Choosing a scented candle is a bit like choosing a perfume. Above and beyond smelling good, it should reflect and enhance your mood, mirror your style and say a little something about your personality. After all, just like a spritz on the pulse points, once you’ve lit the wick, that aroma is going to keep you company for hours. With that in mind, my approach to home scent, as with perfume, is the fragrance wardrobe. Not just an excuse to deck out my flat with beautiful glass holders or attempt to look more radiant in candlelight, these candles that are the aromatic soundtrack to my life.

Diptyque - Baies

As a general rule, I prefer to keep my home scents and personal fragrances at a happy distance, but this is the exception. The second I smelt Diptyque’s Baies candle it was love. Velvety soft, clean and reminiscent of the first blooms of Spring, it’s based around roses and blackcurrant leaves, making it both floral and green. It came of something of a surprise to find that my favourite of their perfumes, L’Ombre Dans L’Eau, is its companion, albeit a sweeter, more sparkling version. But then, with such an impressive 50-year pedigree, if anyone can break my regular fragrance rule, Diptyque can.best scented candles

Cire Trudon - Nazareth

If you bottled all the best bits of Christmas – mulled wine, toasty fires, chocolates and the annual trip to midnight mass – this is what it would smell like. Neither sickly sweet or overpoweringly spicy, the warm and woody aroma creates the perfect atmosphere for the festive season. The French company Cire Trudon has a long and illustrious history that can be traced back as far the 17th century when candles became a luxury for special occasions, rather than just a source of light. So it seems fitting that my choice conjures up one of the year’s most special days. Think cinnamon, cloves, mandarin, vanilla and golden resins resonating from a ruby red glass, and you’re there.

Green & Spring Revitalising Candle

Candles that aim to put some pep in your step often fall foul of smelling like Toilet Duck. Not so with Green & Spring. The cool and quirky British brand is inspired by our beautiful countryside, so the company pack all of their body and home products with locally sourced, sustainably grown herbs and flowers. The mix of peppermint, fennel, dandelion and rosemary in the Revitalising candle subtly refreshes the air around you as well as perking up your mind, while the candle itself is made from 100% natural wax. Handmade, the pretty bird-adorned packaging alone makes it completely covetable.

Votivo - Red Currant

At first glance, the scents in the Votivo candle range may seem pretty one-dimensional: Red Currant, Morning Violet or Mandarin, for example. On closer inspection however, you’ll find that they are cleverly constructed like fine fragrances. The sharp and sweet (and perfect dinner party accompaniment) Red Currant has green and citrus to notes that give way to a cassis and tropical fruit heart and finally the fruity musk base. Add to this that each is handcrafted, hand-wrapped and dressed with a hand-pressed pewter seal, and a single fruit or flower is transformed into something very special.luxury scented candles

Christian Dior - 30 Montaigne

As you would expect from the fêted fragrance house, Dior’s candle range takes home scent to another level, not least because it nestles alongside their La Cellection Privée range of exclusive and exquisite perfumes. Inspired by the first Dior salon, it was created by Creative Director Hedi Slimane to scent the flagship Paris store. As befits a scent of that haute couture stature, it’s chic, sensual and addictive thanks to an evocative blend of cardamom, cedarwood, amber and incense. My verdict? Unfailingly seductive.