The Best Scented Candles to Create a Relaxing Ambiance

Best Overall: Nest Fragrances New York Grapefruit Candle

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Nest is a top-selling scented candle brand with many loyal customers—you might even say it has a cult following. While there are a wide variety of fragrances to choose from, the Nest New York Grapefruit Candle stands out among the rest. The uplifting scent combines pink pomelo grapefruit with botanical nuances and notes of coriander blossom and lily of the valley. If you appreciate citrus scents, you'll love the refreshing aroma.

This candle comes in three sizes. The 22-ounce size provides up to 100 hours of burn time, the 8-ounce size burns for 50 to 60 hours, and the 2-ounce size burns for 20 hours. Like all Nest candles, it's poured with premium wax formulated to melt evenly while infusing your space with an exhilarating scent.

Best Budget: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Scented Soy Aromatherapy Candle

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Mrs. Meyer’s is extremely popular and for good reason: It sells a well-scented products made with natural ingredients. If you’re looking for the perfect candle to place next to your sink or stove, Mrs. Meyer’s Geranium Candle is a great option. This 7.2-ounce candle burns for about 35 hours and comes in a cute, reusable jelly-style jar. The geranium scent is subtle but fresh, and it won’t overpower when you’re eating dinner or having a glass of wine.

Best Splurge: Diptyque Baies Candle

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If you're willing to splurge on the perfect candle, you should definitely check out the Diptyque Baies Candle. This best-seller has a seriously scrumptious fragrance formulated to make your home feel comfy and inviting. The fruity scent is similar to Diptyque's L'Ombre Dans l'Eau perfume, which smells like fresh roses and blackcurrant.

This white candle comes in a clear glass jar with a simple label printed with French lettering. It's available in two sizes, 2.4 ounces and 6.5 ounces. The first time you light the Baies Candle, you're supposed to let it burn for at least two hours. When the entire top liquifies on the first burn, it'll melt more evenly each time you light it. Diptyque also recommends trimming the wick down to 0.25 inches before lighting it and recentering it every time you blow it out.

Best Gift: Homesick Candles

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Scent and memory are closely connected, and Homesick Candles are created with this in mind. As the name suggests, Homesick Candles make a perfect gift for anyone living away far away from home.

These 13.75-ounce candles are hand-poured with soy wax and fragrance oils. There are 50 scents to choose from, as they correspond to the 50 U.S. states. With input from locals on how they experience the aromatic outdoors, each fragrance is modeled after the unique scent profile of its state. From peachy-floral Georgia and sandy-citrus Arizona to nutty-pine Oregon and honey-bourbon Kentucky, these candles hit all the right notes.

Best for Kitchen: Voluspa Goji Tarocco Orange Large Embossed Glass Jar Candle

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When you burn a candle in your kitchen, it's best to opt for a scent that meshes well with the things you eat. In other words, go for something that smells delicious, like the Voluspa Glass Jar Candle in Goji and Tarocco Orange. This particular candle has a mouth-watering aroma of goji berries, fresh mango, and blood oranges. It's fruity, fresh, and totally addicting.

Also, Voluspa's proprietary coconut wax boasts a 90 percent cleaner burn than soy wax candles, which is ideal for the kitchen. This notably large candle contains 18 ounces of hand-poured wax for a burn time of 100 hours. It comes in a gorgeously embossed red glass jar with a floral tin lid. When the candle is gone, you can remove the remaining wax and use the jar to hold flowers, jewelry, pens, or even kitchen utensils.

Best Black-Owned Business: Harlem Candle Co. Josephine Luxury Candle

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If you’re a history buff with a love for beautiful candles, the Harlem Candle Company should be on your radar. This black-owned business celebrates the Harlem Renaissance with candles as rich as the music and culture of that era, commemorating artists like Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and—in this case—Josephine Baker. The candles can burn for approximately 80 hours, and have two wicks to keep the wax even and avoid tunneling (when the outer rim of wax doesn’t burn). 

Each candle sits in a 12 ounce glass with vibrant jewel tones and other patterns reflective of storied entertainment venues across Harlem. Having a penchant for fine fragrance, founder Teri Johnson also made sure these soy wax candles have luxurious scents designed by a team of world-renowned perfume specialists.

Best for Fall: Bath & Body Works Cinnamon Spiced Vanilla Single Wick Candle

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Bath & Body Works is known for its seasonal candles, and their Cinnamon Spiced Vanilla single wick option is the embodiment of fall. The warm cinnamon fragrance balances with vanilla for a spiced yet sweet scent reminiscent of campfires, warm drinks, and crisp fall days.

As a compact candle, this item is perfect for a smaller space like a bathroom or study so the concentrated scent can really shine through, and linger even once extinguished. Meant to last about 25-45 hours, this candle will burn longer if you trim the wick about ¼ inch before burning it, and only use it for around four hours at a time.

Best Small Business: Frères Branchiaux This Women's Work Candle

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Founded by three brothers, this black-owned candle company has a vast collection of high quality scents, sets, sprays, and diffusers. Each candle has thoughtfully crafted labels and imagery, uses only vegan soy wax blends, and burns for between 15 and 40 hours depending on the size you purchase (4 or 8 ounces). And once you’ve burned through your signature candle, you can reuse the decorative jar.