58 Famous People on Their Favorite Scented Candles

Under$50

Lily Rabe
“When I discovered that these were clean and smelled really great, I just fell in love. The company is based in L.A., and the candles are all made with a soy-blend wax without any parabens or sulfates. They fill the house beautifully. The fig is my favorite. It has some musk and amber notes, both of which I’m a big fan of. It’s gentle, but you can smell it.”—April 2025

Kumail Nanjiani
“I’m a big scents person. I’ll walk inside a Yankee Candle store for hours. I just like how warm this candle makes me feel. This smell is just really comforting. It feels like I’m lying under a blanket, and those are the little things that make my day better.” —January 2025

Anna Kendrick
“I have a lot of favorite candle brands, but I really like Luminose’s Accidental Crush at the moment. It comes in a really interesting textured candleholder as opposed to a plain glass one, and the smell is just intoxicating. It’s almost as if you took your favorite high-school Bath & Body Works scent but made it really sophisticated and elevated.” —December 2024

Sydney Sweeney
“I was with my friend, and their place smelled amazing. I was like,What is that?And they’re like,Oh, it’s the candle. I legit went and bought it that day and sent it to my house because I loved it so much. There’s a vanilla aspect to it. Usually, a lot of products I love have vanilla in them. There’s something very calming and cozy about it.” —August 2024

Robby Hoffman
“I do really encourage — which is easier said than done — that if you have a candle, light it. There’s a scarcity mind-set, but try and get over it. You’ll get another candle eventually. My semi-splurge is the P.F. Candle Co. candle. And then my big splurge, which I typically give as a gift, isthe Diptyque candle.” —August 2025

Rain Spencer
“For years I’ve ordered these candles. I always have one in my house. I don’t even remember how I found them, but I’m really loyal to them. They’re poured in California, 100 percent soy wax. I don’t even know what that means. I know it’s important, but have I researched it? No, but I like this candle a lot. It feels good — we’re going off vibes.” —July 2025

Sohla El-Waylly
“Because we live in a basement apartment in New York, there’s not a lot of ventilation. We like having candles since they help get any fish smells or cooking aromas out. A lot of candles are very floral and aggressive, though. My friend got me a candle from this brand for Christmas, and I immediately loved it. It’s very subtle, but it helps with any weird smells in our apartment. My favorite is the teakwood and tobacco, which doesn’t sound like it would be that appealing, but is actually very warm and inviting. We also just like that they come in these apothecary-like glass containers. It fits the aesthetic in our home.” —November 2023

Kathy Hilton
“I fell in love with this company when they did the candy-cane scent. Everybody would walk into my house during December and love it. I ordered a dozen of them, and those were my gifts when I would go to people’s homes for holiday parties. Now I have the California Summer scent, and it’s the perfect fresh scent for summer. It’s my new favorite. I’m a candle lover. I don’t want another frame. Buy me a candle if you’re in doubt.” —June 2024

Jessie Diggins
“I have all Near & Native’s different scented candles around the house, and the wooden wick sounds amazing as it burns. They’re made with coconut wax. The white pine is also just so calming and fresh. It’s not just the smell — it crackles like a tiny miniature fire.” —May 2024

Ross Matthews
“I went into this candle shop where they had all these scents, like fresh rain, lilac — just every scent you can imagine. I picked up a candle called Old Books, and it really smelled like when you open an old book from a used bookstore. It is so warm and smells like you’ve walked into a well-loved den in somebody’s house, almost like someone had been smoking a cigar and drinking a whiskey there. It’s so lovely. I just keep buying it online now. It’s always burning in my dressing room onTheDrew Barrymore Show.People hang with me in my dressing room, and they always say, ‘God, it smells so good in here.’” —August 2023

Annie Murphy
“I wish there was a perfume of this candle. I found it at a store in Toronto — I thinkScout. Any time someone comes into my apartment, their pupils dilate, and they’re like, ‘What is that?’ Then they sniff their way around my apartment until they find the candle.” —April 2023

Carson Kressley
“I like to have a candle in my home and when I’m traveling, just because I like the vibe and the smell. Votivo makes really great ones, and red currant is my go-to, especially in the winter. It’s so delicious-smelling. It kind of smells like the holidays. They make a small one in a glass jar that I carry when I travel, and I always get stopped at security like, ‘Ma’am, what is this?’ Now I’ve gotten to the point where I just pull it out and put it on the conveyor belt so they can see it’s a candle.” —January 2023

Kwame Onwuachi
“I light candles when I meditate each morning. This one is the signature scent of my home. It’s kind of masculine and a little musky — I don’t really like fruity scents. I originally found it at CB2, but I see the brand everywhere: vintage shops, candle shops, all over.” —April 2021

Sasha Velour
“I always light a candle right when I start doing my makeup. It’s a little ritual, a smell that takes me out of whatever space I’m in. While shootingWe’re Here, we went to this store that is run by lesbians and ended up buying every single one of their candles. So these scents will always remind me of the first three episodes.” —May 2024

Kelsea Ballerini
“I love the local Nashville-based company Ranger Station. It makes amazing-smellingcandles. I go for ones that have a more spicy, amber vibe. It just feels warm and cozy to me. They have the whole range, though, so I gift a lot of the sweeter scents to my friends. What’s cool, too, is that they’re made in whiskey glasses. So once you burn the candle down, you can do the trick where you boil it, put it in the freezer, get the rest of the wax out, and then you have this beautiful local Nashville whiskey glass. It’s a nice two-in-one gift.” —December 2023

Santigold
“I was buying these ten at a time at one point. As a person, I used to always keep it moving, keep it moving — almost in survival mode — and could feel in my chest a lot of things I’d held inside. A lot of that can happen from not allowing flow through the heart chakra, especially for Black women carrying generational trauma. This candle focuses on that particular chakra, and it smells amazing — a mix of rose, palo santo, and frankincense. I keep it burning in my studio for the smell alone, but it’s nice to know it’s helping me with other stuff too.” —September 2022

Carole Radziwill
“I’ve always had candles in the apartment, but I was so nervous about the kittens and kitty litter that I started burning candles 24/7. I found these Nest candles in the Sicilian Tangerine that I just love. That and the Grapefruit are my favorites. It just has this great smell that’s not perfumy but a little like fresh laundry. You wake up and smell it and think,It’s going to be a good day. I like the way they burn, too. Some candles are $40 and you burn them for two days and they’re done. These burn long and evenly. ” —April 2017

The Boulet Brothers
“Typically with candles that have shapes, they’re usually more gimmicky or decorative. This one feels very special, including the way they package it. Sometimes when you order something in the mail, you can tell you have something very special, and that’s what it’s like to order from Graveyard Wonders. We have our cabinet of curiosities at home, and this candle is in our cabinet of curiosities. It emits this wonderful scent, so anytime you open the cabinet you’re met with this haunting smell.” —Dracmorda Boulet, April 2023

Rita Ora
“My friends always say my house is like a greenhouse with candles because I have so many plants and candles. They’re like, ‘It’s a greenhouse you’re going to set on fire,’ and I’m like, ‘Please, can you not?!’ But I love fragrances so I burn candles all the time. The Ambre scent is smoky and rich, but sweet. It’s a really sexy smell.” —December 2020

Under$100

Charlie Puth
“Back in 2015, I had just moved to Los Angeles, and I went to my buddy Johan Carlsson’s house. He’d just had a couple of hit songs that year, and I was really inspired by his work ethic. He had this candle burning, and I took a picture of it, thinking,Well, if I want to be successful in this industry, I have got to have my room smell like this.It sounds ridiculous now, but it reminds me of my first album, making those songs and not sleeping, making music on airplanes and being jet-lagged.” —August 2024

Courtney Love
“It’s not the sexiest or most expensive of candles, but it’s dense with lilac and lasts forever. I love most candles, but I really love this brand. It fills your home. I love the smell of lilac from this one.” —October 2017

Nina Dobrev
“Instead of having logs in my fireplace, I have probably 30 candles in there. I fell in love with this Lafco one the second I lit it. The scent is piney, warm, inviting, and crisp. It’s another thing that brings me back to summer whenever I smell it.” —May 2021

Rachel Antonoff
“I love this candle so much. I don’t know how you’d describe this scent. It’s sort of musky, not sweet at all. To me, this candle is to scents as the Penicillin is to cocktails — there’s a smokiness, I guess.” —April 2024

Macklemore
“I love a candle. I love this Oud candle especially. I’m looking at it right now; I’ve got it in my office. They’re all over the place. There’s something about the smell. It’s very masculine. It doesn’t smell like a steakhouse, but it smells like how a steakhouse looks. It’s dark and smokey. There’s some undertones of tobacco in there. Whenever I burn it, it’s a vibe.” —March 2023

Tinashe
“I’m big on the mood in a room — especially if I’m traveling, staying in hotels or backstage at venues. Some of them are just not a vibe or smell weird, and I have little ways to make it feel more comfortable, more luxurious, and more like my home. These candles do a lot. I have them everywhere. It’s a sophisticated scent. It’s clean and floral without smelling too sweet.” —July 2024

DJ Khaled
“Every time I’d walk into meetings with important people like the chairman or CEO of a company, I would always smell this particular scent. It’s fresh. I fell in love with it. Then, I found out it was Diptyque’s Baies. Ever since, I have to have these candles stocked in my studio and house. They make me feel at peace.” —April 2024

Claudia Soare
“I inherited this candle from my mom. I would see that she and all her celebrity friends would gift this to each other, so I started buying it for myself about ten years ago. I always buy the really large ones because I work in a big room and I want to be able to capture this scent everywhere. It has a smooth, rich, a little woodsy scent, but it’s not too overpowering. It has now become a holiday-gifting staple for me, too.” —February 2022

Dorion Renaud
“Whenever I would go to Khloé’s or another Kardashian’s house, it would smell like this. The candles are a little pricey but so worth it. They make me feel rich. I think they’re the perfect housewarming gift.” —August 2021

Jessica Jung
“I have a lot of candles — I don’t even know how many. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’m really into Diptyque. This one is kind of sweet, but also a little bit musky at the same time. I can never decide which type of smell I like better, so this is kind of a good middle-ground option. I burn a candle right before I take a bath in the evenings to set the vibe.” —June 2020

Imaan Hammam
“The first time I got the candle was as a gift from someone. The smell is so refreshing and also warm in a way. From that day on, I’ve bought boxes of the candles so I always have one in my apartment. I travel with them as well — one is always in my suitcase wherever I go.” —February 2020

Rob Thomas
“Everyone who comes in contact with this candle becomes a devotee — we’ve never converted more people to something than with this candle. Even one of my best friends in the world got hooked. He was a special ops in the military. He’s tattooed up his neck and his head, just kind of a badass of a character. And he fucking loves these candles. Every time you go into his room, it just smells like roses.” —May 2022

Lily Aldridge
“If I’m going to the Met Ball, I always pack a little Diptyque candle and have it lit during hair and makeup. I just love candles, I loveflowers— they’re just little things you can put in your house to make it more cozy, and to me, a rose candle just makes an environment feel cozier.” —October 2019

Daniel Martin
“I burn a lot ofcandles— to the point where my husband asks me to stop. But I’m super-sensitive to scents. Diptyque candles are the only ones that don’t make me stuffy or allergic. Byredo makes beautiful scents, but after an hour of them burning I start to sneeze and react. I like Diptyque’s Figuier the best because it’s clean and fresh. ”—May 2021

Zoey Deutch
“I don’t know what it is about the fig one — I don’t think I’ve ever even smelled a fig to confidently say, ‘Ah, yes, this is so figlike to me’ — but it smells so good. I’m very cautious about burning it; before I light it, I’m like,Okay, do I really need to use this right now?It’s silly, but I have to convince myself that I deserve to light the candle because it’s so precious to me.” —March 2020

Victoria Beckham
“My flagship store on Dover Street is all about awakening the senses, and scent was a really important piece of the store experience. Over time, Diptyque’s Figuier Vert candle has become our signature fragrance — everyone who walks in always talks about the amazing smell of the store, and that’s just because of the candle. I love the warmth of fig wood so much that I often have one for my office, too.” —February 2019

Lou Diamond Phillips
“Every time one of the concierges in our building comes up, they go, ‘You have the nicest-smelling apartment.’ And it’s because of [my wife] Yvonne. She introduced me to all the Diptyque candles and sends me off with one for the hotel room whenever I go on locations. It gives me a little home away from home. This reminds me of the scent of old books, brandy, and cigars.” —December 2022

Janelle James
“Every time I think I’m not going to spend that much, or I’m going to find a dupe or whatever, it is not the same. They describe the scent as ‘old library.’ I’ve been to libraries — they don’t smell like that. Libraries smell like damp children. But this smells like leather. Then it has some fruit in there. But then it also reminds me of lipstick from before they started adding fragrance to it, that waxy old-school lipstick smell, which reminds me of my mom. Then, I guess, a book? Maybe they threw a book in there.” —January 2025

Jimmy Butler
“I have these candles in the locker room with me just because it really calms me down as I’m looking at this flame, as I’m smelling the scent. It just kind of reminds me of how fragile everything really is, and it makes me very appreciative of everything that I have and everything that I’ve been through. The Cotton Poplin scent is so subtle, but it just brightens and lightens up the room no matter where you’re at, and everybody’s like, ‘Damn, do you smell that?’ And it’s like,Yeah, everybody gets to enjoy this now.” —April 2024

Shay Mitchell
“I love this candle. It’s the one I have on the island in my kitchen. I love it so much I sometimes throw it in my bag before heading to the airport just because the scent reminds me of home even when I’m far away.” —June 2019

Antoni Porowski
“I love Ben Gorham. He’s like the ultimate Renaissance man. He’s an ex-NBA player of Scandinavian heritage, he builds and designs furniture and leather goods, and he’s also this scent master. I love that there’s a personal story to every scent that he develops. I’m very emotional and sentimental with food, and he’s like that with scents. Everything is kind of nostalgic to him. Chai is actually one that’s more rare, it’s not available everywhere. I took it with me on my travels and I started flying with it, and now it’s kind of a scent that calms me down. The Chai candle really does smell like that really lovely, creamy, spiced tea. It’s the ultimate nighttime scent for me.” —October 2019

Catherine Zeta-Jones
“After I left London for the States, I would come back to visit or for work, and I used to stay at Claridge’s, which is just off Bond Street. The Jo Malone flagship store was two doors down from the hotel. I was like a kid in a candy store. When I had any time off, I would go in and smell every candle they had. My all-time favorite is this lime and basil and mandarin one. I have one in almost every room in my house. It’s quite an exotic smell.” —July 2020

Shangela Laquifa Wadley
“A candle can change the whole ambience of a room. My favorite is for sure this Jo Malone English Pear and Freesia scent. I love to have a candle burning right at the start of my makeup routine. Doing makeup is a two-hour process for me, and I like to be calm. A candle burning just sets the scene. I get into drag right after a shower: I’m in my robe, I sit down at my makeup table, then, boom, there’s my candle. Time to get glam.” —June 2020

Ariana Madix
“My best friend Logan and I are obsessed with candles, and during peak COVID times when malls and stores were closed, we missed going to shops and just smelling candles. This D.S. & Durga Breakfast candle is one of our absolute favorite scents, and I always have it at home. It smells like if you were to elevate one of those warm scents that tend to come out in the fall; it has some almond-butter notes in there and a fireplace smell that feels cozy but elevated and not too sugary sweet. It’s giving breakfast.” —April 2024

Dan Wilson
“One of my engineers brought over acar freshenerthat he used in his car and left it in the studio. He just forgot it, but it did its thing and emanated into the workspace. And I suddenly thought, ‘Oh, I need to go online and find some nice smelling candle or scent for my workspace.’ And I remembered that an artist whom I worked with had an assistant who smelled great. This guy smelled so good, and he told me that D.S. & Durga was the brand. So I went on to the D.S. & Durga site, ordered several different car freshener cards, then put them out one week at a time in my music workspace. Big Sur After Rain is just the very best, so I bought the candle. It’s nature-y. It’s not like a Christmas tree, but it’s a little bit like pinewood, a little bit like an ocean breeze. It’s probably similar to the Sel Marin. It’s not aggressive. Zero floral and zero musk, just natural and California.” —December 2023

Claire Saffitz
“My husband and I have gotten intogardeningover the last couple of years, and we’ve been growing a lot of tomatoes. I was telling a friend how much I love the smell of tomato plants, and she was like, ‘Oh, a friend of mine has a shop that carries a tomato-scented candle. Not the fruit, but the actual plant stem and leaves.’ I bought one, and it does smell like anearthy tomato plant.” —November 2022

Over$100

Roman Coppola
“I don’t remember a precise introduction to this candle; it was just something that was always around — at least in our house. I associate it with growing up in the ’70s, and it evokes memories of classy, beautiful settings. And again, what I love is literally the whole package: It comes in a box that has a sort of zebra pattern on it. The candle is tied with a red ribbon. When you take it out, it smells amazing — it’s cypress, which is such a wonderful and almost indescribable smell. And it burns perfectly evenly. If you’re in New York, go toZitomerto buy.”—September 2025

Andy Cohen
“I love the scent, and it just takes me back to the hotel in London. Unfortunately, there was a fire there a few months ago, so it’s closed. I can’t really describe the scent well, except that I think it’s great and makes me really happy.”—June 2025

Paige DeSorbo
“They’re such a goodhousewarming gift. I like that they come in such a big size, because they make more of a statement than a normal-size candle. I actually just sent one to one of my girlfriends from high school who got engaged, and I engraved it to make it extra special.” —November 2024

Nick Viall
“These are just nice to have around the house. I just like the way they smell. Even when they’re not lit, they actually give off a nice scent. I think that’s the making of a high-quality candle. To be totally honest, I really lean on my wife Natalie for the scents. She has a better palate for that than me. This was more her input. If she’s happy, I’m happy when it comes to how our house smells.” —May 2024

Sloane Stephens
“I love to travel with a candle. It’s a simple way to elevate the hotel-room experience and bring a little bit of familiarity and home to every stop on tour. It’s a very warm and luxurious scent that fills the room, and the name just makes me stand a little taller. I switch up my candles but find myself coming back to this one.” —August 2023

Simu Liu
“Le Labo Santal 26 is the kind of iconic bougie candle, and every space deserves to smell as good as it looks. Everyone who’s into scented candles knows this, but it really transforms a space both visually and scent-wise. It’s a beautiful statement piece if you get thelarge size, and it burns for a bajillion years.” —April 2024

Gus Kenworthy
“I have the massive 42-ounce candle that basically comes in a cement planter in my living room and den. We light them when we’re entertaining. It’s obnoxious how expensive they are, and I kind of hate that I bought them. But they do smell so good and last a really long time. It smells earthy with a hint of tobacco that’s not overpowering, like hay.” —July 2022

Lucy Hale
“Santal 26 is my signature home scent. I have one candle in every room. I travel with them, too. The scent is so comforting to me. I think my friend Kelsey also put me on to this. She was wearing Le Labo perfume, and I loved it. I stopped in the store one day, and my life was forever changed. I think I bought my first Le Labo candle that day. It’s been a couple of years and I have yet to get tired of it. I do own the little glass ones, but for my home, I love the huge cement ones.” —December 2021

6lack
“It’s a beautiful scent. It’s a smell that when you walk into a room, someone’s like,Who got the candles?I have one burning in every greenroom and it’s on my rider for every tour stop. I try to have one burning at home, too, but they’re a little bit expensive. I recently saved up the courage to buy the big one. It ran out a lot faster than I expected.” —January 2024

Saweetie
“Whether it’s my dressing room, my house, or wherever I’m working, I’m a vibey type of girl and need a vibe to be set. I need the right colors, I need my blanket, and I need it to smell good. A Voluspa candle is like the icing on the cake because it just smells like luxury. It makes me feel like a bad bitch.” —April 2020

Bebe Rexha
“This makes my whole bedroom smell like rose ice cream. It’s definitely sweet, but not too sweet — I’m kind of over that insanely sweet vibe. If I got a giant five-wick candle from another brand, it’d probably be like $600, but this is just a little more than $200. It’d make a great gift for someone. I got the big one after Saweetie posted a video online — I don’t remember exactly what she was doing, going through her makeup or cooking in her kitchen or something, but she had this massive candle next to her. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I need that candle.’ And I don’t regret it.” —October 2020

Amy Sedaris
“I’m really serious about lighting candles for people when they come over. And this one burns really nicely.” —April 2019

Ryan Seacrest
“I do love candles. I light them as soon as I get home in the evening, and I keep them lit throughout the course of the evening. But this brand and this scent just really relaxes. It’s nice, it’s not too strong, it’s elegant, and it’s a very old candlemaker. It was founded in the 1600s, so they’ve been around for a while. In my New York apartment, they are in front of my sofa on the coffee tables. There’s two in the bedroom, there’s one in the bathroom. ” —March 2019