Money to Burn

Few categories span a broader range of price points than candles and home fragrance, which start at the dollar store and stretch well into three figures. As with any luxury product, branding and cachet are important factors — so is the prestige that comes from a high price tag, particularly for something made to be consumed and replaced.

But there's more to luxury than a big name or number. To find out what it means in the candle category, Gifts & Decorative Accessories asked several high end candle designers what makes a candle a luxury product, and what makes luxury candles worthwhile for retailers and their customers.

• Superb packaging is the one constant mentioned by every designer we spoke to; it's what a consumer notices first about a candle. “We use high end materials to create our box — high density, compressed cardboard that is actually stronger than wood,” explains Garrett Wesson, co-owner of Santuario di Bellezza, Chula Vista, CA. “If somebody is going to spend the money on a luxury item, they're looking at the details.” Santuario di Bellezzas candles sit on a satin pillow, and fobs on the boxes are made of real metal.

Natalie Evans, owner of Low Country Luxe, Savannah, GA, studied packaging of many different products, not just candles, before designing hers to stand out. “I chose to do a watercolor because no one else had done a watercolor on packaging to make it a piece of art,” she says. In the end, Evans chose a piece that depicts “the natural beauty of the Low Country” with earth tones, marsh and seagrass. The packaging includes a gift card, complete with value-added information about the Low Country, and information about Low Country charities to which Evans contributes a portion of proceeds.

• Fine fragrance is another essential. Fragrance is, of course, the selling point for virtually all scented candles, but a variety of factors set luxury candles apart. Wesson focuses on scent style: “We wanted to use very high end, complex fragrances,” he says. Luxury consumers “don't want an everyday fragrance.”

Dayna Decker, creative director of Dayna Decker Candles, Los Angeles, is focused on quantity and quality. “We use a lot more [fragrance] as percentage, and the price per pound is higher as well. The quality of the fragrance is really important.”

Evans adds a finishing touch: distribution of fragrance. She explains that not all candles are created equal. Even-burning wax creates a “heat throw” that scents the room when burning, but the fragrance should also have a “cold throw,” she says, so that customers can smell it when they pick it up. “A lot of companies will put fragrance right at the top when they're pouring,” she says, in order to create that cold throw. “So another point of luxury is to have the fragrance all through [the candle].”

• Elegant containers are another factor, because for a luxury candle, a standard jar just won't do. Appealing shapes, sizes, colors and surfaces add to perceived value. And some go even further: Santuario di Bellezza uses mouth-blown case crystal, reusable as drinkware, bud vases and candy dishes, with hand-polished, solid brass lids. “We see a lot of clear crystal,” says Wesson. “But this is a lot more expensive and a lot more labor intensive.”

Evans also emphasizes the performance aspects of different containers. “A glass container has to have heat-strength, so nothing happens to it. It has to have a good base, so it doesn't burn the furniture it's sitting on. It's important to do lab tests because if you put [the same candle] in a different container it won't burn the same.”

• Wax and wicks, the basic building blocks of candles, can't be overlooked. “The perceived value of creamier waxes is a little higher,” says Decker. “Our waxes are vegetable blends; that's something customers are focusing on because they're more environmentally friendly.”

Cory Walsh, co-founder of Akeewakeee, Mandeville, LA, agrees. “We're heavily active in finding the best of what nature has to offer: purer essential oils, renewable resource waxes.” These are better for the atmosphere in the room, as well as, says Walsh, “mind, body and spirit.”

Evans uses soy wax, but says it's just as important to have the right wick. “Wicks are specially designed for the candle chemistry itself, and help create a clean and even burn, all the way to the edge of the glass, straight down. It takes anywhere from 10-16 weeks in the lab [to create the right wick].”

Again and again, luxury candle designers told us the same story: economic uncertainty or not, they're not encountering any resistance to prices ranging from $40 to over $100. In fact, Dayna Decker says she does better with higher priced candles. “Every time we launch a new collection we wonder how retailers are going to receive the price. But sometimes the higher we price, the better it does,” she notes. “We came out with a line that was a bit lower priced ($38), and found that people actually wanted to pay more.” In the end, Decker invested more in packaging and raised the price of the line to fit a luxury price point.

Both Low Country Luxe and Santuario di Bellezza use larger-than-usual candles to distinguish their lines, and make sure customers feel they're getting their money's worth. And Akeewakee has actually had to refuse to take accounts “because business has been better than ever this year,” says Walsh.

“It's for a niche buyer, it is not for everybody,” Wesson sums up. “What we've found is that if someone is spending more than $50 for a candle, they're already in that luxury market. After that, it's just a matter of the fragrance and whether or not it's worth the money. The point is not $50 or $100, but the value.”

Meanwhile, for those whose customers may not be able to afford such indifference to price, Harry Slatkin of Slatkin and Co., New York, creator of the Elton John line and other luxury candles, offers a broader definition: “The level of luxury is subjective — your nose knows.” n