Bridgewater Candle Company's Light A Candle, Feed a Child: Christmas With a Conscience (Review & Giveaway)

Recently, I had the opportunity to review a variety of products from Bridgewater Candle Company, Greenleaf Gifts and Votivo.  I'm going to highlight a few of my favorite items from the wonderful (and generous!) selection that was sent to me for review.  One item, in particular, tugged at my heart strings and I am going to share it with you, dear readers, via a giveaway!

My favorite item is a candle made by Bridgewater Candle Company.  Their new, Special Edition candle and Every Day candles are made with charity in mind.  Bridgewater is partnering with Rice Bowls to help feed children by earmarking a specific amount from each jar and special edition candle that is sold to go to that charity to help feed hungry children.  Supporting this worthy cause by buying candles as gifts for Christmas is gift giving with a conscience. The candle you buy will not only please the gift recipient, but also will help feed children.  So if you have a candle lover on your Christmas list, consider ordering from Bridgewater and buy them a gift that gives back to needy children

About Bridgewater's Partnership with Rice Bowls and their 'Light a Candle' Campaign... 

Bridgewater has two programs that are part of their Light a Candle campaign.  The first is the Everyday Program where the purchase of a jar candle means that Bridgewater will donate 75 cents to Rice Bowls.  75 cents feeds a child for one day. 

The second program of their Light a Candle campaign is their Special Edition program where the purchase of the special edition candle results in Bridgewater donating $5.25 to Rice Bowls for each purchase.  That translates into feeding one child for an entire week! These lovely candles feature the small hand print of a child on the side, a reminder each time you light your candle of the worthy cause you supported by buying the special edition candle.

My experience with Bridgewater:  I received several candles from them that came well packaged.  The larger candles came in a thick and form fitting styrofoam.  Their scents were simply amazing and smelled so good even before lit.  Take a look at two of their candles below and you will see that they are stylish and will fit any decor.

The Cookie Jar scent smells so delicious you'll either be dreaming about making cookies or will be inspired to enter the kitchen and whip up a batch.  Tip for those selling their homes:  Light this candle before a showing and you'll have potential buyers drooling over more than just your house!

The Frosted Berry Candle has a very pleasant berry and pine scent, one that I think is perfect for this time of year.  The pine scent is well blended in, so that you aren't getting a strong pine scent.  It's very low key, yet aromatically pleasing.

Aside from the giving back aspect of the Feed a Child aspect, I love that these candles are made with soy.  In all honesty, I don't think I've ever had a soy candle before.  I loved that they burned so clean and didn't look waxy or disappear fast like a lot of wax candles do.  I know I'll get long burn times on these candles.  You can get Cookie Jar and Frosted Berry in two sizes.  The larger jar is 17.6 ounces and is $20.  The burn time is 140-160 hours.  The smaller size is 8 ounces and is $13 with 65-85 hours of burn time.  Aside from Cookie Jar and Frosted Berry, there are other scents to choose from including Silent Night, another Christmas themed candle that is new this year.  Stop by Bridgewater's store to see what scents are alluring to you.

I also received some Votivo candles from Votivo's Holiday Collection that I really liked.  I loved the scent of their Icy Blue Pine candle because it smelled like a Christmas tree when I burned it.  I used to buy cut Christmas trees, but discontinued the practice mainly because cut trees are so expensive here where we live.  So, we made the decision to buy an artificial tree on clearance to save money long-term.  However, we miss the scent of pine that you get with having a "real" tree.  This candle provides a wonderful pine scent.  It is available for $30 at Votivo.com.  I also want to mention the absolutely wonderful packaging that the candle comes in.  The box is sturdy and has a metallic coin secured on the front.  Everything about the scent and packaging of this product screamed quality.  Even my husband noticed and that isn't something he would normally comment to me on. 

One other item I want to talk about is Greenleaf's Merry Memories.  Greenleaf Gifts sells more than just candles.  They sell a variety of scented bath items as well as a scented potpourri.  I received Merry Memories, which as you can see in the picture on the left is absolutely adorable.  It smells so good too.  When this arrived at my door step, my kids helped me open the box.  My 5 year old opened this one and screamed out, "Mom, it smells like Christmas!"  So there you go!  If you want to have your home smell like Christmas, this would be a great choice to decorate with.  The cute little Gingerbread man is an ornament and I plan to hang him on my tree this year.  I plan to pick up a nice, clear glass vase and use this potpourri mix as a center piece on my table.  You can purchase this item at Greenleaf Gifts for $18.  There are other potpourri mixes to choose from as well, including a Thanksgiving themed potpourri if you would like to have a spicy pumpkin scent for your home for the holiday.

Giveaway!

Through the generosity of Bridgewater, I have been given the opportunity to giveaway not just one candle, but two!  There will be two winners and each winner will receive one large jar candle.  The first winner drawn will receive the Frosted Berry and the second winner drawn will receive the Cookie Jar scent.  Winners will be drawn by Random.org.  Giveaway will end on 11/30/2010 at 11:59 PM and will be drawn on 12/1/2010.  Winners will be emailed and asked to provide shipping information.  This giveaway is limited to US residents in the lower 48 due to the fragile nature of the product.  You must be 18 or older to enter and you must provide a valid email address in your first entry or let me know if it is in your Blogger profile.  I need a way to reach you if you should be lucky enough to be chosen!

Mandatory entry:  Visit the Light a Candle page and tell me something that you learned.  Stay a while and watch some videos if you have time and then come back here and leave me that comment!

Extra entries (one entry/leave one comment per action) - You can get a ton of entries in by becoming social friends with the brands listed in this review! 

Like Bridgewater Candles on Facebook

Follow Bridgewater Candles on Twitter

Bridgewater just recently presented a check to Rice Bowls, watch this video and come back and tell me how many children can be fed with the check just presented:



Follow me on Twitter  or tell me if you already do.

Become my Google Friend (right side bar) or tell me if you are already my friend.

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Tweet out this contest. Can be done once daily and you need to leave a daily comment after your tweet. You can use this tweet if you'd like:  Win a Bridgewater Candle Co. 17.6 oz Holiday Scented Candle, 2 winners! Ends 11/30 http://tinyurl.com/29yl9zh #giveaway #Christmas


Follow Greenleaf Gifts on Facebook


Follow Greenleaf Gifts on Twitter

Follow Votivo on Facebook


Follow Votivo on Twitter

That's it!  Lots of ways to enter!  Good luck to all and please pass the word about these quality companies.

Disclosure:   I received several candle and home decorating items to review from Bridgewater, Votivo and Greenleaf Gifts.  Though these items were provided to me at no cost for the purposes of review,  the opinions stated above are 100% my own or are relative to comments made to me by my family.  I was also provided information to assist in me in this review.  Huge and grateful thanks goes out to these companies and their PR representative that provided me with not only quality merchandise to review, but also with the opportunity to giveaway two candles to my readers.