Let’s talk candles. Now I’m not talking candles from Target (even though they are great), I’m talking handmade, specialty candles. Yeah, I’m talking about small business candles.
Before the pandemic I had never bought anything from Etsy, or many small businesses in general. It’s not because I didn’t want to support them, but I never found one that I felt the need to buy from. But with more time on my hands than normal and a little extra inclination to treat myself I decided to look again, and boy, oh boy, did I hit the jackpot. Between my searching and Instagram recommendations, I’ve found multiple shops from Etsy selling exactly what I’m looking for.
Literary candles. Sounds a bit weird, I know but let me tell you, for any book reader or movie watcher, these candles are amazing. Spanning from Harry Potter and Supernatural to Lord of the Rings and Edgar Allen Poe, there’s candles for everything.
I recently gave in to my Etsy browsing and bought a couple of candles I’ve had my eyes on for a while. Books and Reverie is the shop on Etsy where you can find all these wonderful candles, and you can find her under the same name on Instagram and TikTok. Her shop has a wide range of candles to choose from including Harry Potter inspired candles, Greek mythology, other fandoms, and even witchy candles.
Now staying true to myself, my first order from her shop had to be from her Harry Potter inspired collection. To say I was excited wasn’t even enough. My family and friends probably got sick of hearing me talk about candles I hadn’t even gotten. But when they did come, I wasted no time in lighting them up.
The first candle I bought was The Wise House, which is a play off of the Hogwarts house, Ravenclaw. I’m not going to lie, I bought this candle solely because I’m a Ravenclaw myself and the thought of having a candle to match was just too awesome to pass up. That being said, I did read over the scent of the candle, considering you can’t actually smell them. It’s labeled as having a “mysterious and airy night breeze mingled with the nostalgic scent of parchment and ink.” Now while that may seem to not give you much in terms of what it actually smells like, I can tell you that if you like how a garden of flowers would smell after a rainstorm, then this candle is for you. It has a nice floral scent that I feel is mixed with Ozone. It smells amazingly good and really isn’t overwhelming, even in a small room like mine. The color of it is a perfect match for the name as well. It is a nice deep navy blue with gold and blue glitter around the bottom half of the jar. It fits the look and the smell of a Ravenclaw common room in my opinion.
The second candle of this order was the Tom Riddle candle, also from her Harry Potter collection. Now the thing that drew me to this candle was the look of it. It’s a white candle topped with black wax and a swirl of black wax down the side of it, in true Harry Potter fashion. It’s honestly just a beautiful candle to look at but an even better one to smell. This candle has notes of “vanilla, book pages and smoky musk.” When burning, this candle is the perfect amount of vanilla you could get. It’s perfect for a small room as it gives off enough scent to fill the room without being overwhelming.
Both candles come in clear jars with black screw top lids and unique labels that signify the candle. Both candles also cost $20.99 each. The only downfall I have for these candles is they take a while to start throwing off a scent. I waited anywhere from thirty to forty-five minutes after I first lit it before I started to smell anything, but it was worth the wait.
I have placed a second order from the shop for some different candles and I’m currently waiting for them to ship.
Now, don’t just take my word for it on how awesome these candles are, go show this small business some love and support and buy a candle for yourself.