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Let’s be honest: The kind of language that brands use to describe the best scented candles online can tend to be a bit, well, flowery—if not fully over-the-top dramatic. Like, don’t tell me your candle smells like “gratitude.” It’s patchouli. That said, even the best scented candles (with the most literal descriptions) will always fall short in one key regard—you can never be sure that they're actually any good, until they show up at your door.
Enter the more than 60 scented candles that have taken over my dining room table—a truly literal description. You see, I don’t trust marketing a whole lot. And, while reviews can be helpful, there are just too many variables to consider. So, as I sit here, the centerpiece of my own shrine, I’m pleased to report that I have assembled what is most likely GQ’s most comprehensive list ever of the best scented candles on the market today.
Here are all the ones I’ll be keeping for myself when my wife inevitably grows tired of us eating in front of the TV and I’m forced to offload the rest to friends, family, and DoorDash drivers.
The Best Scented Candles, According to GQ
- The Best Scented Candle Overall: Homecourt Mandarin Basile Candle, $65
- The Best Tomato-Scented Candle: Flamingo Estate Roma Heirloom Tomato Candle, $60
- The Best Palo Santo-Scented Candle: Smell House Holy Wood, $35
- The Best Scented Candle for Spring: D.S & DURGA Big Sur After Rain, $70
- The Best Scented Candle for Summer: Mar Mar Moon Beach Candle, $50
- The Best Scented Candle for Fall: Le Prunier Harvest Smoke Candle, $62
- The Best Scented Candle for Winter: P.F. Candle Co. Teakwood & Tobacco, $24
- The Best Scented Candle for Your Bathroom: Peacesake White Tea and Oak, $30
- The Best Scented Candle Set: Maison Louis Marie Le Bouquet Candles, $55
- The Best Scented Candle for Gifting: Athena Club Natural Wax Candle, $38
- The Juiciest Scented Candle: Jonathan Adler Pop Grapefruit Candle, $48
- The Best Scented Candle for Saturday Mornings: Mala the Brand Cereal, $19
- The Best Scented Candle for De-Stressing: Spoken Flames No One Mentally Breaks Me, $34
- The Best Scented Candle Under $30: Element Brooklyn Inner Circle, $27
Best Scented Candle Overall: Homecourt Mandarin Basile Candle
Yes, this is (almost) the most expensive candle on this list, but you get what you pay for. Its layered scent—a boldly esoteric and perfectly balanced bouquet—leads with the unmistakable aroma of freshly crushed basil. Once lit, the candle’s fragrance throws far and wide from its kiln-fired ceramic pot without overpowering, and even when not in use, it adds a hint of fresh sophistication to the air. The best part is, if you love this candle’s scent, which I have a feeling you will, Homecourt has infused it into an entire collection of products, including a surface cleaner, dish soap, hand wash, and hand cream.
Best Tomato-Scented Candle: Flamingo Estate Roma Heirloom Tomato Candle
I promise you there is more to this list than the contents of a Caprese salad, but tomato-scented candles are having a moment, so I can’t ignore this. In short, despite the viral success of a certain Spanish fashion house’s recent foray into the category, Flamingo Estate’s Roma Heirloom Tomato Candle is still the best of the bunch. With the flick of a match, I was in season two of The White Lotus (that is, off-camera, plucking ripe Sicilian tomatoes from the vine, oblivious to all the murdery drama). The bright, peppery blend brings together wild-harvested tarragon and black pepper essential oil—sourced from Oregon and Madagascar, respectively—and the result is palpable perfection. Set this out ahead of your next al-fresco dinner party and nobody will even remember the undercooked pasta.
Best Palo Santo-Scented Candle: Smell House Holy Wood
If you enjoy the woody scent of palo santo, but prefer not to prance around your apartment with a flaming bit of wood, you can now have it all. From its sleek, smoked glass jar, Smell House’s Holy Wood candle throws a near perfect recreation of the South American timber’s signature scent. The only difference would be this candle’s base notes of vanilla and white musk, presumably added to take the edge off what can tend to be an overpowering aroma for some. While I can’t speak to the candle’s ability to clear a room of stagnant energy, it is effective at warding off lingering odors and packs enough of a punch to permeate multiple rooms when placed in a central location.
Best Scented Candle for Spring: D.S. & DURGA Big Sur After Rain
Spring is for starting fresh, so what better way to step into the season than with the scent of a rain-cleansed California hillside? While most candles made for this time of year tend to lean on freshly-bloomed floral bouquets, D.S. & DURGA’s tribute to spring lives in the moments right before the magic happens. Pulling fragrance notes from Big Sur’s coastal microclimate, this eucalyptus-forward candle’s invigorating scent is bolstered with aromatic references to the wet forest floor and fog-veiled vistas. It’s a delicate moment expertly captured in time—well-deserving of a much, much bigger version.
Best Scented Candle for Summer: Mar Mar Moon Beach Candle
This pick was an absolute no-brainer. Mar Mar’s Moon Beach isn’t just the best candle for summer; it is summer—evoking a sensory overload of sunscreen, sandy toes, piña coladas by the pool, and beads of sweat forming on sun-baked skin. The one-of-a-kind scent is inspired by Sarakiniko, one of the world’s most unique beaches—an otherworldly dreamscape, where Milos’ pristine blue ocean laps gently against snow-white volcanic rock. While Sarakiniko may have fallen prey to relentless hordes of phone-toting tourists, this candle still feels like a hidden gem—your own personal beachy summer in a jar.
Best Scented Candle for Fall: Le Prunier Harvest Smoke Candle
Le Prunier’s founders drew inspiration for this candle’s cozy scent from their family’s Sutter County farm, summoning four generations of harvest-time heritage and misty fall mornings—hot tea in hand. Fortunately, despite the fragrance’s inherently personal, nostalgia-steeped origin, its universally pleasant melange of plum, blackcurrant, and cedarwood allows the rest of us to take part in the experience and make it our own. No matter how hard I squint out my bedroom window, the Hudson will never look anything like Feather River, but the concrete jungle is a little less bleak with this candle burning in the background.
Best Scented Candle for Winter: P.F. Candle Co.Teakwood & Tobacco
They say that, of all our senses, smell has the strongest hold on our long-term memory. The moment I unscrewed this candle’s jar and took a whiff, I was yanked back in time to December 2024, walking through a holiday market in Germany with my wife, mulled wine in hand. (I wish I could say it was also gently snowing, but it was actually raining. Like, a lot.) This candle’s warm, spicy aroma—the product of pairing orange, pepper, and teakwood—was even more alluring once lit, and I reveled in the opportunity to soak in the familiar scent sans Gore-Tex. I also appreciated the candle’s amber jar, which produced a warm, inviting glow as the flame worked its way down.
Best Scented Candle for the Bathroom: Peacesake White Tea and Oak
Nothing against drugstore products, but if you’re purchasing your bathroom candles from the same aisle where you get your Febreze, you’re probably not making the impression you think you are. A generic bathroom candle sends the message that it’s there to cover something up. A product with some nuance, on the other hand, like this calming White Tea and Oak candle from Peacesake, comes across more as a choice than a necessity. It’s there to create atmosphere (and, of course, to cover things up). It’s the kind of candle you’d expect to find in the restroom of a Michelin-starred restaurant—and at $30, that makes it an absolute steal. Just get it before it sells out again.
Best Scented Candle Set: Maison Louis Marie Le Bouquet Candles
There’s a subtle but important difference between a set and a sampler. While many candle brands offer flights of three or four different options, usually selected to demonstrate a spectrum of scents in the hope that you’ll like at least one, a well-curated set like this one from Maison Louis Marie presents a cohesive collection that is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts. Combining three of the brand’s more nuanced botanical scents—No.04 Bois de Balincourt, No.09 Vallée de Farney, and Antidris Cassis—this floral trifecta gives you the option to experience each candle individually or (thanks to unifying notes of black pepper, cedarwood, and amber) play with combinations of two or even all three.
Best Scented Candle for Gifting: Athena Club Natural Wax Candle
When in doubt about what to give someone who has it all, a quality scented candle never misses. While any candle on this list would make a perfect gift, Athena Club’s thoughtful packaging sets it apart from the rest—allowing anticipation to build as each layer is carefully removed, culminating in the reveal of the candle along with an accompanying box of wooden matches, each nestled into a piece of dense, custom-cut foam. The candles themselves, of course, are top shelf, and available in four fragrances that correspond to the seasons. (The scent notes listed above are for Athena, a fresh fall fragrance with zesty top notes.)
Juiciest Scented Candle: Jonathan Adler Pop Grapefruit Candle
So, technically I’ve already included a fruit-forward candle on this list (because lest we forget that a tomato is a fruit), but this one is a whole different vibe. While Flamingo Estate’s offering conjures a Sicilian sojourn, Jonathan Adler’s Pop Grapefruit Candle wants to be poolside in Palm Springs. One is a savory salad; the other, a Paloma. Seriously, though, this candle’s intense grapefruit scent is so juicy, it’s depressing that I can’t drink it. Maybe that’s why it’s been poured into a fun, bright-yellow jar—a color that, research says, can lift your mood. In any case, whether you’re prepping for a pool party or reaching for a mid-week pick-me-up, this is the candle you want.
Best Scented Candle for Saturday Mornings: Mala the Brand Cereal
Jonathan Adler’s Pop Grapefruit Candle might be the juiciest, but this one is by far the Frootiest. A tribute to Toucan Sam’s favorite breakfast food, Mala the Brand’s Cereal candle serves up a satiating dose of nostalgia, nailing the distinctive scent with a citrus-forward blend. Of course, that makes it one of the more novel scented candles on this list, so I can’t say for sure when I’d actually use it, with the obvious exception being a lazy Saturday morning. Either way, if this scent hits home for you, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Or, as the beloved mascot would say, just follow your nose.
Best Scented Candle for De-Stressing: Spoken Flames No One Mentally Breaks Me
Yes, that’s actually the name of this candle. But, honestly, who couldn’t use a little self-affirmation right about now? If you’re able to turn off the news for a few minutes and take some time for yourself, this is the perfect candle for the job. Made with a wooden wick, Spoken Flames’ candles feature a smokeless flame that flickers to the beat of a satisfying crackle, providing a multisensory focal point for a well-deserved moment of mindfulness. Woodsy and botanical, with hints of citrus and sweetness, this one is too good not to recommend to friends, no matter how much it’s going to pain me to say out loud.
Best Scented Candle Under $30: Element Brooklyn Inner Circle
Born and bred (and hand-poured) in the New York City borough that gave it its name, Element Brooklyn candles embody the notion of Champagne taste on a seltzer budget. The brand makes no secret of its mission to deliver uncannily similar alternatives to higher-priced products from luxury labels. True to form, the Inner Circle candle punches far above its weight, delivering the spicy, smoky aroma of tobacco leaf (not to be confused with a freshly outed Marlboro Red), carried by a rich undercurrent of cacao and vanilla. With inexpensive refills readily available, it’s almost a little too easy to fake it till you make it.
What to Look for in a Scented Candle
Candle brands love to wax poetic about their products. Here’s what to focus on instead.
Fragrance
Let’s start with the obvious one. If you don’t like how a scented candle smells, everything else is moot. Of course, this can make buying scented candles online tricky, and that’s why I tried to avoid including anything too polarizing in this list. (Sorry, cilantro fans.) Beyond a candle’s predominant scent—the one that’s, more often than not, included in the product’s name—it’s also worth scanning the full list of fragrance notes to make sure it doesn’t include anything you’re not usually a fan of. For example, if you don’t like scented candles that smell “soapy,” you’ll generally want to avoid anything that contains notes of jasmine, bergamot, or neroli.
Throw
This is candle jargon for a scent’s ability to travel. If a candle has great throw, that means it does well to permeate the air in the surrounding area and beyond. Conversely, poor throw means you probably have to be pretty close to the candle to smell it, or at least to appreciate everything it has to offer. If you really want to sound like you know what you’re talking about, there’s also “hot throw,” which doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does on SportsCenter, and “cold throw”—referring to a candle’s throw when lit and unlit, respectively. While wax type can influence a candle’s throw, some scents—like vanilla, or anything citrusy—will tend to have better throw than fragrances with more nuance, like delicate botanical notes.
Wax type
Nowadays, there are as many candle wax types as there are milks at your local artisanal coffee shop. The most common, at least among the kinds of higher-quality candles that you’ll find on this list, are soy and coconut—or a blend of the two. Paraffin, which is made from petroleum, is another one you’ll see here and there, but it’s becoming less and less common due to potential health concerns—even though there is not any definitive evidence to suggest that may be the case. (All we know is paraffin has greater emission than most other wax types.) Paraffin candles have arguably the best throw (isn’t that always how these things go?), but brands are getting better at increasing their candles’ range using more wholesome ingredients.
Burn time
I think you can figure this one out. But, just in case, a candle’s burn time is the duration—usually listed in hours—that a candle can be actively used before it is no longer with us, spiritually speaking. Burn time is particularly noteworthy when considering a candle’s price. The last thing you want to do is splurge on a pricey candle that burns out faster than a grunge band roadie. That said, a lower burn time isn’t necessarily a bad thing, depending on how often you plan to use the candle. The standard recommendation is to burn a scented candle for between two to four hours per use to keep things even and avoid tunneling, so do the math.
Vessel
This doesn’t have anything to do with the candle per se, but rather the jar, pot, or can that it comes in. While many candles arrive in branded containers that you’re likely to throw out or recycle after use, some manufacturers tout reusability or even offer refills to save you cash on your next purchase. (Old candle containers can be easily cleaned out using either heat or cold, depending on the material. It’s an easy Google search.) At the end of the day, it’s a matter of personal taste and creativity. Does Peacesake advertise their wholesome candles’ glassware as the perfect rocks glass for a heavy pour of Scotch over a king-size ice cube? No. Am I saying it is not that? Also no.