Gearing up for our first Christmas

Now, when I say, “first” Christmas, I don’t mean literally, but as the weather turns cooler, we’re now preparing our new winter scents.

As the nights draw in, our thoughts turn to thick jumpers, toasty log burners, a good book and a fragrant scented candle burning in the background.

It doesn’t seem too long ago when Kate and I started this new venture, with a lot of learning and discovery ahead, it was both exciting and daunting in equal measure. Hopefully we have learned a lot through trial and error and now feel confident enough to experiment and play with different techniques.

Now here at Haddican & Sass as we prepare for our first ever Christmas, offering our candles to you, we can’t tell you how exciting we’re feeling. We actually started thinking about the Christmas/Winter range back in September, when the weather was still sunny and warm. It felt strange even considering Winter while we were still walking around in t-shirts and shorts, but that’s how it rolls, thinking one season ahead.

As we now consider pulling on the extra fleeces and lighting the log burners, our minds are turning to those cosy nights in with a hot chocolate and a good book. Of course wouldn’t be complete without the addition of a delicious scented candle too.

With that in mind we’ve trialled and tested many Winter/Christmas scents, some good, some not-so-good, but we now believe we have a Christmas-cracking selection. It’s one of my favourite parts of the job, browsing all the scents on offer, selecting which ones we’d like to trial and getting them ordered. I do have to be reigned in by Kate or I’d just buy hundreds, perhaps that’s why we make a good team.

I liken it to back in the day, when I was a young apprentice full of dreams and aspirations, getting paid on a friday (cash in a brown envelope in those days, all £16 of it). I used to wake up on the saturday morning, catch the train into Manchester (does anyone remember the old trains with the corridor and separate compartments that sat about 6 people…wonderful) then wander off to the record shops, vinyl of course. Sifting through all the albums was a very exciting experience, then choosing 1 or perhaps 2, purchasing them and then rush back home to play them on the record player.

I did purchase the oddity, but amongst them were the classics, like Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust, Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells, Fleetwood Mac – Rumours, the kind of music that stays with you for the rest of your life. I still listen to those albums, albeit through my phone and bluetooth speaker now.

So it is with the fragrances, some pleasant, some oddities, then the one’s where you just know it’s going to work…lovely.

It’s like Christmas day when the post arrives and all the fragrances are unpacked and ready for the sniff test, full of anticipation and excitement. It’s then off to make samples, leave to cure ready for the burn test, to see which one’s make the grade.

We’ve had plenty that smell really great in the pot, but don’t throw much scent when burned. It’s frustrating, but not all have a good hot throw so we have to test, test and test again.

Now, as we approach our first ever batch of Winter candles, we can’t wait to share them with you and hope that you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.

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