Understanding a Candle’s Scent Notes

April 30, 2021

When picking out a candle in person, half of the fun is spending ten minutes opening the lids to every candle on the shelf and sticking your nose in to smell, and then after a few minutes of performing this task a few times, you have to make your final round through the candles so you can come up with your final decision about which one has the best smell. You’re probably leaving the candle aisle quite fulfilled and happy with your decision, completely confident that when you get home, trim your wick, and light it up, it will fill your home with both delicate and elegant scents. However, when shopping for candles online, the process of picking seems to become more of a guessing game; with obscure candle names, lengthy descriptions that do a wonderful job of setting the scene and aura of the candle but not definitively defining the smell, and scent notes, you may walk away feeling as though you should know exactly what to expect from this candle, but still can’t seem to make out what it will actually smell like once you get it to your home. Besides carefully crafted and descriptive paragraphs detailing the essence and inspiration for the candle, the scent notes will be your most useful tool when buying a candle online.

The scent notes of a candle give you a perfect guide as to what to expect during the whole candle burning experience. Scent notes are divided into three categories, those three categories being top note, middle note, and base note. The term top note refers to the ‘first impression’ scent. This fragrance is most likely the scent you will smell upon opening the candle, and the first scent that will linger upon lighting it. This scent presents itself first because it is the most volatile and will evaporate the quickest out of all the fragrances. These scents are normally lighter and airy in scent and are typically citrus or herb scents. Followed up by the top note is the middle note, this scent is the heart of the candle and takes about ten to twenty minutes to fully develop and be brought out by the burning of the wax. This scent will be the most prominent during the entire burning process and are typically more well-rounded, distinguished, and hearty scents - think flowers and spices. The last term to understand when it comes to scent notes is the base note, this is the scent that will linger in your home even after you have snuffed out the flame. They are the densest fragrance and thus are the last to emerge themselves, however, that means that they stay around the longest and take a considerable amount of time to evaporate. These scents are the deep and comforting scents of the candle, the musky and truly sweet scents such as vanilla or cedar.

Understanding the terminology of scent notes will help you in deciphering exactly what your candle will smell like upon opening it, lighting it, and what the lingering essence will be even after the flame is gone. Knowing this terminology is extremely helpful when buying from online stores such as TLC and will help in your candle buying experience. For example, TLC’s London Fog doesn’t give a lot of hints as to what it may exactly smell like just upon looking at its name. However, after looking further into the description, you will see its scent notes listed as Earl Grey, Cedar, Savanna, Musk, Cucumber, Bees Wax, Angelic. Breaking this down, it means that the first scent that you will be met with is a classic and soft early grey scent, however, this will be taken over by the much more prominent and deeper scents such as cedar, musk, and bees wax. Finally, after having these much denser scents, the candle scent will balance out after it has been snuffed with a slow-developing and light like fog angelic scent that will perfectly round out both the hearty scents of busy city air, with the airiness and coolness of quiet fog.

Understanding scent notes and how to read them can completely change your candle buying habits. By comprehending scent notes and what they mean, you can precisely and accurately imagine what your candle will smell like at each stage of the lighting process and how those scents will intermingle together. After reading this article you have become further educated about the world of candles and can now be a far more conscious and detailed buyer when it comes to shopping from candle business such as TLC. We hope to see you use these new skills you have acquired to make a few more deliberate purchases from TLC’s online store.

 -Kezington Baxter, Guest Writer

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