After reading about Frostbeard Studio candles on my Instagram feed, I checked out their website. Soy candles and fabulous names like Sherlock’s Study, Winterfell, The Shire and Cliffs of Insanity. I was hooked. I love candles SO MUCH. This was the largest chunk of money I’ve ever spent on a bunch of candles though. Sadly, with the current state of how packages are handled in India, it was not worth it.
Getting products shipped to India has always been a problem ( My Online Shopping Experience is one of the most well-read posts on this blog. ) and this shipment was no different. Indian Customs kept the package for two weeks. I was able to keep track of movements because Frostbeard Studio provides a tracking number thankfully, which is a no-brainer when shipping to a country like India. The package was finally delivered and Rs. 1,500 was paid as customs duty.
I finally got around to opening the shipment way after Christmas – I had originally planned to light these babies up at Christmas but that was clearly ambitious. The two candles in the front of the box were cool – I opened them up and sniffed them – the aromas are dreamy when you sniff them up close and if you touch the candle, it leaves a lovely fragrance on you skin too. The two candles toward the back of the box ( cardboard ) had had their glass holders shattered. I spilled glass shards all over my bed sheets in my excitement to sniff these. The candles were intact but the glass was everywhere. Not packed well enough for international shipments – especially for the brutal Indian deliveries.
I lit Sherlock’s Study first. It is a curiously sour fragrance. Strong. The hilarious bit is that the smell, to my nose, reminds me of the smell of sweat in the Indian summers. Like “Curry Sweat”. Sour. Khatta. I don’t mind the smell but I would be hard-pressed to classify it as a “fragrance”. The Shire has a similar smell. Slightly less strong than Sherlock’s Study.
Cliffs of Insanity is barely recognized by my nose when the candle’s lit. Smells nice on my skin if it comes in contact with the soy. Winterfell is the only one that holds some promise. It’s a delightful fragrance, strong, fills up the room, warm and happy. If this was available in India, I could consider getting a box of just Winterfell to light up all of them during winters at home so that the whole home smells beautiful. But it isn’t available in India and I’m not inclined to go through shattered glass and customs duties again. I posted these photos on Twitter / Instagram. The brand took 3-4 days to respond and emailed me as well. They offered to send in replacements for the two broken jars and confirmed that they usually have very few breakages on their international shipments.
I’ve declined the replacement because really, I don’t want to sit around and wait for two candles that might again be broken AND I’ll have to pay customs duty on the replacements as well! It was kind of them to offer though. I’d have loved to try the other fragrances in their portfolio but that’s not going to happen any time soon keeping the above scenario in mind. Pity.
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