Read enough candle reviews and you will meet words like aquatic, aromatic and green. They sound fancy. They are just labels for smells you already know. Once you can read them, the best rated scented candles are easier to spot. Here is a plain guide to the words critics use for fresh scents.
Best Rated Scented Candles Start With The Family Name
Critics sort scents into families. Michael Edwards drew the best known chart in 1992. People call it the fragrance wheel. It puts fresh scents in four groups: citrus, water, green and aromatic.
Citrus is lemon, bergamot and orange. Water is sea air and marine smells. Green is cut leaves and grass. Aromatic is herbs and lavender. The groups overlap, so treat them as rough guides. Words like clean and crisp can mean lemon to one reviewer and sea air to another. That is why the family name helps.
What do reviewers mean by top notes?
Top notes are the part you smell first. The Perfume Society says perfumers often use citrus as a top note, for a crisp, clean opening. Deeper notes come after it. Base notes, the ones still there hours later, arrive last.
Match The Words To Real Fresh Candles
You can try this on the Fresh fragrances page. Going by the names alone, Salty Seascape points to the water group. Farm Fresh Herbs points to aromatic. Lakeside Moss and Cucumber & Aloe point to green.
That is a guess from the names, so open the product page and read the notes. If the list says lemon or bergamot first, expect a bright start. If it says herbs or leaves, expect something greener and softer.
Fresh scents also come in other forms. There are scented tealight candles, such as Garden Mint and Farm Fresh Herbs. There are also reed diffusers, like Citrus Zest.
How To Read A Review Without Being Fooled
A review tells you what one nose smelled in one room. Use it as a clue. Look for three things:
- Does the reviewer name the notes, not just say "lovely"?
- Do they say where they burned it?
- Do several reviewers describe the same smell?
One perfume school says citrus fragrances will not last as long as other families. That is about perfume on skin. Treat it as a clue for candles, not a rule.
Quick answers
What is the fresh fragrance family?
It is the group of clean, bright scents. On the fragrance wheel it covers citrus, water, green and aromatic notes. Think lemon, sea air, cut leaves and herbs.
Do fresh scents fade faster?
In perfume, one school says citrus does not last as long as other families. That comment is about perfume on skin. For a candle, judge by how the jar smells in your own room.
Not sure which family you lean towards? The fragrance personality quiz can narrow it down before you buy.
Related reading
- Fragrance In Candles: Why No Two Florals Smell The Same: the same idea, for the floral family.
- Candle Perfume: Why The Same Scent Smells Different: why your nose may disagree with a reviewer.
- A Jasmine Candle Explains What Floral Really Means: another family, explained the same way.
