It has suddenly become candle season, just like that. With unspeakable weather and shorter evenings, let’s focus on staying warm and cosy with the help of sumptuous scented candles to set the scene.
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The good news is that Cloon Keen has a new edition. Created to celebrate The Shelbourne’s 200th birthday, Margaret Mangan’s new Grande Dame candle is available exclusively from the hotel and online (€35, www.theshelbourne.com). It’s inspired by the city centre park it overlooks, St. Stephen’s Green. The candle celebrates the Green’s herbaceous plants, from geranium to bergamot and aromatic mints. It’s a perfect travel size too, so that hotel guests can take it home with them as a sensorial souvenir. Cloon Keen created a Grande Dame candle for the hotel previously, celebrating its legendary Constitution Room.
Look out also for Cloon Keen’s unbeatable winter candles, Noble Fir and Noble Myrrh, returning on November 1 (€45 each), as they do each year. There’s also an elegant duo set featuring both for €65. I am not overstating it when I say that these are the very best candles you can find – I can’t imagine getting through winter without one. For me, Noble Fir is the defining smell of December.
Available at Cloon Keen Boutiques in Dublin and Galway and www.cloonkeen.com
For more choices, including two other excellent Irish brands, here are my top five recommendations …
Bread & Weather’s Rosewood and Lavender Soy Candle has a lovely relaxing scent from natural essential oils. Find these Co. Wicklow-made candles at the shop at Killruddery – we recommend visiting on a Saturday to enjoy the brilliantly autumnal market too, where you can buy great quality local fruit and veg, as well as home treats. €23.50 at www.breadandweather.ie and stockists nationwide.
Ormonde Jayne’s Infini candle (£80stg, www.ormondejayne.com – 10 per cent donation from every candle sold to Great Ormond Street Hostpital charity) is comforting and delicious, with a bright and smoky blend of lapsang souchong tea, cypress and bergamot.
Diptyque’s limited-edition Citrouille (pumpkin) candle is a bit of a beauty. Imagine your rooms smelling of chestnuts and spices – especially perfect for Halloween. Diptyque is available at Dublin and Cork Duty Free; www.diptyqueparis.com
Rathbornes candles, from Dublin’s oldest candle company, are made with 100 per cent natural waxes. We’re very into the black Dublin Dusk candle, with its smoked oud and cedar notes, in its elegant black glass. It fills the room with an atmospheric dark and spicy scent (think ginger, anise, patchouli and soft musk) and we wish we could wear it as a perfume. €30, www.rathbornes1488.com
I have a thing about the smell of tomato plants – Seagreen (Monkstown and Ranelagh) has a great selection of candles (and diffusers) by two glamorous French brands, Cire Trudon (beautiful, very expensive) and Carriere Freres. The latter does a pretty tomato scented candle that will remind me of summer all year round (€54), capturing that sunny, leafy greenhouse smell. If you want candlelight but not the smell (some people start sneezing the minute a scented candle is lit), this box of 12 neon coloured candles, by True Grace (€45), is a fun and cheerful way to light up the room.
