Monday Obsession: Fornasetti Candles (Or: The Case For Buying a $175 Candle)

It took most people a while to wrap their heads around the $60 candle (Diptyque, preferably the Baies scent). Sixty dollars? For a candle?! But then we smelled it — or, at least, we saw it in the dreamy Instagram accounts of every single fashion person ever, usually placed just-so next to a mountain of Chanel and, hell, if we can’t afford to own a Chanel mountain (or hill), maybe we can at least own that damn candle! — and we caved.

Now the bar (wick?) has been raised yet again, this time by a grouping of Fornasetti candles with scents of Mediterranean herbs, Lily of the Valley, sandalwood. But let’s be real: You don’t buy these candles for the wax or wicks — you buy them for the ceramic vessels, each an objet d’art in its own right. They feature the work of Italian surrealist artist Piero Fornasetti, whose artwork is now the basis of an entire design house (in fact, the luxury decorative objects have a cult following among in-the-know luxury collectors). So think of these less as mere candles and more as small works of art. The fact that they smell delicious, then, is just a bonus. 

The Details: Fornasetti candles, $175 at Joan Shepp, 1811 Chestnut Street, Rittenhouse.