Cozy Fireplace by Olivia Gibbs – Playview Brands (Hugge collection) – 500 pieces

A new puzzle brand to try out, too bad it was a bit of a disappointment; I hadn’t seen the “Hugge” puzzles before and I was hoping they were good quality. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either – for myself that means I won’t be getting another of these puzzles unless I find them at the thrift store.

According to the box Hugge is a Danish term that describes a quality of coziness that makes a person feel content and comfortable. It’s also often used as an adjective meaning “cozy or comfortable”. There are also instructions on How to Hugge: get comfy and relax, create a cozy atmosphere, appreciate your surroundings, be present, light a candle and do a puzzle! Each puzzle comes with a candle to help you get cozy; the candle in my puzzle was wood sage and sea salt scented. Honestly, it doesn’t smell like much to me, but I’m not as interested in the candle as I am the puzzle itself.

Overall, the puzzle quality reminds me of some White Mountain puzzles – the kind that aren’t the best quality. I’ve had some great quality from WM and some questionable quality as well; this brand reminds me of the latter. The piece shapes even remind me of White Mountain puzzles, almost exactly the same shapes. Unfortunately there were extra hanging bits of backing paper on many pieces (what I lovingly call “hanging chads”), a spongy type of fit that isn’t always pleasant to work with, an extremely shiny finish, and some image lift on many tabs so that running your hands over the finished puzzle isn’t advised. In general it was disappointing.

Many of the edge pieces had an extra 1/8 of an inch or so of the blue backing paper which doesn’t sound like much of a big deal, but removing it without damaging the piece wasn’t easy and I had to use a razor blade to get rid of it. Probably around 25 pieces or so had this extra paper and it was a pain to deal with. Nothing life altering but an annoyance nonetheless.

I wish I had good things to say about this puzzle but I really don’t. The artwork by Olivia Gibbs is adorable, and made for a great puzzle image, but that’s about it for me on the positive side.