Top nine candles of 2021

Five days into January is the perfect time to do a year-end list because we all know by now that time isn’t real. I really had to fight my brain hard to make this a top nine, not top ten, even though I didn’t HAVE ten, I had nine! My brain wanted that little boxes on the hillside all made of ticky-tacky high and I denied it because grow up, brain! Let’s get into this. In no particular order:

Noble Isle Fireside Glow candle: In December 2020, my husband surprised me with the Liberty Beauty Advent calendar, a very generous and frankly perfect gift that caused a fight because I reacted like the mom who has been gifted a Lexus without being consulted. Then I got over myself and had a lovely 25 days of bougie delights at the end of a wretched year. One of my favorite things in the calendar was a shower gel and body lotion by Noble Isle in the scent Fireside. It smelled SO GOOD. I kept huffing my own arm like a bus pervert, and after many huffs realized it reminded me of an amazing candle I’d purchased years ago and could never find again: some unknown brand, on clearance at a Borders in December 2000, yes I remember the month and year, and have been missing ever since. Truly the One That Got Away.

I went online to order the full-size bottles and discovered OH SHIT THEY MAKE THIS SCENT IN A CANDLE TOO! So this is the story of how I ordered a giant three-wick candle from Harrods like a chic villain in a Paddington movie. It came in a hatbox with a black ribbon. Huge Baroness Schraeder energy. Anyway, I love this candle. Its scent fills our entire home even a few hours after it’s been blown out. The candle scent skews a bit more tea and the shower gel a bit more whiskey, and I am still deeply in huff-love with them both. (They also make a single wick if that’s more your speed but I can’t vouch for that throw.)

Rewined Vinho Verde: I realize one breath after telling you I received the Liberty advent calendar and ordered a massive candle from Harrods is maybe not the most plausible time to tell you I’m not a snob about candles, but I’m truly not. I love a good scent no matter where it’s found, and I have plenty of Target candles to prove it. However, I do have to admit that I wouldn’t normally go for these Rewined candles just because they look a bit… divorced aunt. Coworker whose entire personality is watching Real Housewives. Blonde family wearing all white on the beach. I’m trying hard not to say basic but there we go. They’re just not cool or aesthetically pleasing to me. BUT!! The joke’s on me because earlier this year, in that brief window of late May to mid-June where I felt footloose and fancy-free enough to remove my mask and idly smell candles in a West Elm, I discovered that the Rewined Vinho Verde candle is fantastic. It smells crisp without being astringent, clean and gentle without skewing baby, floral without making you want to sneeze. It smells like a beautiful teen’s clean hair. Powerful and calm. Aspirational without being judgy. What I imagine people who have sparkling grout and vacuum regularly smell as they drift off to sleep.

Tuesday of California Steakhouse: You knew this would be on this list. The complete opposite of Rewined Vinho Verde in vibe and scent, this candle and its mates were my most fun candle discovery of 2021. I wrote about it at length in a September post, and my friend Jess read about it and she told her friend Helen about it and it ended up in a New Yorker gift guide and sold out! Insert Paul Rudd Hot Ones look at us gif here. Just from glancing at this candle I immediately get “Llorando” from Mulholland Drive in my head and I bet that would make Tuesday proud.

Queer Candle Co. Gin & Juniper: I make a lot of noise every year about how the best “smells like a Christmas tree” candle is the Trader Joe’s Cedar Balsam, and at $4 a pop I stand by that claim, but: this candle could give it a run for its money next year. This was a gift, and I knew it was serious when I moved it from the shelf to the endtable next to my end of the sofa, so I could smell it even when it wasn’t lit, sometimes just holding it to my nose and breathing it in while reading or watching TV, or putting it on my bedside table while I slept. That’s some stalker shit.

Madewell Après Ski: It seems mean to include this one because it’s not for sale anymore, but I’m not trying to sell this candle; I’m just offering up some opinions, man. I bought this candle blind off the internet, solely based on the name and how it looked – something I try not to do, but I am weak. It seems to be one of Madewell’s rotating cast of Large Matte Glass Candles, and based on this one, I’d gamble on buying one blind again. It smells so good, clean and cinnamony at the same time, like a very expensive chalet, or Grace Kelly’s downstairs.

The Laundress Artisan: I mentioned this on Instagram recently, but this candle is my new favorite winter candle. It’s a small exclusive batch by Joya, and you should buy one right now before they’re gone. (I bought it blind originally and immediately went back and bought a second one AND the laundry detergent in this same scent.) It is peppery and warm and cool all at the same time, a bit like the Aveda store but with a slight whiff of Vicks. If that doesn’t sell you, I understand, but if you are intrigued by that description you’re one of us and will not be disappointed.

The Laundress No. 723: I know, I know; making fun of basic bitches but she loves The Laundress. Their candles smell great, okay?! I don’t typically do super floral or feminine scents, but their No. 723 is the only riff on that I like – a little juicy, spicy rose. (It lists jasmine in its fragrance notes but I cannot abide by even the tiniest bit of jasmine and love this scent, so take that for what it’s worth.) It smells very lush and intimate and lovely, so I wash my underthings in the detergent and spray the linen spray over my pillow and light the candle when I update my candle blog and just try to get through life.

Beauty Pie Reves d’Eze: I wrote about this one in my spring candle roundup, and it’s a very intense sense memory for me now: when it was finally spring after the long shitty winter of 2020-21, and I’d just gotten vaccinated and was starting to feel hopeful again and had no idea about the rest of the Greek alphabet headed my way, I was just breathing in that vibrant, wet green scent and making silly little travel plans in my head. This candle really does smell like wet greenery, which always reminds me of when we were members of the Park Slope Food Coop and an old woman derailed a four-hour meeting for 15 minutes complaining that “The lettuce is TOO WET!” My husband and I still say this to each other ten years later when anyone is being spiteful and whiny. (Sidenote: This candle has the dumbest name. Until two seconds before I hit publish on this post, I’d been calling it “Rive d’whatever” and had to check the spelling twice.)

Byredo Loose Lips: drumroll please… this recommendation only came from my new candle friend Kate, after the inaugural meeting of Candle Club!!! Her description coupled with the fact that it was on sale at Bloomingdale’s spurred me to ask my husband for it for Christmas, and for once this move didn’t backfire on me! This candle actually smells like the lipstick and giant powder puff on my grandmother’s fancy vanity table covered in perfume bottles, but from way before she was my grandmother. This candle makes me want to take a bubble bath and then spend a lot of time on my eyeliner. Loose Lips is the scent version of the scene in Down with Love where Renee Zellweger floats around her dreamy apartment in a gauzy robe, getting ready for her date while the Astrud Gilberto version of “Fly Me To the Moon” plays. Kate, I will now buy anything else you recommend.