Sweet Pea

A sweet pea candle that opens on citrus and lemongrass instead of sugar tells you immediately that this is not the air-freshener version of the flower. The Shido Sweet Pea leads with bright lemon and grassy lemongrass, transitions through green notes that evoke cut stems and new growth, and settles into a base of moss and soft herbaceous florals. Eight ounces of coconut-soy wax occupy a clear glass vessel weighted at the bottom for stability. Two cotton wicks sit side by side, generating enough combined heat to melt the entire surface evenly within the first burn. The blend is free of paraffin, free of phthalates, and free of every animal ingredient a vegan buyer would scrutinize. More than sixty hours of burn time live inside the vessel when the wicks are trimmed and the melt pool is established on day one. My colleague Jerome, who maintains that candles are not for men, now keeps one on his desk and refers to it exclusively as a work tool. The rebranding seems to help.