Book Lovers’ Soy Candles sample packs from Frostbeard Studio on Etsy ©Literati Girl

You know that Old Book smell you wish you could bottle? Well, it hasn’t been bottled, per se, but you CAN get candles with that particular scent!

Frostbeard Studio in Minneapolis, USA, specialises in Book Lovers’ candles made out of soy wax, which are infused with bookish scents.

Most of their candles come in 8oz jars and 3oz packs of wax tarts/melts, but they also offer themed tealight sample packs. How do you choose between such scents as Hatter’s Tea Party, Oxford Library, and Reading at the Café? I couldn’t is the easy answer, so I ordered the sample packs that intrigued me most, as well as one 8oz candle scented Don’t Panic (Fresh Towel).

So what did I get?

The Don’t Panic (Fresh Towel) candle smells just like fresh laundry. The scent is a blend of fresh laundry detergent and green tea. And even unlit, it fills the room with that fresh, clean scent!

The Bibliophile Sample Pack includes:

Old Books – which smells mildly of paper, dust, vanilla and fresh grass. It’s a lovely smell, even though I am not a fan of vanilla.
Oxford Library – which combines oakmoss, sandalwood, amber and leather for a pretty masculine but pleasing smell. Apparently, one customer called it “Freshly showered Sherlock.” Let’s go with that.
Book Cellar – which smells mildly of a combination of basements, dirt and vanilla bean. Again, quite a pleasing smell that captures that book cellar atmosphere, but once again, it contains vanilla.
Bookstore – which has a divine smell of driftwood, mahogany, coffee and a hint of leather. It smells like standing in line at the local bookstore’s coffee counter, at the end of a Saturday afternoon, behind an outdoorsy guy dressed in a leather jacket. Yes, it’s that specific. At least for me.

The British Sample Pack includes:

Sherlock’s Study – which has a smokey, masculine scent of pipe tobacco, cherrywood and fresh rain, and does kind of smell the way I’d really imagine Sherlock Holmes’ study to smell like  – you know, minus the mold cultures and rotting body parts.
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey – admittedly, I didn’t really picture the TARDIS to smell like driftwood, blackcurrant tea and juniper, but it is a lovely, mild, timeless scent that fits a madman in a box.
Through the Wardrobe – which smells of Aspen winter, apple wood and spruce tree, and reminds me of winter and white Christmas spent wrapped in a blanket.
Hatter’s Tea Party – which is so simple it’s brilliant, and combines the scents of Earl Grey tea and sugar cookie. Very British indeed.

The Fantasy Sample Pack includes:

The Shire – which smells of oakmoss, clover, aloe, and pipe tobacco and the combination makes for a down-to-earth scent I can imagine in Bag End. Anyone for a pint of South Farthing at the Green Dragon?
Wizardy Buttery Drink – a heavenly mixture of butterscotch, crème brûlée and buttered rum which is perfect for afternoons spent reading and apparating in and out of the Three Broomsticks .
Headmaster’s Office – which smells of cedarwood, vanilla, fireplace, and lemon drop. Again a fairly masculine, slightly smokey smell but not unpleasant, even though I don’t think this should have vanilla in it.
Winterfell – the North, wherever you go, seems to be defined by the smells of scotch pine and firewood. While this reminds me more of Scotland and highland men, I’m sure the men of the North of Westeros are surrounded by similar scents.

The Book Nerd Sample Pack includes:

Gatsby’s Mansion – which smells of champagne fizz, daisies and sea mist. I’m not particularly fond of this scent, but if I ever imagined what the Golden Twenties smelled like, this would be a pretty close approximation.
Cliffs of Insanity – which smells of sea mist and Caribbean teakwood and reminds me of white beaches and clear seas.
Reading at the Café – a scent for rainy afternoons or warm summer evenings, bringing the café to your favourite reading nook. It smells like roasted coffee and chocolate pastries and makes me crave a large cuppa and a pastry from my favourite café.
Bookworm – a fairly fruity scent of apple, newsprint and crayons. This scent reminds me of study sessions and all-nighters spent highlighting pages, copying books, colouring in graphics and doing homework.

All in all, these packs give a brilliant combination of scents. Frostbeard Studio does even more, including Pemberley Gardens, Hero’s Nectar, Sassenach, Lallybroch, Sexy Librarian and Trashy Romance Novel, but to be honest, they sounded too flowery and sweet for my liking as I could never stand the scents of rose and potpourri.

I think the idea of book-themed candle scents is a brilliant one, especially for people who’d rather have something more down to earth than the traditional fruity and flowery scents. But they do come at a price. An 8oz jar will set you back $18, while the sample packs are $12 each. Plus international shipping and customs, this is a once-in-a-blue-moon indulgence. The 8oz jars are a decent size, but I was disappointed that the sample packs are mere tealights – as a German I don’t use oz as measurements, so I was unsure of the size but expected slightly more.

The sample packs are still good value if you can’t decide which scent you’d like, but you can’t mix and match. They come themed, so you’d have to find one pack you like the sound of. Single candles only come in the large size, which is a bit of a shame, as you are forced to buy the whole thing even if you’d just like to sample it.

There are some really nice scents in these bookish packs, though.