Smells Like Spells

Candles With Rather More Backstory Than Most.

Two Lithuanians started this in Vilnius in 2015, and a year later opened a small, dimly lit shop in the Old Town that looks a great deal like a modern alchemist's laboratory, which is precisely the intention. The candles are poured by hand from soy wax in layers, each one left to cool completely before the next goes on, which takes far longer than anybody sensible would allow and produces a surface without a single bubble in it.

Named after gods, mostly Norse ones.

Every scent carries a name and a story, drawn from Nordic mythology, tarot and old folk custom, so you end up burning something called Mimir or Freya rather than Vanilla Number Four. Alongside the candles there are natural incense sticks, bound with guar gum rather than anything synthetic, and home fragrances built from essential and aromatic oils.

And one collection that is properly collectable.

For the Incantations range they gathered spell texts from around the world and handed them to Lithuania's best-known screenprint artist to interpret. Each candle sits in a handmade porcelain jar with gilded detail, numbered as part of a limited edition, and the jar is well worth washing out and keeping once the wax has gone.

For more to light, have a browse of our candles + home fragrance collection, or carry on to home + decor. If it's a present, see our gifts, and there are more from that part of the world in our Baltic brands.

Visit the Vilnius Atelier.

The shop sits in the Old Town and opens every day of the week, which is generous of them, and you can have a candle made to your own specification while you are there. Find it at Mėsinių 7, Vilnius, and for more brands you can see in person, have a browse of our European shops and visit in person collections.