Scent Finder
Find the family before you pick the candle
Most bad candle purchases are a family mismatch, not a quality problem. Six questions about the rooms you live in and what you already own, and we will tell you where to start and why.
6 questions · every match shown immediately, no email
Question 1 of 6
The six families
Every scent on the market sits in one of these, or bridges two. Knowing which you like narrows a wall of candles down to a shelf.
- Citrus and fresh
- Bergamot, neroli, grapefruit and sea salt. These read clean rather than sweet, and they suit smaller rooms because they lift quickly without lingering.
- Floral
- Rose, jasmine, and blossom over soft musk. The trap here is soapiness, so the good ones sit a floral over something drier.
- Woody
- Cedar, teak, sandalwood. The most year-round of the families, and the easiest to live with in a room you use every day.
- Gourmand and sweet
- Vanilla, tonka, caramel, and spice. The strongest throw of any family, which is why they suit large open rooms and why they overwhelm small ones.
- Green and herbal
- Fig leaf, vetiver, herbs, and stems. Quiet, dry, and the least likely to smell like a shop, which is what people usually mean by an expensive candle.
- Amber and smoke
- Amber, smoke, incense, and resin. Cold-weather scents that make a room feel enclosed rather than fresh.
Questions
- How does the Scent Finder work?
- Six questions, each weighted toward one of six scent families. We add up the weights and recommend the family your answers lean toward. The scoring is fixed, so the same answers always give the same result.
- Does it recommend a specific candle?
- It recommends a scent family and then shows candles in it. We do not claim to match you to one exact fragrance, because that would need blind testing we have not done.
- Do I have to give my email?
- No. We do not ask for it and there is nowhere on this site to enter one. Every family the quiz matches you to is shown straight away, in full.