How Do I Smell My Yankee Candle? Let Me Count The Ways!

As an 18-year veteran of Yankee Candle many people ask me how to smell a candle to get the best idea of the scent. Although there are a variety of tips and techniques, the personal nature of our own sense of smell means that there is no right way or wrong way - just your way and my way!

More often than not, when choosing a candle to buy you’re smelling it unlit in the store. What’s the best way to smell a cold candle? Some say you should smell the inside of a domed Yankee Candle lid in order to get the best idea of how it will smell while burning. While that method has a proven track record, our candlemakers have worked tirelessly on making sure that the candle wax itself offers a strong waft of fragrance, even cold. And, members of our fragrance committee often open the candle slightly to take in the bloom of scent from both the lid and the wax in order to fully appreciate the aroma. We’ve even known some candle connoisseurs to put a Tart® in one scent into a jar lid of another to get an idea of how they’d smell if combined!

It really is all a matter of preference and the number of different techniques makes me think that (to paraphrase a well-known song) there must be fifty ways to smell your candle:

You can smell from the lid, Syd

Sniff from the jar, Star

There's no right way, Kay

Just set your scent free

Light up the wax, Max

Let the scent fill your space, Grace

Just follow your nose, Rose

And set your scent free!

You can set your scent free in our Yankee Candle retail stores, on our website, and in gift and home stores nationwide!