The Glass Christmas gift guide – our candles of choice
Rhubarb Rhubarb! Candle Box Noble Isle Fine Fragrance Candle & Snuffer
Rhubarb Rhubarb! Candle Box Noble Isle Fine Fragrance Candle & Snuffer
British brand Noble Isle have recently added this handsome candle and snuffer into its Rhubarb Rhubarb! line of scented handwashes and handcreams. Launched a mere four years ago, Noble Isle have proved an instant hit and now provide the handwash of choice in hotels as prestigious as the Savoy in London.
At first encounter, Rhubarb Rhubarb! smells, well, just delicious, with its top notes of top notes of rhubarb and juniper berry, heart notes of rosemary and tarragon underpinned by base notes of moss and cedarwood. An excellent present to give at Christmas, if you can bear to part with it, that is.
by Caroline Simpson
Rhubarb Rhubarb! Candle Box Noble Isle Fine Fragrance Candle & Snuffer (£39) is available online or from Liberty London
Robbie Honey Muguet Des Bois candle
Robbie Honey Muguet Des Bois candle
Robbie Honey: florist to the fashion industry, has launched a boutique collection of scented candles, all inspired by white flowers. While any would make beautiful gifts, we particularly love the sound of Muguet Des Bois. The clarity and brightness of lily of the valley – the bloom that traditionally represents the arrival of spring – is captured in this candle. We think cheating a little, and bringing that freshness to the festive season, is a wonderful way to usher in the New Year.
by Rachel McCormack
Robbie Honey Muguet Des Bois candle priced at £42 available here
Pearl Lowe Harlequin Candle priced at £30
Pearl Lowe Harlequin Candle priced at £30
Pearl Lowe’s Harlequin candle is exquisitely pretty and playful. The scent is a warm floral inspired by Lowe’s travels in Marrakech: orange blossom and fresh green leaves combine to bring exotic glamour to Christmas. Housed in a glass patterned with Lowe’s signature Harlequin’ print; the red, rose and black panes are sure to look even more lovely when lit.
by Rachel McCormack
Pearl Lowe Harlequin Candle is priced at £30 and is available from Beauty Mart
Iiuvo candle
Iiuvo candle
Young hip and luxe company Iiuvo set up by Tomi Ahmed and Leo Gibbon presented their first product-line this year – three high quality candles as elegant and minimal as one would expect from former Comme Des Garcons, Dover Street Market and Hardy Amies employees. The candles are developed and made in Grasse, the home of French perfume, in the South of France, using the finest quality ingredients and come in three fragrances – Ajon, Emmie and Woodgrain – all inspired by memories significant to Ahmed and Gibbon. They are, needless to say, chic-ly packaged as well, and if we want to talk gender, a perfect gift for a man or a woman.
For Christmas, Glass fancies the woody and opulent Woodgrain, with its seasonal fir balsam and myrrh inflections.
An Iiuvo candle costs £50 and is available online or from Liberty London
Bella Freud Mini Votive Gift Set
Bella Freud Mini Votive Gift Set
Having difficulty deciding just which of Bella Freud’s cult candles to plump for? The recently launched Bella Freud Mini Candle Gift Set makes that decision four times easier. This collection includes 1970, Je T’aime Jane, Ginsberg is God, and the Bella Freud signature candle of Incense Wood and Oud. Guaranteed to satisfy the most ardent Freud aficionado, or to thrill those yet to discover why this line is so very covetable.
by Rachel McCormack
Bella Freud Mini Votive Gift Set costs £70 available here
Rathbones cedar, cloves and ambergris four-wick candle
Rathbones cedar, cloves and ambergris four-wick candle
If you want a more traditional candle to scent your Christmas time, what could be better than one made by the oldest candle-making company in the world? Rathbones was established in 1488 in the UK, before moving to Dublin 500 years ago. These hand-poured candles made of the highest quality natural essential oils and wax have provided light to households, churches, streets and even lighthouses for centuries. It even has a wikipedia page.
The cedar, cloves and ambergris candle smells of Christmas trees needles crunched underfoot during a walk in a silent forest with lightly falling snow and twilight stars.
by Caroline Simpson
Rathbones candles range in price from £16 to this cedar, cloves and ambergris four-wick candle priced at £45. Stockists include Fenwicks, Brown Thomas, Dublin and here.
Lalique special edition candle
Lalique special edition candle
The newly launched limited edition candle from Lalique ticks all the boxes for a truly luxurious scent to permeate through the home. La Neige exudes rich, warm and sweet floral notes when burning – just perfect for the holidays. What is unique about La Neige is, as the name suggests, that the candle is encased in a glass as white as snow, accompanied with a black wooden engraved lid that can be used to place the candle on. If you are dreaming of a white Christmas – La Neige is the gift for you.
by Amanda Bernstein
Lalique special edition candle, £65 is available from here