Unscented Candles: Why Choose Them, and Where

Unscented candles are candles with no added fragrance, natural or synthetic. People choose them for light without perfume: at the dinner table, where scent competes with food and wine; in bedrooms; for sensitive noses; and in homes with pets or small children. Pure beeswax candles are the quietest kind, because the wax needs no fragrance and only smells faintly of honey.

Why choose unscented candles

For sensitive noses

Many people enjoy candlelight but not perfume. Strong fragrance can feel heavy in a small room, and some people simply find it tiring. An unscented candle gives the flame without the scent, so the light is all that changes in the room. If your concern is what a candle releases rather than how it smells, our guide to non-toxic candles looks at wax, wick and fragrance together.

At the dinner table

Restaurants use unscented candles for a reason: a scented candle on the table competes with everything on the plate and in the glass. Unscented tapers give a warm, flattering light at eye level and leave the food to speak for itself. Our tapers are made for exactly this. For ideas, see Setting a table for autumn.

In the bedroom

A bedroom is where you notice scent most, and where you may want it least. A small unscented candle for reading or winding down keeps the air quiet. Put it out before you sleep, always. We wrote more about this in Beeswax and a quieter bedroom.

In homes with pets and small children

Animals experience scent far more strongly than we do, and some essential oils are not recommended around cats and other small pets. Unscented candles are a gentler choice for homes with pets. That does not change the basic rules for any flame: place it high, out of reach of paws, tails and small hands, and never leave it unattended. Our journal piece on candles in a home with pets has practical advice on where to put them.

When you already have scent

Fresh flowers, a fire, cooking, a favourite perfume: unscented candles add light without adding another layer. They are also the easy choice of gift when you do not know someone’s taste in fragrance.

Unscented does not mean scentless

Every wax has some smell of its own. Paraffin smells faintly of nothing much, soy faintly of vegetable oil, and pure beeswax faintly of honey. That last one is a trace of the hive: honey, pollen and propolis settle in the comb, and warming the wax releases a little of them. It is strongest in the first minutes of a burn, close to the melt pool, and it fades into the room rather than filling it.

Much of the beeswax sold for candles is bleached and deodorised to remove this. We do the opposite, which is why our unscented candles smell softly of honeycomb. Nothing has been added; nothing has been taken away.

Unscented vs fragrance-free: read the label

In some products, “unscented” means only that no noticeable smell remains, sometimes because a masking agent has been added to cover the smell of the base. “Fragrance-free” more often means that no fragrance ingredient was used at all. For candles the words are used loosely, so the ingredient list is the better guide. A candle of 100 % beeswax and a cotton wick has nothing to mask, and nothing added.

How to use unscented candles

• Tapers on the table. Set them in candlesticks at different heights down a long table, or a pair in the centre for two. Fit them snugly and keep them away from open windows.
• Pillars in a niche or on a mantel. A group of three heights gives depth to a wall. Burn them on a plate or heat-proof holder. See Pillars in a niche.
• A single pillar on a side table. Out of the way of passing elbows and pets, where you can see it.
• In the bath or by the bed. A small flame in a quiet room, put out before you leave it.

Choosing a good unscented candle

An unscented candle has nowhere to hide. With no fragrance to carry it, the quality of the wax and the wick is all you notice: how steady the flame is, how cleanly it burns, how long it lasts. That is why it is worth choosing a pure wax, a cotton wick and a maker who publishes burn times. Unscented paraffin is still paraffin.

Burning them well

• Trim the wick to about 5 mm before each lighting.
• On the first burn of a pillar, let the melt pool widen before you put it out, so it burns evenly.
• Keep candles out of draughts, which make them flicker and drip.
• Burn for no more than four hours at a time.
• Never leave a lit candle unattended, and keep it out of reach of children and pets.

Our unscented candles: pillars and tapers

All our pillars and tapers are unscented. They contain nothing but 100 % European beeswax and a cotton wick: no fragrance, natural or otherwise, no dyes and no paraffin.

• Pure pillars in three heights, all 7 cm wide: 10 cm for about 50 hours, 15 cm for about 75 hours and 20 cm for about 100 hours. Also as a set of three.
• Pure tapers, 25 cm, hand-dipped and joined at the wick in pairs, for about 10 hours each. As a pair or as six.

If you do want scent, our three stoneware vessels are scented with organic essential oils, lightly enough to let the beeswax through. Curious how beeswax compares with other waxes? Read about the real beeswax candle benefits.