Winter warmer candle

When I was a kid growing up in Sydney, Christmas of course was in the middle of Summer which meant Mum would literally sweat buckets over turkey just to give us the "traditional" family roast Christmas turkey dinner. Being as hot as about 40+ degrees Celsius, you normally wouldn't decorate with candles in the middle of fire season, and every window in the house akimbo, there wasn't much need for ambient scents either. Not to mention, this was long before the candle boom of the eighties.

Here in the UK, the seasonal weather provides the perfect outside ambiance for that idealistic Christmas. So there is a natural calling to fill ones home with scents that conjure cwytchy settings and women, especially go all out for all things Christmasy to build the momentum of festivities, usually overdose their homes with sweet'n spicy sickly scents.

I have been thinking about a winter warmer candle for sometime, but the market is filled with these sweet sickly scents usually incorporating dessert style flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and the sheer thought fills my head with dread and throbbing migraines! By the time you've filled every corner of your lounge with those sweet'n spicy candles and scoffed the half dozen mince pies, you've over-indulged and overloaded your senses to last you the rest of the year. Luckily it's only once a year!

I mentioned my thoughts on blending a winter warmer candle to a good friend of mine, Cathie, who is one of my best testers, and her reaction was clearly in my favour, "oh please, not cinnamon or nutmeg!" she protested, nose firmly to the gods.

Now seeing as I always like to bring the flavours of my routes into my home, I have been wanting to include Sandalwood. Unfortunately due to cost, I had to substitute the best Australian Sandalwood for a cheaper African version and with that, I have put my snobby nose aside even though it's not entirely my first choice, particularly noticeable in the early spicy top note, but still, the lingering base notes very much musky Sandalwood. Now it's within a sensible price range of my other candles, about £14.95,

I am really into the subtle sweetness of Sicilian Bergamot right now which forms the basis of the scent blended with some patouli, lime, palmarose and finally the dulset tones of Sandalwood gives the blend that exotic velvety spice, I know it, but can't put my finger on it, whisper.

No sickly sweet dessert style aromas within cwoffing distance!

Available shortly on my website, after I take some more photos.

Going to the Polo

I love horses and I'm really getting back into them especially as my eldest child wanted a pony party for her 7th Birthday!
Ever since I moved over to the UK, some 17+ years ago, I have always wanted to see a Polo match and I thought of a great sponsorship concept of watching the polo in the marquee with a glass of champagne whilst enjoying the beautiful aromatics of my INVIGORATING aromatherapy candles.
I called the lovely chap who organises the Polo in Cardiff, Geoff Lloyd, with my sponsorship suggestion and he reminded me about a very valid point when having candles for a marquee event: Health & Safety.
Geoff initially stated that an open flame in a marquee/tent was too risky until I re-leaved his concerns after explaining the candles are presented in a glass container just for this reason. He agreed scented candles would be an interesting and memorable touch to the event so Melinda Mulcahy candles are now sponsoring the St David's Polo in Coopers field this Sunday.
I then proceeded to book some tickets for myself and my special guest/customer/friend Cathie to join me as I knew she had a new/first pair of Louboutins practically jumping out of their un-opened box at a sheer sniff of a social event. Only one problem, our heels would be ruined with the grass!! Hhmmmm. Wedges? Difficult to buy out of session in sandal form...
As always I love to share new finding with my readers and after a little bit of searching, I found this amazing heel stopper (click pic for link) which I have ordered for the day with some spares for future grass events when, no doubt, I will be making the Polo a regular highlight in my calender. Set! Brilliant! Just hoping for good weather.....
If you wish to join Cardiff's not so shiny glitterati, for Polo tickets go to St David's Polo and don't forget to mention you it from me. Kerching.... Cheers!

Photography of candles

All works shown on my website, this blog or Not On The High Street has been exclusively designed and handmade by Melinda Mulcahy and is therefore Copyright Melinda Mulcay UK. All photography is by Melinda Mulcahy and pictures are copyright Melinda Mulcahy UK

Hitting 60

Upon completing the lengthy experiment of burning my aromatherapy candles from start to finish (in order to calculate the burn times) I have now successfully completed all trials of my NEW wax recipe with staggering results and surpassing my own expectations. It's a hard life when I have to burn my candles every night, but someone has to do it!

The result: They burn for an unbelievable 60 hours!

With such pure and amazing ingredients, now they are even more cost effective than the ones before. A great deal at £13.50!

I don't do offers, because I believe you should only pay for exactly what it is. You've already got the best offer! Value for money, every time. Another great reason why my customers always return for more.

Denise Owen, Massage Therapist recently told me she had "the best night's sleep with the RELAX candle". She is now stocking the candles along with The Celtic Knot, Welsh shop in Cowbridge.

John Griffiths in Camden, London emailed to thank me for "brightening his winter blues" with an Invigorate candle.

I have now decided to add ALL mybeautiful scented candles onto my new website,
available to purchase at:

www.handmadedesignerjewellery.biz

I'd love to hear your comments, so please feel free to leave your message.

I've cracked it again!

Every day I think of new scents and improving my aromatherapy candles. In fact, it's been a scientific process that I have been working on improving for the last 2 years, believe it or not!

There are so many factors to consider when producing candles, especially essential oils candles, and not very much information can be acquired, so it's a process of research, testing and elimination. For instance, the wax burns a hole straight through the middle leaving a wall of wax that lines the glass which is wasted. The pool of molten wax is too hot hereby decreasing the burn time. Wax is too soft, wax has imperfections in the top (still working on that one), not enough scent throw (no worries here) and the list goes on and on.
In addition, I have decided to go down the healthy route (only covered by about 1-2% of the candle market), not just for my children's lungs and lounge walls but for the environment where the materials are sourced. For the ultimate scent throw (to fill a room) it's a process of finding the right blend of wax, as more often than not, cheap scented candle you get from Marks & Sparks and the like hardly fill a two man lift let alone a normal size room. The choice of wax also determines the optimal appearance of the candle (the velvet creamy organic kind) plus, to back up my healthy commitment, the materials must also meet organic requirements. For this reason I have NOT chosen palm oil based on the devastating effect logging is having to the eco-system in Indonesia. And who doesn't love Orangutans? Where most candles will advise they use "vegetable wax" almost certainly palm oil is used! My candles are made with only 2 ingredients, Soy and secret other wax that I have decided not to disclose (as it took a great deal of research to work it out) + a cotton wick.

Another factor, now that all the above has been refined and burning optimised, one must have ideas on unique scent blends and ultimately, based on the power of essential oils, have a concept for therapeutic benefits which requires knowledge of essential oils (my bedtime reading). You may not even be aware, that over 98-99% of candles on the market are made using "fragrance" and even when they boast "aromatherapy candles" they are actually only adding a tiny proportion of essential oil mixed with other oils and chemicals to produce the required scent, similar to parfume. I am curious as to how they can even advertise aromatherapy candles? Even Jo Malone uses the word "fragrance" and doesn't even advise what kind of wax used which suggests they use paraffin, i.e toxins (yuck)! Natural Magic candles use essential oils yet they advertise "vegetable" wax in their ingredients, so one must question the possibility of palm materials being used?

Now that I am confident enough to boast my pure aromatherapy candles have been perfected, along side my research and developments, I have been working on some new scents. So far I have produced:
1. RELAX with lavender, rose geranium & rosewood - cosy lounge, fire crackling and maybe the odd glass of vino.
2. INVIGORATE with ylang ylang, lemongrass & ginger - allow yourself to be swept away to exotic shores conjured in your mind!
3. REFRESH with rosemary, lavender & lime - the perfect detox without the rubber hose (you know where that goes).
4. ROMANCE with a secret blend starring Moroccan Rose - for starry eyed romcom gazing, chocolate nibbling moments.

I now have two more scent blends which I must say are gorgeous and include some other little essential oil touches I have decided to keep close to my chest:
5. PAMPER with angelica, chamomile and some other little secret wonders! The ultimate luxurious pampering experience.
6. REVITALISE predominately with eucalyptus, lime, bergamot - to catapult you back on track to being your usual amazing self!

Within 15-20 minutes the pool of wax has increased to almost full potential enabling greater scent throw to fill a room.

My candles work as powerful holistic treatments so each breath of essential oil unleashed into the air, with proven theraputic qualities, will help improve your mind, body, spirit!

Now that my beautiful candles are progressing nicely I can turn my efforts towards producing lovely handmade smellies including soap, salt rubs and bath bombs. Based on the first batch I made, friends almost snapped my hands off when they heard I was making soaps, which prompted me to develop this further. My aim is to create products predominately made with olive oil (due to a future project in Italy) beautifully scented with essential oils. So keep watch for these a little later in the year, when I'll be explaining why I am going down this route, if you haven't already guessed!

Moroccan Rose

T'is the wedding season! British Summertime in total bloom and at it's best this year....
Several brides this season have requested I conjure a new candle scent to absolutely drench their wedding celebrations and fill their memories of new beginings shared.

What better way to celebrate a magical day when 2 souls become 1 with the world's most romantic scent of a Rose. And not just any rose would do. The sublime Moroccan rose was my ultimate choice and is one of the most traditionally used scents in the "old school" perfumuries of France, when simulation "frangrance oils" were yet to be invented.

This exquisite bouquet is captured with my secret blend and is so special and expensive, I am savouring it for customers who really appreciate it's pure indulgent magic. Which is why it can only be ordered via email:
sales@melindamulcahy.com

New Candle Recipe

Those of you who have enjoyed burning my aromatherapy candles, should by now know the benefits and amazing powers of pure Essential Oils.
After only a short, but successful time on the market, I am thrilled to introduce another of my very own scent blends called REFRESH... Made with Rosemary, Lime & Lavender.
The concept behind this blend was to create the ideal dinner party accompaniment. We love to cook and entertain in our home where many friends and family have sat around our dinner table and enjoyed the scents of my candles. This led me towards developing a specific scent for such occasions and I believe this new addition blends well when serving food. The trick was not to overpower subtle food smells, rather to compliment, perfect for welcoming guests, entertaining and may even stimulate intellectual conversation. But there are other benefits to this particular blend too.....
This wonderful mix of citrus and wood offers a clean feeling, so is perfect for detoxing, for self indulgent beauty days at home, or for enjoying that "spring clean" feeling without picking up a mop or cleaning cloth. Also, this combination of Rosemary is great for concentration and clear thinking, the Lime revives whilst the Lavender works to calm the nerves and so may aid study or brainstorming in the office.
All candles come in recyclable, eco-friendly packaging. This new scent will be available online soon and at specialty stockists.

Candles NOW available online

Thanks to my brilliant web-girl, my new Aromatherapy Candles are now available to purchase on my website!

Believe me, they smell even more divine than the pictures portray.

These candles have been made with much love by myself, not to mention a great deal of time testing and researching to perfect the scents so that they fill a room.
At £13.50, you can't even say you're spoiling yourself, so try both scents and let me know which is the best!
Even more exciting, take advantage of FREE DELIVERY for purchases over £50.

My New Therapeutic Candles

They really do smell even better than they look! Enjoy them before you light them, they smell devine. But when you do finally light them, just sit back and let these beautiful scents take you away to paradise.


I hope you like them as much as I do..

My New Candles

As long as I can remember, I have always wanted to create my very own scents to remind me of tropical holidays and living in Australia. It's almost like bottling my childhood in the sun.
After years of dreaming about what makes an exotic scent and my love of candles, I decided to learn about aromatherapy and candle making, so that I could combine the two. I have extensively researched and as always I strive for the best possible quality. In doing so, I now fully understand my need to do this, so that I could not only enjoy them, but also heal.
For some it's drugs and others it's a new car, but after suffering postnatal depression, my mind, body and soul was calling out for nature to help, in the form of essential oils, and so came my need once again to create.
The power of essential oils are awesome, they can change a mood, inspire and even aid ailments.
After months of testing, these little luxuries are ready to market, and I am now just working on the packaging and such before making them available on my website.
I have decided to release the first two or three scents which are:
"Relax" featuring Rosewood, Geranium and Lavender, "Invigorate" with Lemongrass & Ylang Ylang and "Spirit" with Ginger, Lime and Lemongrass. I am holding back the frangipani for a little later.
I am so excited about these new candles, I simply can't wait to get them in the shops! And judging from the responses of those who have received samples and burnt them, it all appears very positive.
Watch this space for more news....

I've cracked it

After much tinkering and dabbling every night for months, I have finally come up with the essence of my childhood memories.
Frangipani has always been my favourite flower, probably because we had trees in our gardens when I was growing up and their fragrance was so pungent and signaled the prospect of summer. Smelling it's essence now fills me with warmth, the sweet feeling of the sun upon my skin, simply because I had a joyful childhood by a beautiful beach.
Our garden in sunny Cronulla, Southern Beaches of Sydney, had a fab pool, tropical garden and huge pergola with built-in BBQ and Mum and Dad always put on the best parties for family and friends to enjoy. From Hawaiian nights to Toga parties, we did it. Usually the police would call to request we turn the music down (those of you who know me, this should sound familiar).


Scents of Paradise - The Frangipani!

So several months ago, I embarked on the challenge of making aromatherapy candles with the prospect of capturing this idealistic childhood memory in candle form.
Aromas have always played an important part of my life as they take me away to tropical fantacies of white sandy beaches and never-ending sunny days.
Wonderful aromas always fill our house (not just curries) and visitors always ask what essential oil candles I am burning.
Now that I have finally captured my own essence, soon they will be available to share through my website and hopefully the Welsh Hamper Company who are excited to feature them in their hampers.
Watch this space....