I’m Scenting My Apartment With the 10 Best Fall Candles
Cozy season deserves this lineup.
Okay, okay, I relent, fall is almost here, and I’m kinda sorta excited to revel in the cooler temperatures. The upcoming season means my cashmere sweaters are coming out of storage, New York Fashion Week is imminent, and life’s cozy factor is about to multiply exponentially. What better way to ease into the season than with a couple of new fall candles? I’ll admit, my candle collection is… staggering. The vintage credenza where I store them is quite literally bowed in the middle from the weight of all the jars. But there is truly nothing better than closing your laptop at the end of the day, striking a match, and lighting a beloved scent to kick off a bit of relaxation time.
Fall candles are particularly noteworthy in my collection because of how warm, woody, spicy, and gourmand they tend to lean. After a summer filled with skin scents, fresh citrus, scintillating Ambroxan, and salty mineral perfumes, switching up my home’s fragrance profile feels like a welcome palette cleanser. So, if you’re also a home scent obsessive but you don’t necessarily want to go full-on pumpkin spice latté, here are the 10 fall candles I’m eyeing for the upcoming season.
So Santal
Santal (a.k.a. sandalwood) is one of the most popular notes in perfumery, but it’s equally seductive in candle form. The creamy, woody, and cozy vibes are ideal for the fall season.
Perfectly balanced with notes of magnolia, sandalwood, and Italian lemon, this candle transports me to the Tuscan countryside where I can lounge away my fall weekends in style.
Smokey, leathery, and housed in a ridiculously stylish concrete vessel, this scent is for anyone who still lives and breathes the Santal 33 craze of the 2010s. I have it sitting on my coffee table as we speak, waiting for me to light it on September 1.
Keep It Cashmere
Even if it’s not quite the temperature to dress in head-to-toe cashmere, you can bet I’ll be burning a cashmere-scented candle to bask in all the cozy fall vibes.
My millennial soul will always return to B&B candles. You can beat the value for the quality, and this floral-meets-woody combo nails the essence of your favorite cashmere sweater.
Capture the enveloping aura of cashmere with this delicate musky candle. Trust me, you can never go wrong with a classic Diptyque candle, and—bonus—the jar can be repurposed as a makeup brush holder once you burn all the way through it.
Dreamy Cedar
When I can’t make it upstate for a hike, I turn to a cedar candle for my outdoor fix. Cedarwood is one of my favorite notes for fall fragrances, and it’s just as beautiful in candle form.
If you wish you could escape to the West Coast and explore the mountainous woods for a fall getaway (with an occasional surf adventure thrown in), this might be your new favorite fall home fragrance.
Warm, spicy, and perfectly balanced, I treat myself to the three-wick options for extended burn time—because I deserve it, obviously.
Lovely Leather
What fabric am I most excited to wear come fall? Leather and suede pieces, 100 percent. It also makes for an undeniably sexy candle, just saying.
For the true luxury lovers, this leather and tobacco candle draws inspiration from Havana hotels with glass crafted in Tuscany.
By the Fireplace
Although it’s hard to find in NYC, a seat near a wood-burning fireplace is my idea of heaven when the weather turns cool. Luckily, some of my all-time favorite candle brands have captured that scent for those of us without a hearth at home.
Designed to replicate a cozy breakfast huddled next to a fireplace, this candle has notes of coffee, almond pastry, tobacco, and leather upholstery. Please and thank you.
With notes of burning wood and chestnut, this if-you-know-you-know candle is always in my cabinet, waiting for the moment the night temperature drops below 65.
Why Trust Marie Claire
For more than 30 years, Marie Claire has been an internationally recognized destination for news, fashion, and beauty trends, investigative packages, and more. When it comes to the products Marie Claire recommends, we take your faith in us seriously. Every product that we feature comes personally recommended by a Marie Claire writer or editor, or by an expert we’ve spoken to firsthand.
Don't gatekeep our newsletters from your friends. Subscribe to Face Forward here.
