Scented candles provide your home with a warm hypnotic glow, an inviting ambience and an alluring aroma, evoking anything from a Scandinavian winter’s walk to summer in Sicily. With fragrances including floral, woody, citrus, fruity, fresh, green, spicy and sweet, there’s something for everyone and for every season.
But which should you pick? How much do you need to spend? How can you make sure you get a decent burning time? And how can you make sense of the various scents when you’re buying online or looking at a sealed box in a shop? Read on to find out what to look out for, as well as our picks for the best scented candles around.
How to choose the best scented candles
What should a scented candle be made of?
Ideally, a scented candle should be completely natural, made from premium wax, perfume-grade fragrance and essential oils and pure cotton wicks, all ethically sourced. You don’t want a candle made from crude oil by-products, synthetic fragrances, artificial colouring and lead wicks – these not only look and smell artificial, they can release harmful toxins into the air.
Paraffin wax is commonly used for candles, because it has a good scent throw and stable burn, but it can leave you with black soot marks on the inside of your candle holder. A popular alternative is soy wax, which comes from a renewable vegetable source. The burn is longer and cleaner than with paraffin, and the scent releases gently. Vegetable wax, which is extracted and purified from plants, looks similar to soy wax, but doesn’t burn quite as stably, so is often mixed with other types of wax. Beeswax is increasingly popular too because it has its own unique scent and a long burn time.
How much should I pay?
Cheap scented candles can be overly sweet and gaudy in colour – and they tend to burn out quickly and aggressively. Pricier candles generally use premium ingredients that burn with a more elegant glow and natural aromas, as well as having a much longer burn time.
In other words, buying a cheap candle for a tenner is generally a false economy. Fragrance levels are typically low too, at around one to two per cent, whereas premium-brand ones offer 10 to 15 per cent, often with oils sourced from top perfumers. All of this costs money, of course: standard-size high-end candle one – around 190g, with a burning time of 40 hours – is likely to cost £30 or more.
How important is maintenance?
You might think that candles are simple things: you just light them, and chuck them out when they’re burned to the bottom, right? Well, not entirely. For maximum performance, you should burn your candle for no more than three hours at a time, and trim your wick to a quarter of an inch each time before lighting, to create the ideal flame size with minimal soot. And store it in a cool, dry place – never in direct sunlight.
The best scented candles to buy
1. diptyque Baies: Best all-round scented candle
Price:£45 – Buy from John Lewis
Set up in the 1960s by three friends, dipytque originally made fabrics – but their scented candles, introduced two years later, quickly became the cornerstone of their business. Over 50 scents are now available, and the company has a wide-reaching celebrity fan base, including Victoria Beckham. Baies (French for berries) is one of their best-known fragrances, and it’s a real show-stopper, thanks to the elegant blend of slightly sweet rose balanced with the invigorating fruitiness of blackcurrant leaves. Sexy yet fresh, and exceptionally refined, you can smell it even when it’s not lit, yet it’s never overpowering – just totally addictive.
Key specs – Weight: 190g; Type of wax: Blend of vegetable and paraffin wax; Burn time: 40 hours; Container: Glass
2. Jo Malone London Pomegranate Noir: Best sensual candle
Price:£44 – Buy from John Lewis
Jo Malone’s lavish candle is as sensual as they come, with rich notes of pomegranate, raspberry and juicy plum along with pink pepper, lily and spicy woods. It all combines to make for a dreamy and luxurious scent that adds instant opulence to any home. It’s heady, mysterious and comforting, and the smell lingers for many hours after it’s been blown out. And like all Jo Malone products, it’s beautifully presented in extravagant black and cream packaging. More autumn/winter than spring/summer, in our opinion, it’s a modern musky scent that – to Jo Malone fans, at any rate – is instantly recognisable.
Key specs – Weight: 200g; Type of wax: Custom blend of mineral and vegetable base wax; Burn time: 45 hours; Container: Glass
3. PUR Lemongrass: Best budget buy
Price:£18 – Buy now from PUR
Tangy and fresh, but slightly headier and moodier than citrus, this true artisan candle is made in the old-fashioned way, with owner Laura Morris making up small batches in pans in her Lancashire workshop, then pouring and packaging them by hand. The aroma of freshly cut lemongrass is truly uplifting – great for cheering up a miserable grey day, or making a spring or summer’s day even brighter. Laura started the business in 2013 in her kitchen after experimenting with natural candles and aromatherapy oils for many years, and while she now makes a total of 6 blended aromas, the lemongrass candle remains the most popular. At under £20, it’s a bargain for the quality.
Key specs – Weight: 200g; Type of wax: Soy wax and pure essential oils; Burn time: 35 hours; Container: Glass
4. Roja Parfums The Essence of Fortnum’s Candle: Best luxury candle
Price:£85 – Buy from Fortnum & Mason
Roja Dove is a fragrance specialist, historian and perfumer whose decadent fragrances are sold at luxury department stores all over the world. Tasked with creating a fragrance that epitomised the quintessentially English Fortnum and Mason’s, he created this luxury scent. The captivating infusion of lavender and beeswax (harvested from the hives of Fortnum and Mason – where else?) is combined with dry floral notes of rose and warmed with clove. Meanwhile the clary sage and geranium leaves bring a subtle freshness to balance the warm woody base. It’s smooth, mystical, rounded and lavish, and while it admittedly costs an arm and a leg, it’s a seriously classy candle.
Key specs – Weight: 220g; Type of wax: Paraffin; Burn time: 50 hours; Container: Glass
5. Noble Isle Fireside: Best seasonal candle
Price:£39
Rich and spicy, warming and woody, this indulgent and masculine fragrance is inspired by the aroma of a country inn on a crisp winter’s day. It must be a pretty upmarket pub, given the opulence of the aroma, but there’s no doubt it conjures up comforting images of open fires and sink-into sofas. You get cinnamon, cypress oil, pepper, ginger and vanilla on the nose, and it comes in a burnt-orange-coloured glass with a handy black lid for when it’s not in use. Handmade in Suffolk, it’s a splendid option for autumn and winter, and particularly Christmas time.
Key specs – Weight: 190g; Type of wax: Paraffin wax; Burn time: 45 hours; Container: Glass
6. Neom Tranquillity: Best bathtime candle
Price:£30
The award-winning Scent to Sleep range from Neom is calming in the extreme, making this scented candle the perfect accompaniment to an evening bath – or a great night-time burn for your bedroom. Blending 19 essential oils including English lavender, sweet basil and jasmine, it’s de-stressing and relaxing, with a longer burn time than most. Soft and dreamy, yet highly effective, it comes from the brand set up by Nicola Elliott, who – after 10 years as a beauty journalist – decided to transform her after-work hobby of aromatherapy into a business in 2005.
Key specs – Weight: 185g; Type of wax: Natural vegetable wax; Burn time: 35 hours; Container: Glass