Fruity candles are the family our customers buy most. Yet "fruity" is a loose word. A berry jar and a peach jar can smell very different. Perfumers sort scents into families so they can talk about them clearly. Here is how that works, and how it helps you pick a candle you will love.

Fruity Candles Have Their Own Place On The Wheel

Michael Edwards' Fragrance Wheel is a chart widely used to sort scents. Its main families are Floral, Amber, Woody and Fresh. According to its Wikipedia entry, fruity was added later as a sub-group, in 2008, with berries and fruits as its examples.

That tells you something. Fruit sits as a sub-group inside the chart, so it borrows from the families beside it. A perfumer who says "fruity floral" means fruit up front and flowers behind. That two-word phrase tells you more than any single note on a label.

What does fruity borrow from the other families?

Most fruity scents lean one of three ways. Some lean fresh and crisp. Some lean floral and soft. Some lean sweet and creamy. The lean matters more than the fruit itself, because it decides whether the room feels light or cosy.

Best Smelling Candles Start With Your Own Lean

Glow sorts scents into five groups on the site: Fruity, Fresh, Floral, Exotic and Indulgent. Two of our best-selling scent families are Mulberry and Iced Snowberries, and both sit in the Fruity group.

In an Australian spring, a crisp lean suits a warm afternoon. A creamy lean suits the cooler evenings that follow. It is worth owning one of each, so the scent can match the hour.

Try them in a small way first. The Mulberry Scent Plus Heart Melts let you test a scent for an evening, with no jar to commit to.

• Want crisp and cool? Look for berry and citrus.
• Want soft? Look for fruit with flowers.
• Want cosy? Look for fruit with vanilla.

Scented Wax Melts Make A Fruity Test Easy

A fragrance family is a guide, not a rule. Your nose has the final say. Wax melts are the lowest-risk way to find out, and you can swap one for another in a night. Browse the wax melts, then take the fragrance personality quiz if you are still unsure.

Quick answers

What is the Fragrance Wheel?

It is a chart that sorts scents into families, such as Floral, Amber, Woody and Fresh. Perfumers use it to describe a scent in a few words and to see which families sit close together.

Are fruity candles too sweet?

Not always. Fruity scents that lean fresh or floral smell lighter than ones that lean creamy. Read the scent description and choose the lean you like.

Our whole Fruity range is a good place to compare them side by side. If you shop through your ambassador's link, they get credited for the sale.

Related reading

• Candle Scent Oil: Why Fruit Smells Are Built, Not Pressed: how a perfumer makes fruit smell real.
• Best Wax Melts To Pair: Fruity Mixes That Actually Work: which melts pair well together.
• Fragrance In Candles: Why Fig Smells Like A Whole Tree: the story behind a Glow favourite.