Welcome to Fragrance Friday, where each week we’ll be keeping you abreast of the newest and most iconic releases in the dynamic world of men’s fragrances. Born out of the desire to showcase one of the most overlooked, yet versatile, elements of any discerning man’s style this weekly column will help you finesse your own signature scent. This week we’re stepping away from spray-on fragrances for a bit and broadening the scope of discussion, rounding up some of the best scented candles for you get to across.
When we talk about fragrances we’re talking about building up images by playing around with the olfactory sense. And with that in mind, we should probably be talking about much more than just fragrances you’d spray onto your body. There’s much more to the world of scents that you should be looking for, and one of the most underrated flexes is scented candles.
A particular love of scented candles is, traditionally, credited to women. It’s not overly masculine to pay much attention to what kind of scented candles you’ve got going around the house, but that speaks to a largely closed mind and a limited scope.
Home fragrances are a huge category, from room sprays to candles. So if you want to build a signature scent, think about more than just what’s clinging to your skin.
If you’ve really paid attention to the quality of a scented candle, then it could add a huge dimension to your space, whether that’s the office or any room in your home – the bedroom or bathroom being the most popular spaces for scented candles.
See below for the best brands to look out for if you want a good, premium scented candle to elevate your space. Note that other brands like Diptyque and Roja are definitely worth paying attention to, but I don’t have as much experience with their candles as of yet. Lora Piana also entered the scene last year, but we’re yet to get our hands on one of their head-turning $500 candles.
Tips For Burning Scented Candles
If you want a really good, premium scented candle then you’re looking at paying well over $100. Fragrances are an investment, and home scents are certainly no exception. As such, you’ll want to know a few tips to help you maximise your candle and make sure you’re not wasting your cash.
First off, you should always allow the candle to burn for around two hours so a full layer can burn evenly and fill the air with scent. Burning longer than three hours won’t get you any stronger scent, so it’s best to stay with this two-hour mark and then snuff the flame out. You don’t want to waste more of the candle than you need to.
It’s mostly about getting an even burning with a scented candle, so you’ll want to make sure the wick is in the centre. If it moves, just move it back.
Consider using a cloche as well. This will protect your candle and help you maximise the scent, which will rise up into the cloche so you can then move it around the room and it’ll act as a sort of diffuser. It also protects the candle from air damage and just generally looks much better than having a random candle sitting on your bench or shelf.
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Best Scented Candles & Brands
Trudon
Trudon would be the most recognisable brand when we’re talking about luxury scented candles. Based out of France, the Royal Wax Manufacturer has the distinction of being the oldest candlemaker in the world, having been around since 1643 with a rich history supplying the French court and major churches throughout the 18th century.
Those hand-crafted glass containers help with the premium feel of these candles, some highlights of which include Trudon Spiritus Sancti and the very gourmand Trudon Abd El Kader, which has sweet vanilla notes coupled with a lot of fruit on the top from apple and blackcurrant.
Expect to pay around $150 for a classic 270g Trudon candle, but a few of the best ones are three times larger than that and usually sit around the $500 mark.
Carrière Frères
Carrière Frères is another French candlemaker with a history equally rich and long as Trudon. In fact, they are closely tied, with the Carrière Frères line manufactured in the Trudon factory. Most discerning buyers tend to have a mix of both labels peppered around their house, with Carrière Frères tending to take a more modern approach to scented candles.
Highlights from the brand include the new National History Museum Collection, which was worked up in partnership with the National Museum of Natural History to interpret a “utopian garden” into absinthe, acacia and waterlily candles. You don’t often find candles that focus on these really productive and clean herbal notes so it’s well worth mining the collection before leaping to some of the scented candles in Carrière Frères’ permanent collection.
Tom Ford
You’ll find that most of the best Tom Ford fragrances have also been turned into large scented candles with an attempt to mirror the exact same profile – top notes, heart notes and base notes – of the perfumes.
They can be quite expensive, so when you see a Tom Ford candle there’s already that sense of luxury that works perfectly for optics. My personal favourite is Tabacco Vanille ($154), which translates into a scented candle quite well – much better than White Suede or the overpowering Lost Cherry.
Creed
It follows that one of the best fragrance brands in history is also quite nifty when it comes to scented candles. Much like Tom Ford, Creed takes a really straight forward to formulating its candles.
What you’ll get in a bottle of Creed Green Irish Tweed, for example, will smell more or less the same for the $169 candle version, with a stronger lift of the opening notes 1-2 hours after burning.
Santa Maria Novella
Truth be told, I wasn’t paying as much attention to Santa Maria Novella before I visited its original store in Florence. While I’ve loved fragrances from the label before, I just felt a bit too distracted by other brands like Amouage and Kilian since my preference lean towards those modern, punchy fragrances that are incredibly divisive.
Santa Maria Novella is not divisive. It’s a reliable brand much like Creed, with a long history steeped in the story of Florentine artisanship. So of course SMN’s candles are going to be well worth the investment, especially if you want those clean, soapy notes floating around your bathroom.
Byredo
Byredo’s profile really shot up in the mainstream limelight when Kendall Jenner started shouting the brand out. Some might see the association with an influencer to be a bit of a turn-off, but rich people like nice things. And Byredo is most certainly a nice thing.
In fact, Byredo is one of the best candlemakers of the modern age, with a fairly simple approach that offers these really charming profiles that are made with few notes but are layered very well. It’s almost worth just choosing at a whim here since Byredo has such a strong reputation for consistency.
