Yankee Candle Bluebeary Muffin - Rare Black Band Treasure

I love Pinterest because it's basically an excuse for me to hoard pictures of all my favorite things without judgment, and Yankee Candle is no exception. I've got a board that's about 50 pins strong at the time of writing. 

The "more ideas" tab is a blessing and a curse. At the same time I get to find new pins to fill my board and discover things I didn't even know existed, it also leads to a lot of unfulfilled candle desires. Would I really ever spend $200 on a 25-year-old candle that may not even smell good anymore? Of course not, but that doesn't mean I can't dream about what oldies like Hearts & Flowers or White Lace might have smelled like back in the day. See? Blessing and a curse!

One of these old, rare candles I stumbled across in my travels was the adorable Bluebeary Muffin. This was a collaboration between Yankee and the now-defunct collectible line of stuffed animals, Boyds Bears. Here's what it consisted of:

• a repackaging of the existing Blueberry Muffin fragrance, with a new label featuring the punny name and a blueberry-themed Boyds Bear
• a jar topper featuring a bear eating a blueberry muffin
• the Boyds Bear seen in the candle's label

Cute, right? As with all black bands Yankees, this one carries quite the hefty price tag, made even higher by its affiliation with such a highly collectible brand. The whole set, including the jar topper and bear, can run for upwards of $150 on sites like eBay. So imagine my surprise when I found the complete package for a fraction of the price on Mercari!
Yes, seriously. Only $35 with shipping and this adorable piece of Yankee Candle history could be mine! How could I be expected to pass it up? The only catch, if you can even call it a catch, is that the candle had been previously burned, but 99% of the candle was still intact, so I didn't mind! A small chunk of change and a few days later, my wish came true... Bluebeary Muffin was finally mine!

Bluebeary Muffin with my
beautiful new lampshade.

Just look at that label. An adorable bear, decked out in blue attire and an apron, sitting next to a tray of freshly baked blueberry muffins? Too cute! You've gotta love that deep blue wax color, too. Obviously this is the main appeal of this candle – regular Blueberry Muffin is cool and all, but who doesn't want one that features a cute bear and a silly name? I'm a sucker for stuffed animals and all things cute, so this is right up my alley.

(Side tangent, I got the wonderful crackle glass lampshade seen in the photo for just a few bucks at Goodwill! I had been looking for one of these in the smaller size for a while, but they're more expensive than you might expect. So imagine my surprise and glee when I found this at Goodwill! I can't remember exactly how much it was, but it was definitely less than $5. I love the hand-painted details, and the flickering flame looks beautiful shining through it. I also found a small jar of Pink Sands and a box of Berry Trifle tealights at that same Goodwill... not too bad if I do say so myself!)

Now onto the part you really care about... the scent! This is certainly a fragrant one. As soon as I opened the box it came in, I got a strong whiff of that beautiful blueberry fragrance. It's sweet without being overly artificial, and if you sniff closely, you can detect just a hint of cakey-ness... it's an amazing scent, and definitely one for the "food and spice" fans like myself! The throw is also amazing, considering this candle's age – 15 minutes of burning and I was already getting a delicious blueberry aroma wafting through my room. Once burning, it's even less artificial than on cold sniff, and you really feel like you're sitting in front of a heaping bowl of ripe blueberries, or that there's a scrumptious blueberry treat baking in the oven. Blueberry muffins are my favorite, so I really enjoy this, even more than I anticipated I would!

Bluebeary Muffin candle
topper.

Of course, I can't post about this candle without discussing its accessories. First up is this charming jar topper, showing a bear enjoying a blueberry muffin. Surrounding her are buckets full of blueberries that she no doubt picked herself! I find this jar topper super cute, and it gives me an incredibly adorable mental image: a cute fuzzy little bear wandering about, collecting blueberries in her pockets, and coming home to make herself a batch of yummy muffins. It's also served its purpose well – it fits snugly on top of the jar and seals the fragrance in very well. The other black band Yankee that I own came to me without a lid, which I suspect allowed all of its fragrance oils to escape. Leaving the lid off of something that I think already has a delicate fragrance to begin with (Christmas Eve) is a recipe for disaster. Legend has it that black band Yankees were the most highly-scented of any candle ever produced by the company, and I'm so happy that I received such a good example of that! 

And of course, the star attraction for Boyds collectors – Muffin B. Blueberry! (Yes, that's her official name.) She's a very cute fawn-colored bear sporting a blue plaid headband and dress, as well as a cream-colored apron emblazoned with the word "Bluebearies" across the chest and embellished with a plaid pocket to match the rest of her ensemble. Her left foot features an embroidered image of a bunch of blueberries, and her right has the rarely-used Yankee Candle icon logo (the only other place I recall seeing this logo is on the jar lids pre-2016). She's a cutie patootie and I'm so happy I have her in addition to the rest of the set! Of course, I would have been happy with just the candle, but having the same exact bear as seen on the label is just too perfect! 

I wish I had an exact date to put on this set, but I don't. The Boyds Bears website claims that this was issued in 2002 and retired the same year, which makes sense at first – the bear's tush tag has a copyright date of 2002. Things get confusing when you look at the lot code on the candle, which indicates a pour date of 2004. So maybe the bears were produced in 2002 only, but the candles were being made as late of 2004? Meaning that the original owner bought the bear in 2002, then waited until 2004 to buy the candle? Or maybe she bought the bear with the candle in 2002, burned up the candle some time before 2004, and then went out to purchase another one? We've got a mystery on our hands! 

I got a little bit too invested in the Great Bluebeary Caper and decided to check out the Yankee Candle website on the Wayback Machine. I checked out a snapshot of the website from mid-2004 and perused the "Gift Ideas" section, since I figured that's where it would be. No dice! I did find some more ursine paraphernalia, as well as some other interesting bits & bobs. (Did you know that Yankee Candle used to produce body products like shower gel and hand lotion?) I even found regular old Blueberry Muffin, but nothing featuring Miss Blueberry. I even went back to 2002, when this was purportedly released, and didn't find much. I did learn that the original Blueberry Muffin was a new fragrance at the time. I'm beginning to suspect that maybe this was sold at other retailers like Hallmark, and that the candle was not the main focus of the set. Still, it was fun to do some sleuthing!

This post has gotten very long, hasn't it? I guess I'm just excited about this charming little set. Yankee Candle used to be so quaint! Somehow I could never see such a collaboration happening nowadays, especially considering that Boyds Bears have been out of production for more than half a decade. Still, I'm very privileged to own such an interesting piece of Yankee Candle history. I have no doubt that this set has evaded much more serious collectors than myself, but I'm just thankful I snagged such a good deal! My advice is to start looking in other places than eBay... you might be surprised at what you find!

And until next time... xx