What’s the weather like where you are?
If the temperature has plummeted and the rain is more common than not, why not make the most of being indoors by creating a cosy, welcoming environment. Whether you’re hunkering down under a soft rug with a good book or inviting friends into your home for a casual dinner or get-together, lighting a scented candle can be a great way to further enhance the mood. The soft glow of a flickering candle can be just the thing to enhance a gentle and soothing ambience in your home and help slow your thoughts for a little while.
To ensure you make the most of your chosen candle, there are a few guidelines to follow. One of the most important is to ensure when you first light it, you will be able to leave it lit for long enough for the wax to melt and pool all the way to the edge of the glass. This will help prevent tunnelling and help ensure it lasts for the maximum number of hours burn-time.
Scent memory is a powerful thing, and many candle makers play on it, designing fragrances that capture or recreate some of our favorite moments, things or edible elements, like lingering fireside or breathing in the warm spices from a glass of mulled wine. Winter’s best candles often have richer, deeper notes, touches of soft woods or smoky elements, even delicious spices.
With that in mind here are some of the best candles to burn right now:
Paul Smith Storyteller candle
As stylish objects of decor and design, Paul Smith’s coloured glass candles can’t be missed (the lid doubles as a coaster and the whole vessel can be reused to hold pens or other items once the wax is done), but in winter, this special candle really comes into its own. That’s because founder Smith chose the scent to conjure wintery memories of curling up with a book fireside, with aged wood logs in the grate and a homespun blanket over your knees. It has notes of clove, birch and woods.
Glasshouse Fragrances Into The Woods candles
Glasshouse’s ‘Fireside in Queenstown’ candle has been a perennial winter hit, but this year, the scent brand is adding to the seasonal releases with two new candles to warm up your interiors. Into The Woods is a duo of two new scented candles inspired by moody and mystical landscapes, their packaging adorned with fine silhouette drawings akin to papercut art. Spicy and woody, Woodland Wander mimics a stroll down a forest path with notes of ambergris and cedar, violet, patchouli and gentle mosses. Smoky and captivating, Sacred Hollow is designed to recall the wild woods at night, amid pinecones and cypress, as you follow a trail of smoke and frankincense to a hollow lit by fireflies.
Circa winter candles
Vanilla Bean & Allspice brings all the comfort of a hug to your home, according to Circa. Say no more. If you find the scent of vanilla evocative of happy memories and delicious treats, you’ll love this candle, but pleasingly, it’s not sickly or cloying. The fresh top notes and softer middle that make it perfectly balanced and appealing to most people. It has opening notes of bergamot, orange, lemon and caraway, a heart of jasmine, rose and green muguet and a base of sandalwood, patchouli, vanilla. Amber & Sandalwood brings that warm, elegant and rich vibe to any room, perfect for winter entertaining. It has notes of zesty orange and delicate magnolia with vanilla and musk and woods.
Nevé winter candles
Aotearoa candle brand Nevé excells in a limited edition scent (at Christmas you can’t go past the Passionfruit Pavlova candle!) and this winter is no different. Rich and chic, Whiskey + Wood Smoke opens with warm notes of whiskey, intertwines hints of wood smoke, vintage leather and oak moss, balanced by a soft green cedar base and warmed with an amber musk. For something a little different, try Moroccan Riad, a warm and sensuous scent with warming notes of fresh fig and brown sugar, jasmine and violet, and a rich base of sandalwood and musk.
Dior Ambre Nuit candle
Rose is sometimes considered an old-fashioned scent, but the bloom has been reinvigorated by perfumers in recent years by combining it with unexpected and more deep, masculine notes. Here the soft, spicy and unisex scent, also an Eau De Parfum by Dior, makes the perfect home scent in the cooler months.
“The idea was to create a sensual Rose by combining it with Ambergris, two of the most emblematic ingredients used by perfumers. This accord was particularly important to me. I worked on it for many years before successfully creating Ambre Nuit,” says François Demachy, Dior Perfumer-Creator, who created the scent.
Maison Margiela By the Fireplace candle
Margiela’s Replica fragrance line is designed to be just that, a replica of familiar and favoured scents captured in perfume or candle form. So if you aren’t able to have an open fireplace in your home, or you’d simply love the smell to linger, the incredibly accurate woody ember scent this emanates is quite amazing. Inspired by a smoky fire, this warm, familiar scent combines notes of chestnut accord, red berries, clove oil and cashmeran.
Malin+Goetz Dark Rum candle
Like the name suggests, this candle provides all the throaty warmth of a tumbler of rum. The full-bodied blend of leather, rum and vanilla, with bursts of bergamot and plum is a unisex scent that fills a room with just the right mix of sophistication and cool.
Jo Malone London Myrrh & Tonka candle
Sensual and stylish, one of Jo Malone London’s popular colognes really works for winter spaces as a candle. It’s rich with a warm balsamic note of amber, Namibian myrrh infuses the fragrance with vibrant sensuality. Tonka bean adds that yummy warm element with accents of almond and vanilla.
