Lavender is one of my favourite home fragrances, so I am always excited to try a candle in this fragrance. The Olivina range hails from Nappa Valley and I love their strap line.
No nasties, no rubbish, no funny business.
Brilliant. I also love their logo gold lettering and a gold olive tree that on the box is three-dimensional as the gold is in different depths across the logo. The logo is also replicated onto the glass holder, and as the candle burns down the flame behind the gold is quite beautiful. The glass holder is very pretty with the gold leaf olive tree logo repeated, and as the candle burns down the gold leaf effect is illuminated. Very pretty.
On the box the cornflower blue of the sides indicates the lavender fragrance, but a nose to the box provides a fragrance that is not a true lavender, like the plant that grows in my mum’s garden, it is a much softer less camphorous fragrance. Then when I burnt it again I found the fragrance to be subtle and not a true lavender. I was a bit flummoxed as I know what Lavender smells like… so after a bit of investigation and I found from the website that Olivina’s lavender is actually a blend of lavender and bitter orange.
Although the lavender is smoothed out by the bitter orange, by which I mean that the camphorous smell is softened, my nose is not able to identify citrus fruit or flower as the other element. I like the fragrance, but to my nose the resultant blend is not a good as a pure lavender and does not have the zing of a citrus blend. Olivina do this fragrance in a hand/body wash and body lotion – maybe it translate better in those forms.