What Makes a Luxury Candle

For the past 25+ years, I have been surrounded by scent, working with many of the finest fragrance houses in the world. Over the years I grew to love the process of blending beautiful oils in the lab. For me, adding a signature candle was a natural evolution to my world of beauty and skincare, as a way to tell a story through scent.

People have asked me what defines a luxury candle. I often say that, for me, the term “luxury” is defined by craftsmanship and quality. Creating a luxury candle is a multi-faceted journey, one similar to the making of a complex fine perfume or beautiful skincare. Fragrance, wax, wick, and container together all play a part in creating a luxury candle experience.

Fragrance of course is the most important part of the candle. Inspiration for a fragrance can come from many different places and experiences. It could be a distant memory, a beautiful fabric, a piece of art.

For my first signature candle, I was inspired by a special word. A word that once I heard for the first time I remember thinking, "If this word had a aroma, what would it smell like?" The word was Hygge. This Danish word is actually difficult to translate to one simple word because it's a concept, a lifestyle, a way of living. I knew when I started developing the scent, I wanted to create an aromatic experience just as complex as the word itself.

I started with blending notes that I felt mirrored the idea of Hygge. Notes of clove and golden amber were the first notes that when I closed my eyes made me think of Hygge. (Interestingly these notes are also found in my Radiant Cleansing Balm.)

Combing and fine-tuning many other precious aromatic notes, the fragrance went though dozens of iterations. It was my hope that the final blend - which embraces notes of patchouli, cashmere musk, and white floral (to name a few) - would evoke a warm, cozy, uniquely memorable experience.

Candle wax comes in many different qualities and forms. Similar to how you can touch and feel the difference between a basic cotton fabric compared to fine quality cotton. Selecting a premier wax is an important aspect to the overall luxury candle experience. As with fragrance notes, a precise blending of different waxes is key to the craftsmanship of a quality candle. Our precise blend of the highest quality soy and vegetable waxes helps to house the fragrance blend and allows the scent to burn beautifully throughout your environment.

A candle’s wick is also a very important choice when choosing the pieces of a luxury candle. A supreme quality cotton wick will help to insure an even burn throughout the life of the candle. Our lead-free wick will also help with a clean burn, reducing the black soot or odor that can sometimes occur when the candle is extinguished.

Having the right tools for your luxury candles makes all the difference too. Keeping the wick a proper length with a stainless steel wick-trimmer will help insure that clean, more even burn. A candle snuffer will help reduce the smoke produced by the wick and minimize any splattering caused by blowing into melted wax.

Like my skincare, I wanted my candles to provide a multi-sensory experience. Scent plays such an important part in our memories. Like, the smell of baking bread reminds me of my grandmother, and a wood-burning fireplace reminds me of the holidays. It's my hope the fragrance of Hygge will create new memories in your home.


xo
Colleen


“Your interior scent design is as important as your visual design.” –Chandler Burr