Le Labo Santal 26 Candle

Great candle, I had this candle many years ago and would always burn it during my open houses. It’s overpriced on here but I haven’t been able to fond it elsewhere so I pulled the trigger.I took a photo so you could see the size compared to a coffee cup.

I purchased this candle directly from Le Labo, not Amazon. I absolutely love the scent of Santal 33, the perfume version of the home scent/candle, and, frankly, the candle smells just like the perfume. Unfortunately it is not at all fragrant once lit. I find that odd given how fragrant the candle is before it is lit. After all, I purchased two of them from one of the NYC Le Labo locations and spent my entire trainride home surrounded by the wonderful scent of Santal that was coming from my shopping bag. But I was very disappointed once I finally lit the candle. I should note that I left it on for hours and although I got an occasional whiff of its delightful aroma, it was not particularly noticeable and did not last. Frankly, these candles are expensive. And I was prepared to buy more given how much I love the fragrance. But I will refrain from doing so unless and until Le Labo makes significant improvements. It simply is not worth the cost.

I received this candle as a gift a while back, and never opened it until this week. I had read a lot of reviews on candle sites, that this was the holy grail of candles, unbelievably wonderful scent. have to have it, etc. on and on .. so I finally busted it out of its little corrugated carton, pried open the lid, and sniffed. puzzled. sniffed again. not quite sure what I'm smelling. the descriptions of leathery goodness, smoky, lovely masculine scent - did not seem to fit this candle aroma. So I lit it, and let burn for a couple of hours, waiting to see what it would produce. No improvement whatsoever. All I smell, is a very *sweet* scent, that I am completely unable to identify with anything else, that would be in a candle. Not flowery. Not leather. Not food. I don't know what. But. I don't like it. The closest description I have to the scent, without being too vulgar .. is that it smells very strongly of an exclusively female body part. no exxageration. that is what it reminds me of. and I don't want that smell coming from my candle! So -- I snuffed it, and will re-gift the used candle, to the first taker in my family, that can appreciate it. Because I can't.Advertised as the twin to the signature scent at Gramercy Park Hotel ? Have never been, but next time I'm in the city, I'm going to head over there, and see if maybe they are burning something other than what I got. Because I can't imagine this scent wafting through the hotel lobby without somebody having commented on it...

I had to write a review after seeing someone else stupidly rate this amazing candle with one star. Like any review of a fragrance, their rating and review is 100% pure subjective opinion. I have bought this candle twice now, and absolutely love it. Do I enjoy paying $70 for it? Not really, but I enjoy the scent enough to pay a premium for the feeling I get when it fills the house with its aroma. The other reviewer probably has something wrong with his nose. He is right that it's similar to the signature scent of the Gramercy Park Hotel, and it's actually the signature scent of many other high-end hotels.I first smelled this candle at Mark Lee's penthouse apartment in Chelsea when I was there doing some work on his home theatre system. If that name isn't familiar, he's the former CEO of Gucci and current CEO of Barney's, so I don't think he would be burning a candle that sucked. I made sure to find out what was producing the amazing smell in there, and within that month I purchased my first one at Le Labo's store in NYC. The second I got at Barney's on 5th avenue. At Barney's, they mentioned that it's the most popular Le Labo candle they sell, and that Jay-Z comes in every now and then and gets a few of them for his place. Who knows if that's actually true, but I think it's a decent endorsement if it is. I am in Dallas now, and was just at Hotel ZaZa - one of the top 5 hotels in Dallas, and I smelled it there, which made me want to get a third, so I came here to Amazon.

I purchase 2-4 candles per month for years and Le Labo candles are my favorites and always in my rotation. Please understand that negative reviews, just like positive ones, are subjective. However, the company has a long well deserved track record of amazing scents and incredible candles. Even the infrequent times when a product didn't meet my expectations the company replaced it quickly at no additional costs. You get what you pay for and when it comes to luxury candles Le Labo is the cream of the crop.

I absolutely agree with one of the reviewers here: there's hardly, hardly any scent to the candle while burning. I have several of Le Labo's candles, was particularly impressed by Laurier 62's throw and wonderful fragrance, and thought to finally give this most popular Le Labo candle a shot. It was a waste of money. Just what is all the hype about a scented candle that has no scent and costs a small fortune? Please explain!