A Thing I Recommend You Buy

I've had some fun with autumn online purchasing (when the weather gets tough, the tough get shopping - from the comfort of a couch) but I do have a weakness for lifestyle stores. That's why, when Caban died, I went into mourning for a season (ok, a year).

There's a TO shop I enjoy, called Ziggy's, where you can get a smattering of everything home - from furniture to art to cutlery to weird things you never knew you wanted to boutique skin care to candles and the list goes on. I have no idea how the owner, Julie, finds all of these things - and how she's managed to fit them all tastefully into a store that can't be more than 1000 square feet.

At any rate, I'm not a regular candle buyer (for myself), although I do love a good candle, partly because so few candles are good and partly because Scott is ridiculous about turning them on. Somehow he purports to get a headache 30 seconds after one has been lit, every single time, regardless of the brand, scent or type of wax.

But while I was looking at the pretty things at Ziggy's (window shopping expedition on the way home from work), I did smell all the candles (who doesn't?!) and I discovered this one:

Kobo Warm Embers @49.00 CDN in store - Not related to Indigo in any way, CDN readers...

It smells like no other candle I've ever come across and I've run the gamut, I assure you, not to mention that fragrance is, and always has been, my scene.

How to describe it? It smells like woodsmoke and ash - like that piney, almost acrid, top note of burning leaves (my mother's fave scent in the universe and really, it is pretty fantastic). It evokes that deep urge for warmth when out in bracing cold - it's comforting but in a theoretical way. It is NOT sweet or spicy. It does not linger - but fades in the air. It's the PERFECT candle for a person who desperately wants a hearth or wood stove - you know, the kind who puts on the fireplace channel but then needs fragrance to realize the fantasy. (What? People do that.)

This brand, Kobo, doesn't have the cache of something truly independent (it's a going concern, online) nor that of the venerable innovators such as Diptyque. But the presentation is clean and elegant (once you divest the candle of the, frankly, oversized box) and it comes with great matches. Apparently, it burns for 80 hours - which makes its price point very reasonable. I do wish they'd named it Woodsmoke or Ash because Warm Embers says nothing to me.

I should also mention - and this trumps everything else I've said - that Scott has allowed it to be lit 2 (sub-zero) evenings in a row, unheard of in these parts. In fact, the first time I lit it, I put it in the dining room, out of his line of sight, just to see how long it would take for him to complain. He didn't know it was on until I pointed it out. He thought the scent was coming from outside?!

It would make an easy to acquire, delightful housewarming or holiday gift - almost as good as CURIO :-) dare I say, so keep it in mind as the season approaches.

Today's questions: Have you heard of Kobo candles? Do you like them? Do you have a candle from another brand that approximates this wood smoke scent and, if yes, give us the details! Julie, from Ziggy's, said in all her time she hasn't come across another candle that smells this way and she's in the biz... FWIW, neither have I.