Lighting a scented candle on a cold night creates a gentle flame and dancing glow that adds a sense of calm to the evening. Before long, an aroma starts to permeate the room as well, adding a luxurious touch. In a previous post, I talked about the floral and fruity scents used to make soap in Brazil, and these same aromatics are used in the candles here as well.
If you’re going to buy scented candles, the first thing you have to decide is what you want them to smell like. It’s best to choose scents you like, and to select different aromas for different moods. Below are some of the more popular scents in Brazil.
• Lavender: Lavender is good for dissolving stress, making it the best scent for relaxing.
• Vanilla: Vanilla is a sweet but calming scent, encouraging you to slow down and take it easy.
• Lemon: Lemon is a refreshing scent that helps with focus.
• Jasmine: Jasmine is an elegant, romantically floral scent that adds calm and a touch of luxury.
• Sandalwood: Sandalwood has a spicy, woody fragrance that feels like nature and inspires stillness. It is apparently one of the oldest fragrances in the world.
It’s fun to change out the scents you use depending on whether you want a refreshing or a relaxing experience.
Some shops sell candles that combine two different scents, such as lemon and verbena, almond and vanilla, or apple and cinnamon.
The next thing to consider is the container that your candle comes in. They’re almost always sold in glass, but they sometimes come in aluminum as well. They are available in many different shapes, sizes, and colors that you can choose from to match the style and feel of your room.
I have used a mint-scented candle to get rid of lingering food smells in my kitchen before—it was specifically designed for kitchens and came in a kitchen-style container. Now that the candle is gone, I use the container for candy and other little things. It has a cute shape and even has a lid.
I’ve also used empty glass candle containers to grow small plants.
A shop called We Candle opened in São Paulo about a year ago. It’s in Asiatown, and the owners are of Japanese descent. Their candles mainly feature Japanese scents like mochi rice cakes, cherry blossom, Japanese cypress, matcha latte, yuzu citrus, melon candy, and strawberry shortcake. All of them are soft and sweet.
Of course, they have other popular scents available as well, like hibiscus, peony, iris, lemon and lavender, tangerine and vanilla, and so on.
We Candle sells their candles in lidded glass containers. They’ll even sell you refills at the shop, which is a wonderful option.
Most candle wicks are made of cotton, but some are made of wood. We Candle uses the wooden ones, which sometimes make a crackling sound that is pleasant to the ear.
I’ve heard that the proper way to extinguish a candle with a cotton wick is to submerge it in the surrounding melted wax, then return it to its original position once it’s out. This apparently prevents it from smoking. Blowing it out makes it smoke, compromising the lovely scents that you wanted to create in the first place.
It’s wintertime in Brazil now, so I’m looking forward to burning my scented candles in the evenings.
