It's Hot In The Cottages! The Editorial Staff's Selection Of Candles - Auparfum

Diptych, head in the stars

After one Pumpkin very realistic and complex, the famous Parisian house offers us its traditional Christmas limited editions, inspired this year by “the contemplation of the starry vault”which she offers in three creations. Spark, with a dark red hue, plays on a rather gourmet register: mixing coffee and cocoa almost praline, it is reminiscent of winter snacks near a wood fire, suggested by smoky and woody inflections. The green, Fir, differs from the classic interpretation by an association with a mimosa which warms up the woody atmosphere with its slightly powdery and honeyed notes; discreet pleasure. Our preference is Snow, moreover the most diffusive of the three, for its creamy and powdery aspects that give pride of place to white musks, which evoke immaculate flakes in a play on texture. With its comforting facets of rose and heliotrope violet, it also awakens a cosmetic imagination, between perfumed lipstick and old-fashioned blush, which will appeal to lovers of Flower by Kenzo.

70 euros/190g, trio 118 euros/3x70g

D’Orsay, a candle named desire

With a name like 21:30 Under the sheets, d’Orsay makes us the most daring proposal of this winter, between intertwined bodies, undone sheets and liberated fantasy. Vincent Ricord (CPL Aromas) offers us a very beautiful composition, where cumin plays on sensuality against floral notes with fleshy and vanilla petals. But if the palatability is there, it is without falling into an easy edible evocation: the chypre base, almost moist, rather evokes languorous kisses and other circumstantial moistness; the skin can be guessed under a lightly powdered leather. Diffusive, complex, very successful. In its blue bottle with explicit designs, it will make an ideal gift for a desired lover (or for oneself, to dream of passionate lovemaking).

€69/190g

Fragonard, an Elizabethan Christmas

The Grasse brand offers us this year a British Christmas, with three candles illustrated by the London artist Lizzie Riches, in an aesthetic evoking Elizabethan portraits. Sleeping log restores the convivial atmosphere created by a good flame in the fireplace with its inflections burnt by a wood fire, Orangette reinterprets the confectionery of the end of the year celebrations by marrying cinnamon with orange, and This night proves to be the ideal complement to the artificial tree thanks to its delicious scent of pine needles. Undoubtedly the best quality/diffusion/price ratio of our selection.

€31/200g

Paul Smith, English sophistication

Let’s stay in the United Kingdom with the English designer who this year unveiled his first collection of home fragrances, featuring four candles in pop colors by Céline Barel and Meabh McCurtin (IFF). The opportunity to dive into the universe of the couturier. Bookworm is inspired by the comfortable atmosphere of its library, combining warm notes of pepper, chilli, cedar and cashmere wood. Early Bird is intended as a tribute to the English rain, between turmeric leaf, iris, suede and patchouli. Botanist is centered on the vetiver that perfumed Paul Smith’s first boutique, here accompanied by lemon and pepper. Finally Daydreamer makes us live his ideal summer vacation by marrying lavender, verbena, clary sage and hay.

75 euro/240g

Goutal, sparkling forest

Like every year, the Parisian house offers a limited edition packaging for its candle gold forest. In green and golden shades that could not be more classic but always tasteful, we discover notes of fir, green, suave and resinous, refreshed with joyful and sparkling citrus fruits. A subtle evocation accompanied by an effective diffusion. The brand also offers a rechargeable option, as well as a giant version offering a 140-hour forest ride for the most addicted.

€57/185g, €82/300g, €245/1.5kg

Harvests, revisiting the classics

Applying the principle of seasonality to candles, Récoltes offers three limited editions for winter, each of which takes us to the place of life of a fragrant plant. The brand founded by Élodie Cottin and Martin Jaccard is thus offering a detour to the Mediterranean coasts by reissuing its bestseller Mimosa maquis, signed Suzy le Helley (Symrise), in the middle of the wild plains lit by yellow pompoms with delicate almond shades, warmed by the aromatic plants of the maquis and lulled by the sea spray. The perfumer has also signed fiery cinnamon, a novelty around the spice from the responsible program of Symrise in Madagascar. There is an echo of two emblematic Christmas smells, namely the fireplace and gingerbread, around a warm, woody, smoky and slightly lactonic cinnamon stick which avoids the sticky and expected pitfall of the note. . Candied mandarin, which takes up the technical challenge of citrus notes in a candle, pays homage to a red variety of this citrus fruit harvested at ultra-ripe in Calabria, and therefore sweeter. Alexandra Carlin (Symrise) offers an interpretation that is both juicy, candied and a little bitter, evoking delicacies crystallized in a resinous pine sap, which makes your mouth water.

40 euros/230g, trio 70 euros/3x170g. A color chart of scented waxes to discover the other fragrances of the season offered with each candle.

Visual: Léa Boeglin

Trudon, holidays under the sign of luck

For the end-of-year celebrations, the brand is swapping its usual brown glass for colored versions decorated with charms, these medallions reputed to bring good luck, imagined by the British illustrator Lawrence Mynott and screen-printed with fine gold. Two new features are available: Felicia opts for the elegant, well-seasoned taste register by combining citrus, candied fruit, nutmeg, honey and vanilla, while spella offers the comfort of an amber accord dressed in rose, geranium, woody and musky notes. There are also Siberian pines bathed in myrrh from firsnack by the fireside of Gabriel and Christmas carols with accents of wood and spices from Gloria.

98 euros/270g, 260 euros/800g, 570 euros/2.8kg, Gabriel and Gloria box 105 euros/2 x 70g

Career brothers, variations around the pine

Taking up the traditions of the master wax-makers of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Carrière house founded in 1884 “aims to reveal the power of botany” highlighting the virtues of plants. For this winter, it is offering a limited-edition version that once again gives pride of place to Siberian pine, which “doubles up with a powdery look” in winter pink, “calls for a fresh and gourmet note” in Candied ginger and is done “even more enveloping and comforting” in Smoked wood.

60 euros/185g, box 90 euros/3 x 70g

Nicolaï, a chalet in the mountains

At Nicolaï, it is in the Tyrol, in the Austrian Alps, that we celebrate Christmas. Besides the classic pine resin “reminiscent of the immense coniferous forests”two new additions to the collection: At the Fireside promises us “the sensation of the comforting warmth of a chalet on the edge of a frozen lake”while Gingerbreadthe only one we were able to test, reproduces the promised blend of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg on a creamy and vanilla base, quite tasty and well diffusing in the room.

48 euro /190g

Byredo, a sweet song

Ben Gorham’s brand is taking advantage of the holidays to relaunch in its permanent collection a candle released for the first time in a limited edition (and sold out) in 2020. Symphonic is built like a melody, with spicy notes reminiscent of cinnamon and ginger cookies, accompanied by bitter orange. The more woody facets then take over quietly: one could almost imagine oneself in a Christmas market, a very hot toddy in hand, in a noisy and festive atmosphere. And his Nose #14 – Music and perfume under the eyes !

65 euro /240g

Iconology, in the den of writers

The Iconologie house draws its inspiration from the great names of literature and their place of residence, through a range comprising three candle references: Chez Monsieur Proust, 45, rue de Courcellesin the privacy of the austerely decorated writer’s apartment (lemon, spices, patchouli, incense, etc.); Chez Colette 9, rue du Beaujolaisan olfactory view from the author’s window overlooking the Palais Royal (rose, violet, blackcurrant, amber, etc.) and Chez Monsieur Hugo 6, place des Vosgesour favourite, with its aromas of aromatic leather, ink-blackened paper and open fire, providing a dark and intimate atmosphere.

Bookmarks infused with the scent of candlelight and annotated with a quote from the author are included in each midnight blue tinted glass jar, enclosed in a building-shaped box.

145 euros/320 g, between 70 and 80 hours of burning, “i.e. the time to read the 156,765 words of Notre-Dame de Paris five or six times…”

Bugaïa, the Art-Deco spirit

In medieval Romance languages, Bugaya designated the city that supplied the wax for the manufacture of candles. He then gave the word “candle”, which appeared in the XIV century. The Bugaïa house thus offers candles, a home fragrance and a washing gel inspired by times of the past, with a refined aesthetic, in an Art-Deco spirit, and rather contemporary scents.

isadoraa tribute to the American dancer who revolutionized this art at the beginning of the 20th century, diffuses a mixture of spices – clove and cinnamon –, amber, woody, creamy vanilla, with an impression of sweet and complex potpourri.

€54/290g

Spiritum, the soul of ancestral wisdom

Founded in 2020 by Jonathan Dufour, an esoteric and numerology enthusiast, after a shamanic retreat in Peru, the young brand Spiritum draws from traditional sacred rituals the scents that make up its nine perfumes, signed Bertrand Duchaufour and Philippe Paparella, as well as three candles. mystic-soul embodies the house spirit with a woody composition with a rather contemporary aesthetic, centered on olibanum, dressed in saffron, rose, a few swirls of sage with purifying virtues, a little roundness with vanilla, cinnamon and sandalwood .

75 euro/250g

Unavela, Franco-Spanish heritage

She is from Toulouse, he is Spanish: passionate about design, they decide to launch their brand of candles. Starting from a concrete prototype, Javier imagines the container, dusting off the traditional glass for a porcelain pot handcrafted by a ceramist craftsman in Valencia, and thought to be kept, once the wax has run out, and reused as an object of the daily. Anaïs takes care of the content and contacts Patrice Revillard (Maelstrom) who composes the fragrances: Lavender, Fig Leaf, Cotton Flowerbut also almond-orange blossom for Nap for twomusky citrus for a Summer in Valencia and finally humus and hot chestnuts for Forest Blackperfect to warm us up this winter.

65 euro/260g