The Best Artisan Candle Brands for Small-Batch Scent

P.F. Candle Co. started in Kristen Pumphrey's Los Angeles apartment in 2008, hand-pouring soy candles into amber apothecary vessels. The scents — Teakwood & Tobacco, Golden Coast, Palo Santo — are specific and evocative without trying too hard. Now made in a Los Angeles studio, the brand has kept its pricing accessible ($22–$28) while maintaining the small-batch quality that built its following.

Boy Smells was founded by Matthew Herman and David Kien in their Los Angeles kitchen in 2016. The brand set out to make fragrance that didn't conform to gendered marketing — their early candles were named KUSH, SLOW BURN, and CINDEROSE, and the packaging was blush pink and heavily typeset. The coconut-beeswax blend burns cleanly and the scent throw is aggressive. They've since expanded into body products and apparel, but the candles remain the core.

Apotheke was founded in Brooklyn in 2010 and built a reputation on complex, woody, and resinous scents — the kind that lean into smoke, leather, and forest rather than florals and fruit. Their vessels are clean and minimal, and the brand has a retail presence in New York that predates the DTC candle wave. The Charcoal and Hinoki scents are particularly distinctive.

Forvr Mood was co-founded by beauty influencer Jackie Aina and her partner Denis Asamoah in 2020. The brand launched into a market that had ignored Black women as a luxury fragrance audience and found immediate, massive demand. The scents are warm, sensual, and specific — and the packaging, in deep jewel tones, photographs beautifully. The candles frequently sell out within hours of restocks.

Homesick built its entire concept around scent nostalgia — candles designed to smell like specific places, from Brooklyn to Hawaii to your grandmother's house. The concept sounds gimmicky until you smell one and find yourself thinking about a specific place you haven't been in years. They've expanded the format to 'feelings' candles and holiday editions, but the place series remains the most distinctive thing in the category.

Otherland was founded by Abigail Cook Stone in New York in 2017. The brand is notable for treating candle packaging like fine art: each scent has its own illustration and visual identity, and the candles look as considered on a shelf as they smell when burning. The coconut-wax formula is clean-burning, and the scents — Vacances, Ember, Chandelier — are evocative without being clichéd.

Brooklyn Candle Studio was founded by Tamara Mayne and has stayed genuinely small — hand-poured in Brooklyn, with a spare, monochromatic visual identity that looks better in person than it does in photographs. The scents are nature-inspired and avoid the overtly trendy: cedar, smoke, and tobacco anchor the collection. They're a good answer to anyone who finds the louder artisan candle brands a bit much.