apple pie. It is the perfect apple scent. It's decorated with wax crumbles, apple embeds, a scoop of ice cream and "caramel" drizzle (I'm pretty sure it just looks like caramel drizzle and isn't meant to smell like caramel, all the wax is in the Dutch Apple Crunch scent). And this one also has glitter around the cup.

Comfort Pumpkin Gingerbread Splash - $18.50, 16 oz.

The Comfort candles come in bowls (a lid is included) and they're adorable. Especially this little guy. This is another repeat candle for me, I just can't get enough of that gingerbread man. This candle comes in two layers, the first is Buttery Gingerbread, followed by Spiced Pumpkin Chutney (there it is again!). There are some maple crumbles, pumpkin embeds and, of course, a cute gingerbread man bathing in all of it.

Comfort Caramel Gingered Apple Crisp - $18.50, 16 oz.

Another repeat purchase. This candle's scent is made up of maple, caramel, ginger and apple cinnamon. It's topped with apple embeds, gold sprinkles and glitter. Again, I love apple scents and this one has cinnamon as well, so you know I had to order it again.

Design a Candle - $30, 32 oz.

This is the candle my mom gave me and I was really excited because I've purchased several of these candles before, but I never realized they have a Halloween design style (I always chose Fall). She ordered it in the scents Bonfire Bliss and Country Bumpkin, which shows how well she knows me because I've ordered create-a-scent candles in those two scents at least five times, they're my absolute favorites to mix. (Bonfire Bliss is the best Fall scent ever, trust me.) These candles come in a large bowl and they're customizable. You can choose two scents to mix (or you can just choose one scent that you really like). Then you choose the design style (ranging from seasons to holidays, etc.), color, whether or not you want glitter on it and you can create a name for it. My mom obviously chose the Halloween style for my candle and I love it because it has little skulls and Jack-O'-Lantern embeds. Victoria sells wax melts in addition to candles, in all kinds of shapes, but not those two. I really hope she'll add them to her line at some point because she obviously has the molds for them and I would buy them. Over and over.

That's it for this order! I can't wait for the colder weather to get here so I can start burning these candles. Until then, they're a nice headstart on my Fall decorating.

Favorite Fall Candles to Light on a Crisp, Dark Fall Night

I know this is a horror blog, but there are certain things that I associate with horror. If I'm sitting home reading a scary story, my ideal atmosphere for it would be a dark, rainy night, with just the fairy lights on to read by, and a fall scented candle burning.

I've been a loyal customer of Candles By Victoria for years now. I won't buy candles anywhere else. Their candles are really good quality with a strong scent throw and you can see how much loves goes into them. They have all different jars to house the candles in, you can choose whichever you'd like in any of their available scents, and on top of that, they also make decorative candles in specific scents and they are beautiful. (I actually had to stop buying the decorative candles because I felt so bad burning them.) In addition to candles, they also offer room sprays, as well as scent shots if you prefer using a tart warmer rather than burning candles.

I'm terrible at describing scents myself, so below I'll list my favorites with the descriptions from the CBV website, as well as link to some of their decorative fall candles.

These first three are combos that I get in Victoria's Create a Scent candles. You get to choose two scents you think might work well together and she'll mix them for you. You also get to name the candle. And if you choose one of the glitter tureen CAS candles (my personal favorite), you can choose which color glitter you'd like.

Granny's Pie Crust + Caramel Apple - I don't really need to add the descriptions for each scent here, they're exactly what they sound like. I love both of these scents on their own, but they're even better together and this is a CAS that I'll continue to order in the future.

Apple Cider + Cinnamon Donuts - Again, no description necessary. I ordered this CAS because I was thinking about things that remind me of Halloween, and the first thing I thought of was the haunted hayride I used to go to with my cousins when I was younger. At the end of the hayride, they would always hand out apple cider and cinnamon donuts, so those are the two scents I chose and of course, I named this candle Haunted Hayride.

Bonfire Bliss + Country Bumpkin - "Gentle, dusky breezes and bonfires, with notes of dried wind-blown leaves, heliotrope, charred woods of pine and cedar, amber, smoky sandalwood, on a musky background containing hints of roasted marshmallows, brown sugar, coconut and soft vanillas" mixed with "Apples, candied yams, marshmallows, sweet cream butter, brown sugar, nutmeg, crushed cinnamon, bark and fresh cloves." This is an extremely strong scent, and I've ordered this CAS at least three times now, possibly four. It's my favorite scent, you can smell the fire and spices, perfect to burn on a cold, rainy fall night.

The next three scents can be bought in candles or scent shots, in many different designs.

Apples & Oaks - "It's fall all year round as you sit on the porch with a barrel of granny smith apples. You catch the breeze as it picks up not only the smell of the apples, but of the aged oak barrel housing them." This smells exactly like what you would expect.

Autumn Leaves - "Green and musky with heavy notes of bergamot." Literally smells like wet leaves.

Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Bread - "Sweet creamy pumpkin, rich cinnamon apple with a crunchy strudel base note." This one has all three of the main fall scents and it's amazing.

The rest of these candles are some of Victoria's decorative candles. I have owned all o them in the past and I highly recommend them, if you won't feel guilty burning them like I did. I'll include links and pictures from the CBV website below.

Bake Shoppe Donut Shop Candle - This candle comes in Victoria's Cinnamon Donuts scent. The design isn't reminiscent of fall (it's still adorable though), but the scent definitely is.

Coffee Cup Cutie Leaves Type Candle - This candle is housed in a coffee cup, topped with glitter and tiny wax leaves. It's in the scent Leaves Type, which is described as "Rich Autumn notes of fresh ground cinnamon generously sprinkled over tasty dried apple peel. Allspice, fresh clove bud, and drips of Vermont maple complete this festive aroma." This one almost reminds me of the way a craft store smells if you walk in during the fall season, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Comfort Caramel Gingered Apple Crisp - The description for this candle states that it includes maple, caramel, ginger and apple cinnamon. Wax apple slices are embedded into the top of the candle.

Comfort Pumpkin Gingerbread Splash - A mix of maple, gingerbread and spiced pumpkin chutney, this candle features a gingerbread man who looks like he's bathing in the wax.

Maple Butter Pumpkin Frap - If you're one of those people who runs to Starbucks as soon as they start selling their pumpkin spice latte, this is the candle for you. It's a huge candle, 24 ounces, and features maple crumbs, wax pumpkins and real cinnamon sprinkled on top.

If you enjoy candles as much as I do, I definitely recommend checking out Candles By Victoria. I've purchased more candles and scent shots from them than I want to admit and I have been happy with every order. They're a great company and you'll be glad you ordered from them.