Currently Burning | A Candle Collection

If there’s one “frivolous” thing I will always spend money on it’s candles. I once watched a Sali Hughes video about her perfume collection and in which she touched on her candle collection. One of the points she made that resonated with me was that while candles can be extortionately expensive, the difference in quality and burn time is significantly better if you go slightly higher end. I can attest to this because I have had higher end candles that have lasted me months and months, while some cheaper candles burn through in the blink of an eye. Candles certainly aren’t a necessity but every once and a while can be a nice treat to yourself and your home.

If there’s one candle that encapsulates fall and winter, it’s Diptyque’s Feu De Bois. I am a total sucker for woodsy scents (as you will find out once you finish reading this post), and, to me, this is the cream of the crop for woodsy scented candles. Part of what I love so much about this candle is how subtle it is. There’s nothing about it that is too smokey or heady, but it literally smells like the most quintessential wood-burning fire. So often woodsy scents are too heavy or cloying, but this one somehow strikes a perfect balance.

I spoke about this candle in a previous post, but one of the best more “affordable” candles on the market is the Maison Louis Marie No. 4 candle. It smells almost identical to Le Labo Santal 33, but comes in at about a third of the cost of the Le Labo version. This candle smells incredibly luxe and is one of my favorite year-round candles and luckily it’s not too expensive to buy back-ups of somewhat frequently!

I bought the Byredo Bibliothèque candle almost a year ago and it is still going strong! This is the perfect example of a candle that was pricey, but doesn’t need to be burned very often or long to get the scent. This candle is definitely on the sweeter side of the type of scents that I like. It has a pretty strong vanilla and plum note, but it is balanced out by some leathery and light patchouli notes. This candle really does stand by its name, because it evokes the feeling of being in an old library.

Now this one was a Christmas candle but, the Space NK Shimmering Spice Candle is still going strong in my candle collection. SpaceNK release this candle every year around Christmastime and it has been a long-time favorite of mine for more festive candles. Even though it’s a holiday candle, it’s not over the top or very sweet smelling, which a lot of Christmas candles are. The candle literally smells like orange, clove, and cinnamon, which actually translates really nicely beyond the Christmas holidays and into cozy winter nights.

The most recent addition to my candle stash is Byredo Tree House. Going into spring, I wanted a candle that was a little bit lighter than all of my winter candles, but still something that had woody notes to it. Tree House is definitely less smokey than Feu De Bois, but it still has strong cedar and guaiac wood notes. There’s also a slightly sweeter, more leathery notes that cuts the woodiness and makes the scent profile more complex.

What are your favorite candles at the moment?