The Walled Garden after dark — the same specimen cards carried into the cold months, poured into frosted glass.
By midwinter the garden has gone quiet. The beds are cut back, the glasshouse is shut, and the sun barely clears the wall. What’s left of the year comes indoors — an orange studded with cloves, an armful of cut fir, the first hard frost.
Specimens N° IV, V and VI carry the herbarium on where summer’s three left off — the same arched labels, printed dark for the season. Each candle is poured a few at a time in Holyport, and each jar is hand-numbered from its batch.
A clove-studded orange for the dark months — bitter citrus warmed through with spice.
Frosted white · up to 40 hr burn
A clove-studded orange for the dark months.
Bitter orange, not sweet: the peel rather than the juice. Then clove and cinnamon, warm and dry, the smell of an orange stuck with cloves and left on a windowsill through December. It settles into a soft, warm spice that stays in the room. The familiar one in the winter collection, and the one that makes a hallway smell like a house with people in it.
Made for the hallway and the front room in winter. It's a welcoming scent rather than a background one, so light it before guests arrive and let it run. Strong for its size; in a small room an hour is plenty. Frosted white glass, so the flame glows through the jar on a dark afternoon.
20 cl Oxford jar in frosted white glass, hand-poured in our garden studio in Holyport. 160 g of wax, a cotton wick, up to 40 hours of burning. Each jar carries its batch number, written by hand.
Let the first burn reach the edge of the glass, two to three hours, so it doesn't tunnel. Trim the wick to 5 mm before each burn. Never leave it unattended; keep it from children, pets and draughts.
Fir & Frankincense is the walk outside; First Frost the morning after.
A resinous walk through the winter garden — fir balsam, warm frankincense, a trace of myrrh.
Frosted white · up to 40 hr burn
A resinous walk through the winter garden.
Cut Douglas fir first, green and sharp, the smell of bringing a tree indoors. Then resin and frankincense, warm and a little smoky, and a trace of myrrh underneath to keep it from being only a tree. It's a church-and-forest scent, and the one we'd burn on a dark Sunday afternoon.
A sitting-room candle for the coldest weeks. It's calmer than Pomander and less sweet, so it suits a room where you're reading or sitting by a fire. In frosted glass it glows. Give it half an hour with the door shut and the fir carries into the next room.
20 cl Oxford jar in frosted glass, hand-poured in our garden studio in Holyport. 160 g of wax, a cotton wick, up to 40 hours of burning. Each jar carries its batch number, written by hand.
Let the first burn reach the edge of the glass, two to three hours, so it doesn't tunnel. Trim the wick to 5 mm before each burn. Never leave it unattended; keep it from children, pets and draughts.
Pomander is the warmer, spicier companion; First Frost the cold, clean one.
The first cold morning — juniper and rosemary over white cedarwood and clean musk.
Frosted white · up to 40 hr burn
The first cold morning.
Cold air and juniper, which is the closest a candle gets to stepping outside on the first frosty morning of the year. Cedar in the middle, dry and clean. Then white musk, soft and a little soapy, the smell of clean sheets in a cold room. The quietest scent in the collection, and the one for people who don't like candles that smell of Christmas.
A bedroom and bathroom candle. It's fresh rather than warm, so it suits the morning and the early afternoon better than the evening. Light it while a room airs and it reads as clean rather than scented. It's also the collection's candle for a small room, where Pomander would be too much.
20 cl Oxford jar in frosted white glass, hand-poured in our garden studio in Holyport. 160 g of wax, a cotton wick, up to 40 hours of burning. Each jar carries its batch number, written by hand.
Let the first burn reach the edge of the glass, two to three hours, so it doesn't tunnel. Trim the wick to 5 mm before each burn. Never leave it unattended; keep it from children, pets and draughts.
Fir & Frankincense is the walk in the woods; Pomander the warm house you come back to.
Up to 40 hours. That figure comes from an independent burn test of this wax, wick and jar, so it is "up to", not a promise of the full number in every room. Give the first burn two to three hours, until the melted wax reaches the glass all the way round, and it will burn evenly from then on. Trim the wick to about 5 mm before each burn and burn for no more than four hours at a time.
Candle care & safety →Candle Shack CS1, a paraffin/mineral wax blend with added plant wax, made in Germany. It is vegan-friendly. We chose it for its scent throw: the fragrance is held at 8% of the wax, on a cotton LX 12 wick, which is the pairing the burn test was run on.
A Garden in Winter candle comes in a 20cl frosted glass jar holding 160 g of wax. The jar is yours to keep once the candle is done: stand it a minute in hot water, wipe it clean, and it makes a good glass.
The 20cl collection candles suit a bedroom, a hall or a bathroom. Light it half an hour before you want the room to smell of it, with the door shut. Two candles in one room fight each other, so one in each room is better than two together.
Every jar carries a printed base label with the hazard and allergen declaration the law requires, the net weight, the burn time, and a batch number written by hand at pouring. The full declaration for each scent is on its safety page. Never leave a lit candle alone, keep it from children, pets and draughts, and stop when a centimetre of wax is left.
Candle care & safety →Candles are hand-poured in small batches, so we aim to dispatch within 2–3 working days, Monday to Friday, by Royal Mail tracked. You get an email with the tracking number when it is on its way.
Delivery →UK delivery is a flat £4.95, shown at checkout before you pay. Orders of £40 or more are delivered free. We deliver within Great Britain, which is England, Scotland and Wales. We cannot send candles to Northern Ireland or outside the UK at the moment.
Any two candles for £45, any three for £65. Delivery's free too. Mix any of the candles; the saving comes off automatically in your basket, with nothing to enter.
Yes. If you change your mind, email hello@theluminary.uk within 14 days of the candle arriving and we will arrange a refund; it needs to come back unused, unburned and in its packaging. If a candle arrives damaged or faulty, tell us within a few days with a photo and we will replace it or refund you in full, postage included.
Returns & refunds →Rich & Leigh, in a garden studio in Holyport, Berkshire. Every candle is poured by hand in small batches and numbered from its batch on the base.
Our story →
The Garden in Winter setting on the bench in Holyport, the warmer wax Pomander — and First Frost’s printed fronts, back from the printer. Each jar is left to set before its wick is trimmed, then takes its batch number and its label by hand.
Any two candles for £45, any three for £65. Delivery's free too.
Poured into the 20cl Oxford jar in frosted glass — a smaller vessel for the darker months, hand-numbered from its batch like everything we make.
