Have Your House Smelling like Christmas with These Six Irish Candle Brands
Freshly cut evergreens, warm gingerbread cookies, rich, currant-y Christmas pudding and the lingering scent of cloves and orange: Christmas is all about scent, and the right festive candle sets the mood and infuses your space with a magic, nostalgic glow.
We’ve rounded up six Irish businesses that do festive fragrance like no other.
Cloon Keen
A Galway favourite, Cloon Keen's iconic limited edition Noble Fir candle combines crisp pine needles, warm resinous sap, amber and cedar with thurible smoke, clove and cinnamon for a deeply festive candle that will warm any chilly winter night.
Rated as “The best evergreen candle I ever encountered" by the New York Times Style Magazine, it's clear that its cult status is spreading beyond the west.
Max Benjamin
Nestled in the Wicklow Mountains, this family-run business uses natural waxes, Italian cotton lead-free wicks and essential oils to create luxurious, hand-poured candles. They have recently added two new seasonal fragrances to their range, Christmas in Lapland and Winter Chalet.
Christmas in Lapland captures the essence of a Nordic Christmas with bursts of orange, lime and raspberry complimented with warm notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and almond blossom, while Winter Chalet evokes snowy mountain air with crisp eucalyptus and frosted citrus followed by subtle floral notes with a warm woody base complete with comforting vanilla. These nostalgic scents are available as a candle duo or in their innovative wall diffuser set, both bound to make your home feel warm and inviting this festive season.
La Bougie
As Christmas approaches, we’re grateful for many things, one of those being the much-anticipated return of the beloved La Bougie Fir Baby! candle.
La Bougie founder and former royal chef Lucy Hagerty says Fir Baby! is the brand's most nostalgic scent: “It’s the scent of family moments, festive indulgences, and celebrations with loved ones. It’s Christmas by fragrant, flickering flame.” Inspired by Hagerty’s origins as a chef, La Bougie candles celebrate the connection between taste and scent, resulting in a unique sensory experience and candles that smell almost edible.
Blackthorn Candles
Hand poured in Galway, Blackthorn Candles uses natural soy wax and luxurious fragrance blends to bring warmth and a touch of nature to your home. Their festive collection features five affordable, comforting candles that will deliver the joys of nostalgia to your home this Christmas.
Spiced Apple combines red apple, warming cinnamon, sweet vanilla sugar, cloves and nutmeg, a perfect inviting scent for holiday hosting while the Gingerbread Cookies candle will remind you of building structurally questionable gingerbread houses as a child with warm ginger, rich molasses and golden brown sugar. Lastly, the Christmas Tree candle captures the nostalgia of a freshly cut Christmas tree, towering pines and crisp festive air.
Pamalam
Based in Portobello, Dublin, Pamalam use a unique blend of pure coconut and rapeseed wax offering a more sustainable candle and a longer, cleaner burn time. They have captured the spirit of Christmas this festive season with three luxurious scents that will fill your home with warmth, nostalgia and joy.
Spiced Maple is sweet and spicy with top notes of orange and cinnamon and warm hints of vanilla and maple, embodying the cosiness of the winter season. Cinnamon & Saffron blends saffron, mixed spices and cinnamon to create a truly warming scent that will brighten up the dull winter days. Lastly, Clove & Orange is a warm, nostalgic scent with pine, eucalyptus, orange, pear and green leaf. The candles are neatly presented in a beautiful silk screen-printed jar, ideal for gifting.
Wix and Wax
Based in Ennis, Wix and Wax creates vegan and cruelty free candles, wax melts, diffusers and room sprays with unique and innovative fragrances. Although their candles are striking, their wax melts and burners are the true highlight of their Christmas collection. From cute Christmas gonks and quaint ski cabins to pink gingerbread houses and elegant pine trees, the range of wax melt burners are lovely decorations for any home. Their selection of festive wax melts is enormous, highlights being Winter Honeysuckle & Elderflower snap bar, Mulled Pear & Cranberry Brittle wax melt and Frankincense & Myrrh snap bar.
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