When it’s time to celebrate, stock up on scented candles from across the country that evoke a memory, emotion or holiday
When it’s time to celebrate, stock up on scented candles from across the country that evoke a memory, emotion or holiday
Shraddha Sareen started ARMATUER in 2017 from a small room in her house with “an electric stove, old vessels, a slab of soy wax, my favourite fragrance (lavender buds), and cotton wicks from my grandmother’s sewing cupboard”.
Five years on, the Varanasi-based brand has seen a popularity surge. Apart from container candles that are evocative of roses, cedarwood, wildflowers, and spices, it showcases its signature candles — hand-dipped candles in the scents of lavender, pine, vintage rose, cacao, and berries — and pillar candles. The candles are priced between ₹250 and ₹1,800. The homegrown business employs women and men from marginalised communities, and use traditional craft and raw material to create designs unique to Armatuer.
Sareen, who has done an MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai, and worked in the corporate sector for two years, says her candles are created with the people who use them by making them a “representation and reminder of the good things in life — positivity, childhood, celebration, explorations, and slow living”.
Hand-dipped Christmas candles.
Of all the candles she has created, Sareen says hand-dipped candles are her favourite. “Hand-dipped candle making is one of the oldest known processes in which one long strand of cotton wick is repeatedly dipped in a vessel filled with molten wax till it reaches a certain shape,” she says. On an average, it takes about seven hours to make one 17-inch tall hand-dipped candle.
Apart from the Diwali collection (Gul, Amrit, Dhara, Heer, and Noor), the Maple collection (curated with Mysticeti Magazine) is Armatuer’s top seller. “The collection includes our bestsellers Smell Old Books, Add Honey to Your Pancakes, and Get Ready for Mulled Wine,” she says. She recently launched an October collection with Rukmini Ray Kadam, who runs the décor blog Trumatter.
Top choices: Gul, Nap in the Park, Hot Cocoa
MONSOON & CHAI
This Delhi-based home-grown candle brand was born from a simple idea on a rainy evening in August 2020. Manasvi Malik, a visual identity designer and candle lover, decided to combine three simple joys — baarish, chai, and candles — and launched her brand. “I want the user of my scented candles to experience simple everyday joys, a sense of familiarity and safety, like a loved one’s hug. I try to pour that experience into every fragrance blend that is ideated and made. That’s why the names of our fragrances are feelings or experiences — Home, Warmth, Revival, etc,” Manasvi says.
Aligned to seasonal rhythms.
Speaking of her creative process, she says she’s “aligned to the seasonal rhythms and all collections also take inspiration from those cycles”.
“Everything from colour to quantity, from single fragrance notes to the entire blend, and names — it’s all inspired by seasons and my yearning to experiment,” Manasvi says. The candles are priced between ₹600 and ₹2,500.
Top choices: Home, Tranquillity, Comfort Zone
BOUGIE
Nihar Shedge, a mechanical engineer, zeroed in on candles as a birthday gift for his mother’s 50th birthday. “But I realised that there was a huge gap in the market. The brands were either uber-luxury and very expensive or those that offered cheap products that weren’t doing anything,” he says. This led Nihar to launch Mumbai-based Bougie, a sustainable luxury brand. “To me, bougie means attainable luxury. The fact that it means candle in French was serendipitous,” he says.
Memories as fragrances.
The company began with a strong focus on R&D and customer choices. “I wanted to translate my experiences and memories into fragrances. So each candle has a story, a memory associated with it,” Nihar says.
The brand currently offers 12 variants (prices begin at ₹1,299) and is working on more choices. It currently sells from its own website and marketplaces like Amazon. “With more and more people wanting to make their homes more appealing, sales are up,” Nihar says.
Top choices: Patisserie, Tobacco Oud, Gilli Mitti
LA LUMIERE
Vanessa Lopes started La Lumiere to offer a range of hand-poured soy wax candles inspired by the sun, sand, and sea that Goa is known for. “We are a premium home decor brand that focuses on the principles of minimalism and aesthetics. We celebrate the joy of being at home and taking care of ourselves,” Vanessa says.
Pastel-coloured candles.
The pretty, pastel-coloured candles, priced between ₹350 and ₹3,500, are almost a work of art — so much so that you wouldn’t want to light them up. The independent, single-member run business ensures the brand is effective in delivering “a product with heart”.
“Each La Lumière candle is carefully designed and hand-poured in small batches in Goa, and we hope that people enjoy experiencing them as much as we enjoy creating them,” Vanessa adds.
Top choices: Shellby, Pretty Peony, Venus
AVA VELA
Launched in Goa in 2020 by Nikita Priyambada, Ava Vela is a luxury home fragrance brand that aims to offer a sensory experience through a range of cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and vegan products. “Our fragrances and candles are inspired by fond memories shared with friends and family, which will make you nostalgic and evoke deeper emotions,” Nikita says.
Evoking nostalgia.
Ava Vela’s candle-making journey started with only one thing in mind: the fragrances should bring people together no matter where they’re. Priced between ₹250 and ₹700, the candles are sure to create a wonderful ambience. “The fragrances we use are on a par with high-value perfumery company products to ensure long-lasting, carefully curated scents. This makes our candles great — to light and as scented home décor,” Nikita says.
Top choices: Trip to Goa, Midnight Walk, Date Night
NATIVE APOTHECARY
Native Apothecary began life in 2018 as the Happy Bathing Co, a line of cold process soaps and other toiletries. Founded by Vandana Singh, the brand rebranded in 2021 with a focus on home décor. The Noida-based brand centres on customer experience, quality, and innovation to create home décor items that provide a stylish ambience.
Wooden wick beeswax candles.
“We are not simply a candle brand, we try to bring our customers unique, high quality, natural, locally developed, manufactured, and grown products. Our product offering includes wooden wick beeswax candles manufactured entirely in plastic free-packaging sourced from small-scale producers,” Vandana says. The candles are priced between ₹249 and ₹749.
“We support numerous small farmers and foragers of wild flowers and grasses based in the hills of Manipur, Nagaland, and Kashmir by selling natural dried flowers in different upscale floral arrangements,” Vandana says.
Top choices: Coffee Cedarwood, Lavender Bergamot, Orange Mint
Making candles last
* Use all kinds of candles in different spots — tea lights, votives, pillars, jars, containers and tapers.
* Place them in spots that draw the eyes — your coffee table, windowsill, or bookshelves.
* Tapers work well in beautiful candelabra or even old wine bottles on the dining table.
* Create a grouping that works well. Back your candle up with books, shells, decor items, flowers, etc.
* Pop a scented candle in the bathroom — pretty decor that’s functional.
* Snip off the wick before lighting a new candle for a longer life.
* Let a jar candle burn till the wax is melted to the same level to avoid wastage due to improper burning.
