Beauty Bible Christmas Shopping Guide 2023: The home fragrance edit
For us, Christmas is all about the smells: the kitchen spices, the wood fire – and of course, the candles and sprays which fill our home with olfactory magic. These are all firm Beauty Bible faves – perfect as gifts, or for scenting your own space…
Goutal Paris Une Forêt d’Or Candle (above)
This is very much the scent of Christmas every year in Jo’s house. Each year, Goutal Paris (now headed up by Camille Goutal, perfumer daughter of founder-creator Annick) launch this quintessentially Christmassy candle with a new look, this year with a sort of gilded Scandi vibe. (This will definitely be repurposed after use, as are all Goutal’s candles – the usual vessels are made of jewelled glass, with lovely faceting.) As they describe it (because this totally nails it), ‘This signature scent is inspired by the return from a stroll through a winter forest, the warmth of decorating the house with snow-covered pine branches, fresh oranges and tangerines. Its scent instantly immerses us in the magic of Christmas.’ Small wonder that this candle sells out every year, without fail.
£83 for 300g – buy here
We featured this a few weeks ago here as a Beauty Bible Loves… pick, and we’re still enraptured; it’s available as a 75g travel candle which would make a fabulous gift for someone, at under twenty quid. Snuggly, cosy, with vanilla and cedarwood and patchouli (the scent entirely from natural essential oils), this is the one to burn while you’re settled onto the sofa on Boxing Day watching ‘Love, Actually’ for the 87th time. (We will be stockpiling this before the limited edition run ends, NB.)
£19 for 75g – buy here
CELINE Illuminations Perfumed Candle
Celine’s candles have been a revelation, this year – unbelievably beautiful scents, sexy black glass vessel matching the black wax, and (considering the quality) honestly not bad value. We are talking designer candles, with prices accordingly, but we’d save to be able to splurge on one of Celine’s long-burn candles. This is a perfect winter fragrance, lots of resinous labdanum (rock rose) in there, along with cedar and birch – a key ingredient in incense blends – and everyone who ascends the stairs to Jo’s office has commented, ‘WHAT’S THAT AMAZING SMELL?’ It’s a little bit church-y and a LOT lovely.
£85 for 240g – buy here
True Grace A Bowl of Mandarins Room Spray
A quick pre-guest spritz of this would freshen up the mustiest room. We love True Grace for their scents and their sheer affordability, and this is brilliant for the time of year: a whoosh of zesty freshness via lots of tangerine and mandarin, plus orange blossom and a bit of guaiac woodiness, to add depth.
£28 – buy here
Aromatherapy Associates The Atomiser Connect
Let’s be crystal clear: this is a real investment. But we’ve been using Aromatherapy Associates The Atomiser in its original version since it first launched, quietly misting the office with a carousel of different scents depending on our desired mood (it’s really easy to do), no need to add water or light a flame under the oils, which always impacts on their scent anyway, and not in a good way. The beautifully sleek white gadget has been pimped, for its second incarnation, allowing you to switch between different blends without having to physically insert and extract the bottles of essential oils. There’s now an app that goes with it, offering guided breathing to calm you – and when we have our next Community Chest moment, we’ll be making the investment.
£180 – buy here
These guys are the candle kings, of course, and we’ve lost track of the number of their scented offerings we’ve gifted (and kept for ourselves) over the year. There are actually three different offerings for Christmas, and as ever a new design has been created – this year, a beautiful gold flame design (again, perfect for upcycling as a vase after it’s flickered its last). The other two fragrances in the limited edition candle are the perennial Sapin (they put a very subtle twist on this classic pine fragrance each year), gourmand Délice (a little sweet for our taste TBH), but this is our choice, blending musk and iris and tonka bean, with a sort of boudoir-esque ‘Mummy’s handbag’ scent to it. Can’t say it’s 100% Christmassy, to us, but it’s 100% gorgeous and anyone would love walking into a home fragranced with this.
£67 for 190g – buy here
M&S Winter Shimmer Glow Light Up Candle
M&S’s ‘light-up’ candles are just so, so clever. Don’t quite know how this works, but when you light the candle itself, LED lights flick on in the vessel, illuminating a woodland scene (the burn time is 20 hours, here). The scent itself is spiced apple, meanwhile – perfectly nice; not be quite up there with Diptyque or Celine (um, we are talking a TENNER here!), but the glass vessels are a total talking point. Teacher gift-priced, this, or even Secret Santa now that inflation has nudged that a wee bit higher.
£10 – buy here
Trudon’s candles are not only exquisite, but have an incredible heritage: they are one of the oldest home fragrance companies in the world, supplying the French courts back in the day. And their Christmas offering is always a joy – terribly Christmassy, with gold-lined glass vessels that flicker glamorously in a corner can be used for tealights afterwards, or repurposed as little posy vases, once they’ve burned out. This set contains two 70g candles, in leathery/woody/chestnutty Gabriel, and Gloria, which pairs cedarwood and patchouli with cinnamon. (In our opinion, cinnamon has to be used very carefully in a candle, or it smells fake. That’s not a word that could ever be applied to anything Trudon.)
£110 for 2 x 70g candles – buy here
Jo Loves Christmas Trees Candle
Call us The Little Ms. Fussies, but we are particular about ‘Christmas tree’ scents. Some of them, dare we say, smell a bit like… disinfectant. But here, fresh pine is softened by being wrapped in lavender, incense and amber, making it warmer and altogether cosier. The glass into which this candle is poured is decorated with gold and red ribbons, a Warner House fabrics design reimagined for this limited edition. (Do not be confused by the brand name, meanwhile. We’ve had an occasional column called ‘Jo Loves’ on this website since 2001, but Jo Malone used the same name for her second fragrance brand, having relinquished her actual name Jo Malone to Estée Lauder when she sold her first company – and ain’t nothing we can do about it. Still, OUR Jo does rather love this…)
£55 for 185g – buy here
William Morris At Home Clementine & Clove Candle
The William Morris At Home range is created by our friends at Heathcote & Ivory, who have such an eye for design and detail. ‘Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,’ said William Morris. If we may be so bold, we’d add: ‘…and that smells great.’ The flower-decorated fine china tumbler into which this candle is poured can be repurposed, while the scent itself is zesty with clementine, spicy with toasted cinnamon and clove (and we do indeed like this cinnamon iteration).
£17.99 for 180g – buy here