A fine home fragrance or collection of candles adds a beautiful finishing touch to the ambience of any home. Candles provide soft light, warmth, and a wide range of scents to choose from, and other options like diffusers help to keep your living space fragrant and inviting. Plus, they accentuate your home décor as accent pieces to complete your interior designs.
While a scented candle or diffuser may seem like a simple enough purchase, there are actually many considerations to bear in mind when making your choice. These include the intended use of the item, the room in which it will be placed, the size of it, its scent, and more.
Our home fragrance and candle buying guide will clarify everything you need to know, including how to choose candle scents, to pick the best solutions for every room.
Choosing your home fragrance
Fishpools offers a diverse selection of home fragrance products to keep every home smelling great and feeling energised. These are the options available to you when choosing your home fragrance method:
- Candles. Candles are a classic home décor item that infuse rooms with glowing warmth and soft, natural light. Fragranced candles also add tempting scents to your spaces, and the warmth of these burning candles helps to disperse these smells throughout your home. Candles may offer different burn times and different levels of scent diffusion based on their wax composition.
- Wax melt burners. Wax melt burners work by gently heating scented wax melts until they liquefy and distribute their fragrances through the air. They can be reused once the wax has solidified. You can simply re-melt the wax as many times as you like until it loses its fragrance.
- Reed diffusers. Reed diffusers like our Made by Zen Black Reed Diffuser are a popular addition to closets, wardrobes, bathrooms, and entryways. They provide a safe and effective way to distribute scents over long periods of time, and don’t require any flames or electricity to use.
- Electric diffusers. Electric diffusers are popular among aromatherapy proponents. These plug-in diffusers can diffuse both essential oils and scent oils by releasing water vapour infused with your oils of choice. They are highly efficient and safe and come in many different styles and finishes.
- Fabric and room refreshers. These options typically come in the form of sprays that can be used to scent linens, closets, clothing, and rooms. They offer long-lasting aromas and help to keep both fabrics and living spaces feeling fresh, and do not require any flame or electricity to use.
How to choose a candle
There are also many different types of candles to choose from, including candle holders to turn them into focal points in your home.
- Pillar candles. Pillar candles are cylindrical in shape and are crafted from rigid wax that can be burned free-standing. You can display them on their own, in candle holders or lamps, or even in heat-resistant platters and decorative bowls.
- Jar candles. Jar and votive candles are displayed in protective jars and containers, making them perfect for heat-sensitive surfaces and areas in which you don’t want to spill any wax.
- LED candles. LED candles are a safe, flame free alternative to traditional candles. They come in a wide range of shapes and sizes and can also offer different colours to help you set the perfect mood.
- Candle holders. These also come in a vast selection of shapes, colours, sizes and finishes to suit your interior décor. Be sure to choose a candle holder that will comfortably fit the candles that you have on hand or choose holders and candles that match each other in size for an aesthetic look.
- Tea light candles. Tea lights are small, round candles made in aluminium containers. While they have a brief burn time, they are small, cost-effective, and can even be displayed floating in water as a striking centrepiece or decoration.
- Lanterns. Lanterns add a touch of rustic charm to every setting and can easily house one or more candles to shed light wherever you need it. Using a lantern for your candles also makes them easier to move around.
- Wax melts. Wax melts consist of wax infused with fragrance or essential oils. They are placed in a wax melt burner such as our Wax/Oil Warmers and slowly melted with a tea light to release their scents into the air, and can be used multiple times before they need to be replaced.
Types of wax
Candles are usually made from soy wax, paraffin wax, beeswax, or a combination of plastic and LED lights. Here are the pros and cons of each material.
- Soy wax. Candles made from soy wax offer a long burn time and a clean burn. Made from soybean oil, this type of wax is natural and sustainable, not to mention biodegradable and washable as well.
- Paraffin wax. This type of wax is the most commonly used wax in candle making. It is inexpensive and reliable, but it does produce more soot than other types of wax such as soy wax.
- Beeswax. Beeswax is a luxury candle wax that exudes a honeyed fragrance and a delightfully warm glow when it is lit. This is a great wax option for individuals with allergies and sensitivities, and drips less than other waxes thanks to its higher melting point.
Alternatively, LED candles do not use wax. Instead, they’re made from plastic and contain small batteries to power their built-in lights. These are arguably the safest of all candles, as they do not burn, and thus don’t pose a fire hazard while still providing plenty of ambient light.
Types of fragrance
What is the best home fragrance? Candles are available in both scented and unscented variants, and the best one for you will depend on your specific needs.
Scented candles can infuse your living space with gorgeous, long-lasting aromas, and the range of scents to choose from is vast. However, many people are sensitive to synthetic fragrances; in these cases, unscented candles may be a better option.
If you’re interested in learning how to choose scented candles specifically, there are many fragrance families for you to explore. They include:
- Fresh. Scents that fall into the fresh family are clean, uplifting, and often quite subtle as well. They can range from the fragrance of clean linen and cotton to formulas inspired by aquatic and ozonic scent notes.
- Floral. Floral fragrances are classic, elegant, nuanced, and widely appreciated. Popular scent notes in this family include rose, lavender, ylang-ylang, honeysuckle, orange and pear blossom, jasmine, and lily.
- Woody. Woody scents are deep, complex, and comforting. They usually include a blend of notes such as cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, juniper and palo santo.
- Oriental. This fragrance family is renowned for exuding a mysterious, intriguing, and spicy profile. Oriental fragrances often include scent notes like amber, musk, vanilla, cinnamon, and cumin.
- Green. Green fragrances have a sharp, uplifting appeal, and can include notes such as bergamot, galbanum resin, green tea, basil, rosemary, and thyme. Peppermint, eucalyptus, chamomile, and fig leaf are also highly popular green scent notes.
Candle and home fragrance top tips and care information
Our first tip for maximising the burn time of your candles is to allow each candle to melt across its entire surface before blowing out its flame. This promotes even burning and ensures that your candles do not tunnel. We also recommend trimming your candle wicks to just under 1cm in length after each burn. Rather than blowing out your candle, use a snuffer to stop the wick from smouldering and affecting the scent of the candle.
If you’re using a reed diffuser in your home, be sure to use the recommended number of reeds depending on the fragrance you’ve chosen and the room in which the diffuser is displayed. If you have a strongly scented fragrance or have your diffuser in a small room, use 5 or 6 reeds. For lighter scents and larger rooms, use a few more reeds until you achieve your desired effect. When you need to give your space a fragrance boost, simply turn over the reeds and place them back in the diffuser container upside-down.
If you’ve invested in an electric diffuser, be sure to place it on a stable, flat surface out of reach of children and pets. Use only the recommended amount of fragrance oil and water in your diffuser and switch it off at the wall after use to extend its lifespan. Keep a few windows and doors open to achieve the ideal level of fragrance in your home.
Scent your living space with Fishpools
Fishpools offers everything you need to fragrance every room in your home, from stylish scented candles to reed diffusers, electric diffusers, and candle accessories to suit every home décor style.
Now that you have explored our candle buying guide and learned how to choose scented candles, shop our complete range of candles and home fragrances online to choose the perfect accessories for your needs. Or why not visit our showroom in Hertfordshire to view our collection of candles and home fragrances in store