Everything changed when I walked into an Aesop store for the first time. My whole life flashed before my eyes and I knew that someday I'd live in a house atop a misty mountain that looked just like the inside of those stores. Aesop's mature, herbaceous, and downright unctuous scents were unlike anything I'd smelled before. They were the way out of the itchy sweet haze of Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret Pink.
Don't get me wrong, nothing can replace Bath & Body Works or Yankee Candle when the holidays roll around. But through weeks of working from home, I found myself wanting for something painfully elegant to scent my quiet apartment during the workday. I looked up if Aesop made candles a few months ago and had no luck.
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But the cult skincare brand dropped its first line of candles just last week and they cost $110.
Aesop is a great skincare brand, but it's best known for its stylish packaging, especially the hand soap. While $40 for hand soap is excessive, it starts to pay for itself once you keep the bottle as a decorative item and refill it with cheap soap. A candle offers no such reuse value.
The candles come in three scents: Aganice smells of cardamom, mimosa, and tobacco; Callippus smells of vetiver, frankincense, and shisho; lastly, Ptolemy smells of cedar, cypress, and vetiver. They each weigh about 11 ounces and are made using "vegan-friendly" ingredients.
Am I buying this candle? I really want to. If you think it's a frivolous purchase, you are right. Years from now, it is you who will be on the right side of history and I'll have to explain myself to my children and their children and so on.