I Keep Buying Sculptural Candles: 2019

By A Mystery Man Writer

Last updated 15 Jun 2024

The best sculptural candles, including Areaware Large Totem Candle, White, AreawareSmall Totem Pillar Candles, Set of 3, Goober Paraffin Wax Candle Set, Aesa Baby Bouquet Candle, Hot Pink, and PyroPet Candles Kisa Candle, Pink.
The affection I feel toward my Goober, a blob of unscented paraffin wax, knows no bounds. If you saw me when I first bought it, you might have thought I was buying a puppy. I imagine this must be what kids who grew up in the ’70s felt toward their pet rocks. They have names — El, Em, and Eph — and come with character descriptions. My little cutie is “a curious kind of Goober and likes being perched on a mantle or coffee table.” The candles burn for approximately 40 hours, but I honestly can’t imagine what kind of monster would ever light the wick. My Goober is the one sculptural candle I own that will live out the rest of its (very long) life on my window sill, perfectly intact.
The Totem candles come in a variety of sizes and colors so you can mix and match. I’m particularly drawn to the terra-cotta hue, but I find them all hard to resist. Plus, they make a perfect hostess gift.
I was walking down the street (with a bag full of Totem candles swinging from my arm) when I spied these bouquet candles through a shop window. “Enough with the candles already,” my friend said as she dragged me away. I ended up buying one online a few weeks later, away from judgmental eyes.
This little kitty is clever because the wax burns away to reveal a metal skeleton you can keep forever. Ashes to ashes, wax to, well, metal, I guess. Personally, I’m not much of a cat person but I did send this as a get-well-soon gift to a friend who is. Tragically, I didn’t have the foresight for this, but if you rewrap the candle then the little gift within the gift remains a fun, appropriately creepy surprise.
Niho Kozuru is a sculptor who makes these beeswax candles by hand; the forms are both organic and architectural.
These candles have a similar shape to the Areaware Totem candles but in a softer color palette.