The Best Candles For Your Home – Broken Down By Season

I love a good candle. I light them nearly every day, and I tend to swap them out with the seasons — almost to the point where I have signature scents for different months of the year (If you’re a Pura person, I also have a similar list of all of my favorite seassonal Pura scents). It’s become a little seasonal ritual for me, right up there with rotating my throw pillow covers or switching out my duvet.

After more than a decade of writing about all things home and design, I’ve had the chance to smell hundreds of candles—through product reviews, PR appointments, and way too many wanders through boutiques and showrooms Somewhere along the way, I ended up with a pretty solid list of go-tos, so I’m finally writing down my favorites in one place.

Below are the candles currently in my rotation, organized by the season I use them in.

Dont’ want to scroll? Wuick Shop my Favorites:

First, A Quick Note About How I Chose the Best Candles & My Scent Preferences

There are lots of ways to evaluate candles. You can measure their cold throw, which is how strong they smell when they aren’t lit. A stronger cold throw generally means a better quality candle. You can measure their hot throw, which is, you probably guessed, how strong the scent is when the candle is lit. You can also measure burn time and whether the “pool melt,” or how evenly the wax pools across the surface when the candle it lit.

All of these things are very specific and can help you buy a good candle.

However, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t consider a $10, $30 or even $50 candle a purchase that warrants that much research, and these things aren’t something I personally consider when I am candle shopping. What I look for? A candle that smells good, mostly when it’s lit, but also when it’s not lit.

I also don’t want a candle that’s burning toxic fumes through my house, so I try to opt for cleaner candles when I can. However, there are a few of my favorites that are made from paraffin wax and synthetic fragrances that I still buy because I love them. I did note the wax blend and key ingredients in each candle in case that’s important to you!

If you are looking for a cleaner candle, the ones I have listed from Element Brooklyn, Quince, Mrs. Meyers, Le Labo, Maison Louie Marie, Crate & Barrel, Apotheke, Hotel Lobby Candle and Voluspa are made from natural wax blends like soy, coconut and cottonseeed; use natural fragrance oils, and cotton wicks; and are free from things like lead, parabens, sulfates, and phthalates.

The candles I have included from Diptyque, Thymes, and Threshold are generally made from food-grade Paraffin wax.

I also will buy candles in all sorts of price ranges, as long as they’re under $100. I tend to stick most to the $20-$40 range, but I have some on this list under $20 and even under $10.

Finally, I think it’s good to know what kind of scents I usually gravitate towards since fragrance is personal and you might hate what I love. I generally prefer scents that are woodsy, earthy, citrusy or subtly sweet. I also like some florals, like magnolia, peony, rose or tomato. I love hotel lobby scents, and fragrances that remind me of a cabin in the woods (at least for fall). I don’t love super-sweet food-inspired scents like vanilla (unless it’s mixed with scents like leather or tobacco) or ‘blueberry pie,’ and I also don’t like fragrances that remind me of laundry soap like ‘clean cotton.’ I can do a pumpkin spice candle, as long as it’s not overly sweet.

If that sounds like you, too, keep reading for some candles I think you’ll love.

Quick Shop my Favorites:

Spring & Summer Candles

Quince Grapefruit Candle

Grapefruit is one of my favorite summer scents because it just feels so refreshing when it’s hot out. The Quince version is light and lovely, and a true grapefruit. keep this one in my entryway, and even when it’s not lit, it makes the whole room smell fresh.

Apotheke Sea Salt Grapefruit Candle

Another one of my favorite grapefruit scents, though it’s a little “softer” than the pure grapefruit version above. If you love grapefruit but want something slightly less punchy, start here.

Quince Soleil de Provence

This candle is inspired by, as the name suggests, the sun in Provence, and it’s just such a lovely scent. It blends citrus with fig and cedar, which makes it richer and more sophisticated than the others I use in the summer, but it still feels seasonal.

Diptyque Roses Classic Candle

I don’t love a ton of floral candles because they can tend to feel powdery and heavy, but this one is ah-mazing. It smells like roses, but in a clean, fresh way, that’s also a tiny biy spicy. I need to work on my fragrance vocab, but it’s a good one.

The price is steep, but as a consolation, I do find that Diptyque candles last a while. If you still can’t stomach the price, here is the ultimate budget tip for this one. If you shop at Trader Joe’s, keep an eye out in February, they usually release a great dupe of this one around Valentine’s Day. It’s called “A rose is a rose,” and $4, and I usually buy 3-4 of them to last the season and make my rose candle fixation a little more affordable.

Mrs. Meyers Lavender Soy Candle

For $4, this one is hard to beat. I burn this one when I’m out of any of the others above, and I often leave one in the bathroom to light when guests come. I take this candle as proof that you don’t need to spend a fortune for a candle that actually smells good.

Shop the best candles for year round:

Fall Candles

Quince Currant Noir Candle

This is a great pick for that in-between stretch of late summer/early fall, when you’re not quite ready for the full-on warm and cozy scents, but your summer go-tos like grapefruit and rose no longer feel quite right either. It blend fruity currant with rose, and wood notes for something that feels just right for a shoulder season.

Quince Mediterranean Fig Candle

Just like the Currant Noir candle, this one blends fruity fig with richer notes like green leaves and tree bark that make it feel a little earthy, too.

Fig + Amber Candle (Crate & Barrel)

I love this one for fall. It has similar fig notes to the Quince version, but it’s a littlre more earthy and less fruity. It’s warm, but more sophisticated than your average pumpkin-scented candle — a good option if you want cozy without tipping into cliché.

Element Brooklyn Campfire Stereo Candle

This is my dupe pick of the season. It smells like a genuine evening by the fire, and it’s a dead ringer for Maison Margiela’s Replica By the Fireplace at a fraction of the price. Great for fall nights when you want that campfire coziness without actually building a fire.

Holiday Candles

Thymes Fraser Fir Candle

This is my favorite holiday candle. If you want your house to smell like a fresh-cut Christmas tree the second people walk in the door, this is it.

Hotel Lobby Candle – Aspen

My other Christmas go-to. It’s got that polished, “walking into a beautiful hotel lobby in December” feel — festive, but not over-the-top sweet like a lot of holiday candles can be.

Threshold Forest Fir Candle

This is a classic fir-scented candle that I love as an inexpensive option. I usually have a few of these for when guests come over during the holidays and I want a Christmas-y scent in every room without spending a fortune on candles. This one is only available around the holidays.

Winter Candles

Le Labo Santal 26

This is my go-to winter scent, full stop. I first smelled this candle about 15 years ago (maybe longer?) in the lobby of the Gramery Park Hotel and I was instantly hooked. It smells like sandalwood, leather, and cardamom, and it’s one of those candles that makes a whole room feel more expensive the second you light it. Probably because it is super-expensive, but that brings me to …

Maison Louie Marie Bois de Ballaincourt No 4.

This is my favorite Santal 26 dupe, and I mean that as a real compliment. ((I actually have a whole post on Santal dupes if you’re interested). It gets you that same sophisticated feel for a lot less, which makes it easy to burn through the whole season without wincing every time you light it. I own the perfume, too!

Quince Dark Pomegranate Candle

This one is deep and a little fruity-warm, which makes it a great winter candle if you want something a little lighter than a Santal — it still has some brightness to it, but it leans cozy enough to carry you into the darker months.

Late Winter & Early Spring Candles

Capri Blue Volcano Candle

The Anthropologie candle! This might be one of the most popular candles of all time, and once you smell it, it’s easy to get the hype. It’s probably the fruitiest, most tropical-smelling fragrance on this list, but it’s still grounded and rich, too, which I think is what I like about it. I burn it in early spring when I’m excited for warmer months.

Threshold designed with Studio McGee, Santal & Ginger Candle

I like this one for that late winter into early spring stretch. It’s not a true santal candle, but it has hints of that scent with a touch more sweetness layered in, which make it feel like the Santal scent has evolved for the spring.

And there you have it! I hope you find your new favorite scent (or scents) on this list! If you have any other candles I should try, drop them in the comments!