High Illumination: Aura Candles

In the past few months, I've had the chance to try three different fragrances of Aura Candles, and I've got lots of observations about the line to share.

First, the scent blends are interesting, imaginative and sophisticated, yet still hit that comfort sweet spot. I've burned Obscure [black ginger, musk, white pepper], Luscious [tangerine, vanilla, sandalwood, musk, amber], and Cosmic [blood orange, vanilla bean, vanilla orchid, amber]. I would buy each of them again in a heartbeat, but my favorite is far and away Cosmic. It's beautiful and delicate, a refreshing scent that I really can't get enough of. The scent throw on all three of the candles I have is excellent.

Second, I want to address the quality of the wax and packaging. These candles use a soy blend of waxes, and they burn evenly. They are each 10oz and last for about 70 hours. For $24 each, I consider Aura Candles to be a very good value. This is one of the benefits of supporting small businesses who get it right; you don't pay through the nose, plus you get a chic, beautiful candle. The clear glass vessels are basic, but clean-looking, with the Aura logo on the front. The cardboard circular outer packaging the candle comes in is very chic, and housed in the lid is an adorable little box of Aura matches.

One caveat: I generally like to use a wick dipper to put out my candles, but when I tried it with an Aura Candle, the wick was brittle and broke off. I know the wicks are lead-free, but I'm not sure why else this might happen. My advice would be just to blow out these candles to maintain the integrity of the wick, and trim as normal.

If you decide to try Aura Candles, you'll quickly see for yourself that they've thought of everything. I can easily spend at least twice as much somewhere to get a candle of equal quality, but it's going to be hard to get me to do that anymore. There are 10 fragrance blends in all, and I've got 7 still to try. What I've learned with Aura is that even some scents I've not traditionally liked in the past very much, such as some citrus notes, can be done in a home fragrance blend that really works for me. I know that I'm picky about candles and not easy to please, which is why it's made me very happy that Aura has so easily exceeded my expectations.

Candles are available for $24 each at Aura Candles' website and Candles Off Main.