Beauty
Major spa vibes ahead.
Spring has officially sprung and as the weather starts to warm up and flowers start to bloom, you may be in the mood to refresh your home, too. And why not start by turning your bathroom into your very own self-care sanctuary? Before you start thinking about hiring a contractor, retiling the walls, and driving headfirst into a full-on renovation, consider an easier (and less costly) solution: sculptural candles.
Bathroom updates can easily be achieved without investing a ton of time or money. Sometimes it’s about the little things: The simple addition of plants and tiny accoutrements alone can make a big enough impact to redefine the vibe. With the right combination of decorative candles, you can make your bathroom look like the set of a Baz Luhrmann movie. You know, right before tragedy strikes...
The best part is that adding kitschy, sculptural candles to your bathroom requires little to no skill. The mixing and matching and haphazardness is all part of the allure. And because these miniature works of art will eventually burn through, they’re noncommittal but still upgrade your space and make it look more put together.
An easy and relatively cost-effective way to practice self-care, here are eight of the best sculptured candles you can buy.
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A Candlestick Melange Of Pearls And Petals
Handmade by Janie Korn in New York City, these opulent and mesmerizing candles are only eligible for local pickup. Each one is unique, although they all feature demure colors, gold accents, and pearls. If you can’t swing the pickup, Korn has plenty of other custom-made candles that ship around the country.
A Tribute To The Feminine Form
At first glance, this Botticelli-esque candle is such a deep and rich shade of mahogany that it looks like a wooden sculpture. It comes in a variety of other shades, too, all of which look like precious stones or marble. Keep a handful of these around, some slightly burned, some untouched for an homage to the human form.
A Hands-On Approach To The Candelabra
This candle is wicked in five places — four fingers and the palm. (And yes, the strategic placement of the missing wick means that it flips you the bird as it burns down.) For the avid candle consumer, you can buy this as a subscription and save a little money while keeping your candles in stock.
A Grecian Statue
A beautiful wax recreation of the marble chiseling and intricate draping that defined the antiquity period of European art, this candle looks like it belongs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s famed Greek and Roman area.
Fruit From A Still Life Painting
These candles from Cereria Introna come in a variety of fruit shapes and look like they were plucked out of a still life oil painting. They’re wonderful little accent pieces when used individually, but personally, I would get a few and throw them together for a faux fruit bowl.
A Candle You Can Burn On Both Ends
Who knew — it’s possible for a candle to have a fluorescent pearly sheen, which makes for gorgeous decor. Just look at this Lex Pott candle: Burn one or both wicks, then watch the wax ooze into a new art.
Ode To A Grecian Boy
Like the beauty of a dilapidated building with paint peeling off the walls or an ancient sculpture with chunks withered away, there is something difficult to place about the allure of a fragment of a bust. If you think this candle is too pretty to burn, you can always clear some space for it on a bathroom shelf.
A Minimalist Ceramic Sculpture
If Richard Serra designed products that could fit inside your home, they might look like this creation from Laguna Candles. The deep and dark hues are beautiful and once you’ve burned through it, you can repurpose the bowl into a catch-all.
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