Home startups aren’t the only brands selling candles — here’s why

You’re shopping for jewelry for yourself when you notice your favorite gold delicates startup also sells its own candles. As you move on to browsing lingerie, you get an eerie sense of déjà vu — there it is again, like a hazy mirage inviting you to close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Candles are becoming a popular offering for not only home startups, which naturally revolve around creating a peaceful, comfortable space, but also unexpected companies like jewelry and apparel.

If your main goal today is to find a set of stacking rings, why would you veer off course to a candle? For Mejuri, an online company whose mission “is to have women embrace a daily dose of luxury,” candles are a natural extension of its brand, and it’s hoping you’ll see rings and a candle as a natural pairing.

Believing broadly that “luxury comes from the small moments,” the founders wanted to introduce a complementary, self-care product that gives its customers the same little thrill as when they put on a beautiful necklace or pair of earrings.

It sells two varieties of hand-poured, small-batch candles, the A.M. and the P.M., meant to match your changing moods throughout the day. Bedding startup Brooklinen sells a similar concept in its A.M. to P.M. set of candles, which takes you from the fresh, invigorating morning air of the oceanside to the warm, comforting embrace of a nightcap.

Home startups Snowe also center their candles around different moods rather than describe the scent first. If you want to be transported to your favorite dark, brooding establishment, try the Speak Easy, but if you’d prefer to stay at home, Pillow Talk is a perfect match.

Lingerie and swimwear startup LIVELY listened to its community in order to arrive at its candle product. It first expanded into beauty in 2018 by launching a fragrance, Jasmine. Sea. Sun. Shoppers told the brand they’d love to see this playful blend of jasmine, sea salt, pear, and sandalwood in a candle, and it was happy to deliver. The scent aims to carry on LIVELY’s story of carefree, confident living.

In the end, everything comes back to making you feel comfortable in your own skin. In that way, jewelry, lingerie, and home brands aren’t really so different from each other.

These candles are a romantic way to keep you engaged with the brand and get a scent-driven dose of luxury, but on a practical level, they’re also the more affordable route to take.

Name-brand luxury candles like diptyque and Byerdo cost $60 to $90 — a true splurge. Meanwhile, startup candles of the same size average $35, plus they have the additional benefits of using cleaner, natural ingredients. New companies that specialize in candles and fragrance, like Otherland and Skylar, are also cropping up in the wave of accessible direct-to-consumer alternatives to traditional brands. To add to your candle collection without overspending, try looking to one of your favorite online startups first.

You can shop candles from a variety of startups below.