Burning a candle can be a blessing or a curse. The best scented candles will elevate the mood, providing ambiance and a wonderful smell that’s exactly as strong as you want it. But it’s all too easy to get a candle that burns poorly, smells awful, or fills a room with a scent you don’t love. I‘m on the hunt to find the best candles you can buy on the internet. These are my favorites (so far), like the Flamingo Estate Roma Heirloom Tomato candle ($60).
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Updated April 2025: We’ve added five candles—from Flamingo Estate, Smell House, Voluspa, and more—plus two candle accessories from Diptyque. We’ve also ensured accuracy throughout.
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How We Tested and What’s Up Next
I burned each candle for a minimum of three hours. I took notes and polled my family and friends on the scent, strength, and appearance of each candle. We have many more candles to test from Siblings, Diptyque, D.S. & Durga, Boy Smells, Lafco, Apotheke, Kishmish, Blissy, and more.
The tables below include a “scent strength” section. “Strong” means the smell fills the entire room; “medium” means the smell fills the area near the candle but not the whole room; “faint” means you get a whiff now and then, but otherwise the scent is not too noticeable.
Materials, Tips, and Safety
An in-depth candle explainer is in the works, but in the meantime, here’s some helpful information.
Candle materials: There are a few popular materials for candles, including soy wax, paraffin wax, vegetable wax, coconut wax, and some others. Paraffin holds a scent well; soy wax lasts for a long time; palm wax has a high melting point. Sometimes candles are made with a blend of wax types. However, you should beware of one ingredient being marketed as more sustainable than others. Palm products contribute to deforestation, but soy isn’t necessarily sustainable if the plants are grown on single-crop swaths of land. Ultimately, it’s hard to discern whether a candle is truly made sustainably. Focusing on a vessel you’ll reuse, minimal packaging, or brands that donate proceeds toward environmental efforts can help.
Candle tips: The first time you burn a candle, you set the wax “memory.” If you allow it to burn for only a little while, and the entire top surface of the candle doesn’t melt, this sets a baseline shape for the wax that can lead to tunneling. Ensure that you burn a candle evenly to avoid tunneling. If you encounter tunneling, you can wrap foil around the candle while it’s lit or use a hair dryer to help soften the unmelted surrounding wax, but I think it’s way easier to just avoid it in the first place.
Candle safety: Never leave a burning candle unattended. Ensure candles are fully extinguished before walking away. Keep your wicks trimmed to about a fourth of an inch. Keep candles away from flammable materials (like curtains or hair) and don’t burn them in drafty rooms. Ensure they’re out of reach of pets and children. Don’t burn candles for more than a few hours at a time.
Photograph: Louryn Strampe Flamingo Estate Roma Heirloom Tomato Candle The second I smelled this candle for the first time, I was immediately transported back to my grandmother’s garden, standing barefoot among the beds while she tended to her vegetables. I could almost feel the sun beating down on my brow and the dirt under my fingernails. It’s green, soapy, nostalgic. It smells like nights on the back porch, mornings mowing the lawn after a rainstorm, and prepping vegetables on your matriarch’s cutting board for a dinner party. It smells like summer break the first year you got your driver’s license. It smells like going to the farmers market and rolling down a hill. It’s peppery, it’s vegetal, it’s the embodiment of summer. It’s simultaneously comforting and rejuvenating, it’s startling and soothing, and it’s truly unisex. I love this candle, and I think it belongs on every patio and balcony in the world. Especially as someone who tends to lean toward sweet or fruity smells, I was surprised by how much I fell for this scent, and if there’s one candle you buy in this guide, it should be this one.
Best Candle for Most People
Materials
Vegetable wax
Scent Notes
Tomato vine, holy basil, black pepper
Scent Strength
Strong
Burn Time
70 hours
Size
8 ounces
Photograph: Louryn Strampe Smell House Damier Candle Oh my god, this candle smells amazing. I can’t stop sniffing it. I want it to last for the rest of my life. You know those Black Ice Little Trees air fresheners? This smells like those, but elevated somehow. Smell House has cheeky descriptions on all of its candles and says Damier smells like “Cologne, [the] backseat of a black car, teen spirit, and elbow grease.” The actual scent notes are more literal than that. But it reminds me of hugging a hot biker or taking a ride in your high school sweetheart’s car or making eye contact with a stranger in an elevator. It’s immediately good, and it gets better as you keep burning it. One thing I’ll note is that the wicks arrive quite long, so be extra sure to trim them before burning.
My Personal Favorite
Materials
Coconut wax blend
Scent Notes
Top: vanilla, leather. Mid: tobacco, tonka. Base: musk, sandalwood
Scent Strength
Strong
Burn Time
60 hours
Size
14.5 ounces
