Jo's Scent Notes: Seasonal Candle Guide
Photo: © Jo Fairley
In place of a perfume review, Jo brings you her personal edit of the candles she’ll be burning (or would love to), at home this Christmas.
I make no apologies for the fact that these are my personal preferences – because, as with fragrances themselves, we tend to make a bee-line for specific types of candle scents. So, give me woody, walk-in-the-forest-y scents. Give me smouldering woodsmoke and burning embers. But whatever you do, don’t give me clementine-and-clove, because it simply doesn’t float my gravy boat! These, though? Absolutely transporting and utterly beautiful, as far as I’m concerned.
Acqua di Parma Bosco (above left)
Above, you can see the GORGEOUS yellow and gold livery, by designer India Mahdavi, for Acqua di Parma this Christmas. (There’s a sort of mix ‘n’ match vibe going on, with several different designs all in the same tones – but massed together, their home fragrance would be breathtaking. Of the three seasons scents, I like this outdoorsy, dark, foresty option, with eucalyptus and clove. Light the fire, put Bing Crosby on Spotify, and I’m Christmas-ready. (This candle, NB, has a burn-time of around 50 hours.)
Acqua di Parma Bosco/£75 for 200g - buy here
Diptyque Sapin (smaller size, second from left)
Sapin means ‘pine tree’ – which tells you all you need to know about this Diptyque offering, again one of a seasonal trio. (I find the others a tad sweet for my tastes.) It comes in several sizes, including a giant three-wick version, but I like the votives (which will burn for around 20 hours) – this year, adorned with tactile labels by felt artist Lucy Sparrow, who’s done the most incredible installation in their Bond Street Maison, if you can get there. Think: pine, resin, patchouli and cedar – again, very sleigh-through-the-forest-under-a-faux-fur blanket, pulled by reindeer. (I was lucky enough to do that, once, on a John Frieda press trip!)
Diptyque Sapin/£40 for 70g - buy here
Cloon Keen Atelier Noble Fir (centre, above)
An absolute Christmas masterpiece, this – I bought it as a gift and absolutely can’t give it away, now! It’s green, it’s earthy, it’s grounding – but there’s a sweet honeyed note, too, with warm touches of amber and amber which add a snuggly quality. (The mirrored silver vessel will make a gorgeous vase, when it’s flickered its last – after 55-60 hours.)
Cloon Keen Atelier Noble Fir/£45 for 280g - buy here
Goutal Paris Une Forêt d’Or (above right)
This candle is a Christmas classic; it will be joined by others from previous years, in different get-ups, when I start to decorate the house. (I always put them away with the decorations on 6th January – feels wrong, otherwise – and I never get through a WHOLE candle.) Again, there’s a definite fir, Christmas tree aromatic quality to this, but with a zesty touch of orange rind, for a sunshine shaft of brightness. By the way, the ‘throw’ of this candle – i.e. how well you can smell it when it’s not burning – is outstanding, so you deffo don’t even need to light it to enjoy it. (When it does burn, you’ll get up to 50 hours out of this.)
Goutal Paris Une Forêt d’Or/£83 for 300g - buy here
Cowshed Winter Warming (votive)
If you just want a little something to scent a small space, Cowshed are offering votive sizes of Winter Warming, which are a great entry point for quality candles, at just sixteen quid. This has juniper and pine, with a not-at-all-overwhelming touch of cinnamon, and is great for moments when IT ALL GETS TOO MUCH. Burn-time: around 20 hours – not bad for a little guy.
Cowshed Winter Warming/£16 for 75g - buy here
Jo Malone London Pine and Eucalyptus Home Candle
Pine. Eucalyptus. Kinda says it all, doesn’t it? But I love the lid for this, with its green bow – these are so practical for candles, which tend to get dusty and smutty. It’s a limited edition, promising a burn-time of around 45 hours – definitely plenty to see you through to Twelfth Night, because you shouldn’t really burn any candle for longer than three hours at a time; it starts to smell more of wax than the fragrance, after that. So, blow out and relight later.
Jo Malone London Pine and Eucalyptus Home Candle/£59 for 200g - buy here
Everything about Earl of East is super-cool, and they’re a bit too cool to offer a specific fragrance just for the Christmas season – but I like the soft, smoky vibe of this, and at least it’s offered seasonally in a festive amber glass jar. Smoke & Musk has several of my favourite scent ingredients, in a candle: resinous green balsam, fir, wood and patchouli. It kinda purrs, cosily (and will go on doing so for around 60 hours).
Earl of East Smoke & Musk/£24 for 170ml - buy here
‘The glow of burning embers on dark winter nights,’ says the motto on the black glass jar for this candle, which is rich and a little bit spicy, blending sandalwood, patchouli, dark amber, with notes of clove and star anise – way more sophisticated than cinnamon, I reckon. Love the philosophy of this greener-than-most candle brand: ‘Our scents are informed by the world that surrounds us, from the soil to the stars, the tides to the trees. Each accord has been elegantly imagined using toxin-free perfumes and wildcrafted essential oils – a marriage of notes inspired by the seasons and the skies.’ I also love the smoky scent of this, which will pulse out its warm vibes for up to 30 hours.
Evermore Ember/£60 for 300g - buy here
D.S. & Durga Portable Christmas Tree
Does what it says on the jar, this. Imagine branches of pine trees and conifers, studded with clove and smoothed smoochily by amber, in a form that you can simply move from room to room – unlike the tree itself. Your friends, meanwhile, will be impressed by your cool factor – this Brooklyn brand truly is. 60 hours of wafting, it promises.
D.S. & Durga Portable Christmas Tree/£70 for 198g - buy here
NEST New York Holiday Votive Trio
NEST New York’s candles look great, while they’re filling your room with their fragrances. My favourite is fireplace-y Hearth, but honestly, I felt I’d given you enough smoky in this run-down – so I’m featuring my next-best seasonal choice, Holiday, which offers crystallised ginger and vanilla, wrapped around a pine-y note. I really love how pretty these votives look, meanwhile – instant party vibe, if you arrayed them along a mantel.
NEST New York Holiday Votive Trio/£55 for 3 x 127g - buy here
