Beauty: the smells of Christmas
One whiff of these and you're guaranteed to come over all festive
I'm a bit potty about smells, but never more so than at Christmas. Thirty eight years of festive memories are unlocked instantly at the merest whiff of Baileys, spitting roasties, spiced orange wafting from a pan of mulled wine, warm dust on fairylights, the faint gunpowdery smell of a pulled cracker and pungent green pine…
If Christmas spirit is thus far eluding you, Crabtree & Evelyn's Noel home fragrance (£9) is a sort of bottled version, to sprinkle on to candles, or drop into a saucer of water and shove on the radiator for a delicious, ambient fug.
For extra punch, buy a lovely Christmas candle. Melt & Co's Noel (from £7.95), Jo Malone's Pine & Eucalyptus (£39.50), Rituals' Sacred Fire (£19.50), Laura Mercier's Roasted Chesnuts (pictured, £29) all hit the spot and, while expensive, need to be lit for no more than about 45 minutes to fragrance a normal house for a whole day (for glow, light cheap tealights).
This practice – along with putting them in the freezer the night before first using – means they last for ages. I'm on my second December with last year's pine tree Diptyque, which I put away just after new year, still half full. And £45 for 62 days' festive cheer seems decent, if a little decadent.
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| I'm potty about smells, but never more so than at Christmas.' Photograph: Rui Faria for the Guardian |
I'm a bit potty about smells, but never more so than at Christmas. Thirty eight years of festive memories are unlocked instantly at the merest whiff of Baileys, spitting roasties, spiced orange wafting from a pan of mulled wine, warm dust on fairylights, the faint gunpowdery smell of a pulled cracker and pungent green pine…
If Christmas spirit is thus far eluding you, Crabtree & Evelyn's Noel home fragrance (£9) is a sort of bottled version, to sprinkle on to candles, or drop into a saucer of water and shove on the radiator for a delicious, ambient fug.
For extra punch, buy a lovely Christmas candle. Melt & Co's Noel (from £7.95), Jo Malone's Pine & Eucalyptus (£39.50), Rituals' Sacred Fire (£19.50), Laura Mercier's Roasted Chesnuts (pictured, £29) all hit the spot and, while expensive, need to be lit for no more than about 45 minutes to fragrance a normal house for a whole day (for glow, light cheap tealights).
This practice – along with putting them in the freezer the night before first using – means they last for ages. I'm on my second December with last year's pine tree Diptyque, which I put away just after new year, still half full. And £45 for 62 days' festive cheer seems decent, if a little decadent.
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