How to pick a candle for someone whose taste you do not know

The hardest part of gifting a candle is not the money. It is standing in front of six options for a person whose home you have been inside twice.

Here is how we would decide, written plainly. No fragrance vocabulary, because most of it exists to make simple things sound complicated.

First, the one rule

When you do not know someone's taste, go fresh or floral, not sweet. Sweet scents are the most polarising thing on any shelf. The people who love vanilla really love it. The people who do not find it cloying within ten minutes and quietly stop lighting it. Fresh and floral have a much wider landing strip.

That is the whole guide, honestly. Everything below is refinement.

The six, and who each one suits

Rose N°66. Fresh-cut garden roses. Green at the start, full in the middle, soft at the end. This is the safest gift we make. It reads as classic rather than old-fashioned, and it works for almost any age. If you are buying for someone's mother, an aunt, a boss, or a friend you have known for four months, this is the one.

Méditerranée N°33. Neroli and citrus. Bright at the top, softening into something warmer underneath. Good for anyone who keeps a tidy home, works from it, or has said the word minimal in your presence. Also the best choice for a kitchen or a small flat, because it lifts a room without sitting heavily in it.

Arctic Mint N°55. Cold mint, clean the whole way through. Slightly unusual, which cuts both ways. Send it to someone with confident taste who owns things nobody else owns. Do not send it to someone who mostly buys what is popular, because they will find it odd.

Hanami Nights N°11. Cherry blossom. Soft, a little wistful, quieter than the others. The one for someone who likes things understated. It is also the one people describe as calming more than any other, so it suits a bedroom or a reading corner.

Arabica N°44. Roasted coffee. Warm and steady, more like a cafe at opening than a dessert. This is a brilliant gift for one specific person: the one whose entire personality is coffee. You know who they are. For everyone else, be careful, because coffee in a room is a commitment.

Crème Noir N°88. Warm vanilla. The most popular of the six by a distance and the one we would still hesitate to gift blind. It is comfortable and generous and about one in five people find it too much. Buy it for yourself with confidence. Buy it as a gift only if you have heard them say they like vanilla.

Shortcuts if you are still stuck

Think about what their home already smells like rather than what they wear. Somebody who burns incense will take a warm scent easily. Somebody who keeps windows open and the fan on wants fresh.

Think about the room it will end up in. Bedrooms take soft and floral. Living rooms take almost anything. Kitchens want citrus or mint and nothing sweet.

And if you genuinely have nothing to work with, send Rose N°66 with their name on the jar and stop thinking about it. Nobody has ever been offended by roses.

The name is the part that matters

We print a name on the jar free, up to fifteen characters, and it changes the gift more than the scent choice does. A candle is a nice object. A candle with someone's name on it is theirs, and people keep those jars long after the wax is gone.

Use their name, a nickname only the two of you use, or the date of the thing you are marking. Do not use a full sentence. Fifteen characters is not much and it looks better short.

Browse the six. If you are sending more than three, write to us and we will wrap them and write the cards.