Home fragrances to reset the mood of your living space

Investing in a selection of new home fragrances is a surefire way to reset your living space for the year ahead, and help stave off the January blues in the process. Scents are a trigger for memories and emotions. So, bringing a whole new olfactory experience to the home can help with the formation of new memories as the calendar months go on. Wallpaper* has selected some of the best home fragrances to help you along the way. From the freshness of Loewe’s Cucumber candle, to Celine’s indulgently scented paper, and Frédéric Malle’s dreamy linen spray, we hope you’ll discover something you love.

Home fragrances to reset your living space

1. Loewe Cucumber scented candle

What could be more cleansing and refreshing than the scent of cucumber? This luxury candle by Loewe (created in collaboration with Chinese actor Leo Wu, one of the brand’s ambassadors) packs an intense verdant fragrance, which also reveals notes of mint when lit. As with most candles from the fashion house, creative directed by Jonathan Anderson since 2013, the natural wax is contained in a glazed terracotta pot, which can be reused. Combine it with a Tomato Leaves candle, also by Loewe, for a delicious olfactory salad.

Loewe Home Scents Cucumber large candle, £345, available at mytheresa.com

2.  Officine Générale Smoky Olive room spray

French fashion label Officine Générale launched its first range of home fragrances at the end of last year (December 2023). For the brand’s founder Pierre Maheo and its image director Nina Maheo, ‘scent is ever-present... connecting back to childhood; bringing comfort or familiarity; providing a simple, everyday pleasure’. The scent that has been created for this new product offering is called Smoky Olive, and is infused into a candle, hand wash and room spray, each with top notes of bergamot and ginger, heart notes of iris, patchouli and vetiver, and base notes of tobacco, cedar, incense and leather.

Officine Générale Smoky Olive home spray, £55, available at officinegenerale.com.

3. Diptyque Baies scented oval

Designed in a white porcelain holder by Jean-Marc Gady studio, and containing a wax perfume diffuser, this Diptyque scented oval provides a sculptural take on the brand’s iconic candle (the latter now also available in a refillable version). Crafted with a black cotton rope, allowing the object to be placed at various locations throughout the home, the fragrance will last a minimum of three months (so will take you seamlessly from winter into spring). Diptyque’s Baies scent evokes ‘the tangy coolness of blackcurrant berries and lively, flowery rose accents’, diffusing an energising aroma into any space. (A new launch from the brand for 2024 includes the La Drogurie odour-removing room spray with basil, as part of its home cleaning collection, if you’re in the market for something a little more practical).
Diptyque Baies scented oval, £53, available at harrods.com; La Droguerie Basil odour-removing interior scent spray, £56, available at selfridges.com.

4. Trudon Cyrnos reed diffuser

Trudon has been producing candles since 1643 and was the official provider of the royal court of Louis XIV at the Palace of Versailles. The scent of this reed diffuser, however, is inspired by the citrus gardens of the Belle Époque-style Villa Cyrnos on the Côte d’Azur, designed by Hans-Georg Tersling. Your home may not be quite as lavish as either of these buildings, but it deserves an equally flamboyant fragrance nonetheless. With notes of lavender, pine, cedarwood and fig, this scent will last for around four months, with the diffuser itself made in Trudon-green glass.

Trudon Cyrnos reed diffuser, £178, available at selfridges.com.

5. Gabar 01 Float scented candle

Fragrance and personal care brand Gabar is based in London, but rooted in the culture and heritage of Myanmar, and has newly released its home fragrance line this month (January 2024). The 01 Float scented candle draws inspiration from the Inle Lake in Myanmar’s Shan Hills, with notes of jasmine and violet leaf combining with amber and white musk, to welcome a much-needed sense of calm into the new year and beyond. (It also makes for a perfect bathtime companion.)

Gabar 01 float scented candle, £48, available at gabarmyanmar.com

6. Celine Parade scented paper

Celine scented papers are designed to be placed into a drawer to fragrance clothes and linens, with Parade, the Parisian label’s best-selling perfume, dreamt up by Hedi Slimane. Embossed with the house‘s Triomphe logo, the papers are a decadent way to enliven your wardrobe after a January cull. Although, as Wallpaper* contributing editor Mary Cleary pointed out upon the product’s launch in 2022: ‘...there is plenty of room to get creative with how you use them – perhaps as a perfumed card slipped into a gift, an elegant bookmark, or a clever addition to your suitcase, for example’. Indeed, the possibilities over the year ahead are almost endless.

Celine parade scented paper, £65, available at celine.com.

7. Santa Maria Novella scented terracotta

Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella is the ‘world’s oldest beauty brand’, founded in 1221 by Dominican friars in Florence. This scented terracotta pomegranate can double up as an incredibly fragrant paperweight (or simply a pleasing handcrafted object to rest on any surface in the home). It is imbued with Santa Maria Novella’s Melograno perfume, which is said to be ‘emblematic of fertility and abundance’, led by top notes of bergamot, bitter orange and fresh spices, followed by pomegranate accord, rose, ylang-ylang, labdanum, musk, oakmoss and patchouli.

Santa Maria Novella, Melograno scented terracotta, £60, available at libertylondon.com.

8. Byredo Rose hand wash

It’s time to ditch the Dettol and rid the edges of your sink from Radox. Containing pink pepper, patchouli, white musk (and what Byredo describes as a ‘radiant chord of raspberry’) this rose-scented hand wash is your new bathroom or kitchen staple, a gentle, vegan formulation that cleanses hands whilst leaving them delicately perfumed. The complementary lotion – which is rich in shea butter – also helps aid in soothing and softening dry winter skin.

Byredo Rose hand wash, £44, available at spacenk.com.

9. Mad Et Len x Lemaire Bois d’Orange scented candle

Artisanal French brand Mad Et Len emphasises the evocative power of scent. (In fact, it takes its name from Marcel Proust’s ‘Episode of the Madeleine’, from In Search of Lost Time). All of its fragrances are made in Grasse, with containers crafted from rolled metal. Mad Et Len has recently collaborated with Lemaire, to produce a range of fragrances for the home. The Bois d’Orange candle releases notes of Japanese cypress and Haitian vetiver, and is described as an ‘enveloping perfume that delicately slips into the atmosphere like a thin thread of material or a light fabric’.

Mad Et Len x Lemaire Bois d’Orange scented candle, £90, available at matchesfashion.com

10. Frédéric Malle Dans Ton Lit linen spray

Frédéric Malle says that this fragrance can recreate the effect of ‘sleeping on a bed of roses’ or ‘dreaming on a perfumed cloud’. So if your New Year resolution is to make rest a priority, then investing in a bottle of Dans Ton Lit linen spray is a good way to help you keep it. Containing half Turkish rose essence, and half Rose Water Essential (an ingredient that has been developed as an exact rendition of rose water’s natural scent), simply spritz on your pillow, close your eyes, and drift into redolent slumber.

Frédéric Malle Dans Ton Lit linen spray, £85, available at selfridges.com.

11. Maison Francis Kurkdijan linen care set

In a new release from Maison Francis Kurkdjian for 2024, this scented laundry soap set is ‘the ultimate in refinement’, says the perfumer. (We would be inclined to agree – we’ll be adding it to our clothes care routine.) Infusing garments with the notes of Aqua Universalis, a fresh citrussy scent containing bergamot from Calabria, citron from Sicily, white flowers and the subtle scent of light and musky wood, the set is available for both light and dark colours, and contains a laundry detergent and fabric softener.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Aqua Universalis Linen Care Set, £95, available at harrods.com

12. Perfumer H Ink incense

Perfumer H, founded by British nose Lyn Harris, is known for its unconventional fragrances. This extends to its offering for the home, including this incense, which has been made by one of the few traditional incense makers in Kyoto, Japan (who also provide incense for the local Buddhist temples and monasteries). Notes include elemi, juniper wood, cedar wood, papyrus, vetiver and frankincense, to evoke the illusion of blue ink.

Perfumer H, Ink incense, £30, perfumerh.com.

13. Discothèque milk candle

Discothèque candles are created to evoke the memories of hedonistic nights out and are made using fully traceable, sustainable, high-grade vegan wax in the United Kingdom. This particular candle is named after the Milk! night club that was up and running in Mannheim, Germany, between 1990 - 1993. With top notes of weeping juniper, citrus limon, bergamot, and black pepper (and with a sandalwood, vanilla bean, leather and balsamic base), lighting it will bring a slice of nightlife into your home, setting the tone for many dinner parties to come.

Discothèque Milk! candle, £54, available at harveynichols.com.