As we tuck away indoors with the arrival of cooler climes, the aroma-filled flicker of one of your most-loved, best scented candles can be both meditative and escapist. Case in point? Even if you find yourself city-bound, the most ingeniously designed of the bunch can transport you to a lush orange garden on the Côte d’Azur (in the case of Dior), or Delhi’s humid, narrow streets (thanks to the Parisian ceramics maker Astier de Villatte).
But whether you crave the inviting fragrance of a fireplace or the soft, sleep-inducing notes of fresh violets, there’s more to burning a candle than lighting a match. In fact, expert burning requires etiquette—a precise art of what, when, and how. According to Alia Raza, founder of the conceptual fragrance house Régime des Fleurs, sloppy candle maintenance can lead to a lopsided wick that burns more glass than wax, while bad scent judgment could ruin a carefully prepared meal.
Here, from the importance of lids to picking the right fragrance for every room in your home, four simple precepts on how to burn a bougie like a grown-up—and the best scented candles for the job.
Before You Burn the Candle, Always Trim the Wick
Wick length is a kind of goldilocks variable that can swiftly cut the life of your candle short. Especially with larger candles, which provide more surface area for drifting, a curt wick length will ensure a straighter burn. Trim it right before you burn it every time you use it, says Raza. As far as length is concerned, “I’ve heard that wicks should be a quarter of an inch, but in my experience, that’s too short,” she says, describing how a diminutive wick can drown and extinguish in molten wax. “Eyeball it for a third of an inch. You can use a special wick trimmer, but I just use small scissors that I keep in a drawer.”
Consider the Candle’s Setting
The urge to light a beautiful candle is hard to ignore, but restraint is occasionally necessary. For example, even the best scented candles should never be burned at the table. “Unless you’ve designed your entire meal to be enjoyed around that scent, it’s not appropriate during a meal,” says Raza. A candlelit dinner should only occur with the help of fragrance-free pillars or tea lights. Dens become more welcoming with masculine notes like wood, leather, and cashmere. “It’s more of a cozy, Old World smell,” says Raza, who developed her first collection of candles, Artefacts, with specific rooms in mind. Bathrooms and offices share olfactory requirements for cool, bright scents that smell clean and keep you alert. “A mint candle is not going to put you to sleep,” says Raza. Meanwhile, bedrooms call for softer notes like iris and iris root, while “violet is nice for a more feminine side.” And white florals will send an inviting message in entranceways, “but really, they’re beautiful anywhere.”
Keep the Candle Lit
“In general, when you burn a candle, and especially the first time you burn it, you want to burn it for about two hours or more, depending on the size of the candle,” says Raza. The idea here is that the entire top layer becomes molten before you extinguish it. “That means the whole surface will burn evenly so it won’t create those dips,” which can deepen, creating a cavernous hole for the wick to become permanently lost.
Extinguish the Candle Gently
Splashes of wax and tilts of wicks are often the result of blowing out a candle with too much force. A snuffer will cut this possibility out of the equation entirely, but Raza recommends gently blowing on the wick and immediately covering the extinguished candle with a lid. “All candles should come with a lid,” says Raza. “There’s nothing worse than blowing out your candle before you go to sleep to find that your entire room suddenly smells like smoke.” A lid will also keep dust and dirt from settling on your candle wax—just further insurance that you and your candle enjoy a long, beautiful life together.
Maison Louis Marie Antidris Lavender Candle
Who could say no to this hand-poured candle, featuring lavender laced with amber stone and vetiver grass, from the Los Angeles–based label Maison Louis Marie?
Cire Trudon Maduraï Classic Candle
Cire Trudon’s Maduraï candle, which layers benzoin resin, jasmine, and ylang-ylang, flickers through metallic midnight blue glass.
Astier de Villatte Delhi Scented Candle
Take an olfactory trip to the streets of Delhi with this Astier de Villatte candle, which marries betel, benzoin, musk, and myrrh with flushes of smoked wood.
Costa Brazil Vela Jungle Candle
After departing Calvin Klein in 2016, Francisco Costa turned his attention to his hometown with his sustainable beauty line Costa Brazil, which taps the rich, natural ingredients of the Amazon rainforest for a handful of jaw-droppingly chic products, such as this sacred Breu resin showpiece.
Loewe Honeysuckle Large Scented Candle
Dreamt up by Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, this feel-good glazed terracotta pot holds a multi-wicked candle featuring a single plucked-from-the-garden note: honeysuckle.
Amen Chakra 06 Jasmine Scented Candle
Hand-poured in Grasse, Amen’s paraffin-free candle collection—one for each of the seven chakras—arrives in carbon-negative mycelium packaging and reusable porcelain vessels crafted in the storied village of Limoges.
Byredo Bibliotheque Candle
Make like Kendall Jenner and light your Byredo Bibliotheque candle—a velvety fusion of peach, plum, and patchouli—at bath time.
Dior Jardin d’Oranger Candle
Dior puts a bright spot in the days ahead with its apricot-colored blend of Neroli flowers and citrus, inspired by an orange garden in the sun-drenched Riviera town of Vallauris.
Gucci Herbosum Butterfly Candle
Gucci’s tomato leaf, basil, and lemongrass-scented statement piece is housed in a Richard Ginori–designed porcelain jar printed with whimsical cherry branches and flowers.
Diptyque Feu de Bois Candle
Beloved by tastemakers the world round, Diptyque’s sage green Feu de Bois Candle evokes a roaring fire on a winter night with its smoky birch and juniper blend.
Régime des Fleurs Return Artefacts Scented Candle
Poured into a bisque porcelain keepsake, Régime des Fleurs’s one-of-a-kind Return scent—ambergris, oakmoss, powdered tobacco, labdanum resin, muguet, and honeybrush pays homage to a Voltaire quote.
Flamingo Estate Climbing Tuscan Rosemary Candle
Said to clear negative energies, salty Adriatic sage takes center stage in this single-note candle from Los Angeles’s Flamingo Estate, which plants a tree for every product sold.
D.S. & Durga Big Sur After Rain Candle
Enriched with magnolia and wet wood, D.S. & Durga’s Big Sur–inspired candle captures the scent of rainwater in eucalyptus groves off of California’s Highway One.
Frédéric Malle Tubereuse Scented Candle
The French perfumer Frédéric Malle puts his singular stamp on tuberose with this handblown white and vermillion glass candle. C’est très chic, non?
1986 Green Onyx Melrose Candle
Containing notes of bamboo, white rose, and darjeeling, this coconut wax candle stuns in a gold-stamped green marble vessel, the lid of which can double as an innovative incense holder.
Aesop Aganice Aromatique Candle
Escape to Cape Spartel, Tangier, with Aesop’s new spicy, floral candle, a heady blend of cardamom, mimosa, and hints of tobacco.
Frama Deep Forest Candle
With notes of orange, white rose, cedarwood, and patchouli, this woody candle, which was masterminded by the Copenhagen-based multidisciplinary design brand Frama, takes its olfactory cues from the wild Abies fir woods of Korea.
Uma Oils Pure Calm Wellness Scented Candle
Consider Uma Oil’s Pure Calm candle a must for these troubled times: Its balancing botanical blend of chamomile and lavender is said to reduce stress and ease the nervous system.
Carrière Frères Damask Rose Candle
Let the sweet smell of Damask rose fill your home with this Carrière Frères candle, which can last for up to 50 hours.
Le Labo Santal 26 Candle
Le Labo’s cult classic Santal 26 candle, which comes with a customized label, is known for its alluring leathery aroma derived from, yes, 26 ingredients, including amber, vanilla, cedar, and musk.
19-69 Capri Candle
Even in the depths of winter, a Mediterranean summer is within reach, thanks to 19-69’s sun-colored bitter orange and ylang ylang bougie, named Capri.
Kahina Giving Beauty Ulili Scented Candle
Drawing upon Atlas cedar, ylang-ylang, neroli, and patchouli, Kahina’s warm and woody glazed ceramic candle was made in collaboration with the Moroccan beauty brand Ulili.
La Montaña Fig Grove Scented Candle
After moving to a small mountain village in Spain, La Montaña founders Jonathan and Cassandra Hall set to work on a range of printed candles, including the above fig grove–inspired take, which capture the rich scents of their surrounding nature.
Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning
Fashionphiles have long scented their spaces with Maison Margiela’s candles and with good reason—after all, with names like Beach Vibes and Springtime in a Park, who wouldn’t be encouraged to strike a match?
Dolce & Gabbana Incenso Scented Candle
Cast your eye on Dolce & Gabbana’s handcrafted and painted ceramic candle inspired by traditional Sicilian pottery and made with the rustic smell of frankincense.
Jo Malone London Basil & Neroli Candle
This playful neroli and basil blend is, says Poppy Delevingne, “the most quintessential fragrance Jo Malone has done.”
Boy Smells Agua De Jardin Candle
Boy Smells’s Agua De Jardin candle is worth a double-take—as much for its reflective green glass vessel as its pimento berry, coconut water, and fig leaf scent.
Santa Maria Novella Notte Scented Candle
Santa Maria Novella, the famed Florentine pharmacy, is behind this intoxicating jasmine, black pepper, and sweet wood candela, which is as nice to look at as it is to sniff.
Maison Balzac La Plage Candle
Jet off to a warm Australian beach with Maison Balzac’s La Plage candle, created in collaboration with the swimwear label Matteau.
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