Fab Find of the Week: CONTROL + CHAOS candles
There are lots of things to commend CONTROL + CHAOS’s scented candles, which have been lighting up our life these past couple of weeks.
They’re properly original, for a start – scent combinations that maybe shouldn’t work, but they do, like WINE + GRIND (above), which contrasts baby powder with coffee and is altogether very nuzzleable and cocooning. Or GRIDLOCK + SEASPRAY, which is honestly the scent of cruising down California’s Highway One in an open top car, with a whiff of petrol and a salt-laden wind in your hair.
Below, you can see PARANOIA + PEPPERCORN, which is super-green, spiced by black pepper and with notes of patchouli. Perhaps the most ‘conventional’ scent is the beautiful TRYST + FORGIVENESS, though, which we have flickering on our desk right now: a stunning tea rose scent, but with a hint of mint and basil to contrast with the powdery rose and violet notes. All the names are smile-making, but the scents make us smile even more.
We also like CONTROL + CHAOS philosophy: the idea that life is really all about paradoxes and contrasts. And that the gesture of lighting a match and igniting a candle is a way of taming the madness, for a moment or two of self-care. (Leaving aside that we all love a home – or office – that smells great.)
CONTROL + CHAOS has quite a pedigree, founded by Stacia Prince, a key figure from the beauty industry who helped to bring us Cult Beauty, as International Buying Director, together with interior designer Darren Gayer. As she comments (and we completely agree with this), ‘As a global buyer, I was always disappointed that so many luxury candles did not give the level of fragrance I was looking for.’ Made from 100% natural waxes, these, however, have great ‘throw’ (the technical term for how well they fill a space), and also effectively scentthe room when the wax is cold. (Called the ‘cold throw’, if you’re interested!
And here’s one last thing that we like: the price. The six single wick candles are priced £55 each (and with the cost of candles nudging ever-more-skywards, that’s very welcome indeed).
Happy ‘scent-scaping’ – and if it helps you exert a control over chaos, even better.
£55 each – buy here
