candle closet: Otherland review
a candle a day keeps the fatigue of being alive away
I know it isn’t very anti-capitalist of me, but one of the few things that makes life bearable is having a little scented candle burning in whatever room you’re in. I began proscribing to this idea in college, where lighting a candle was the first step in the ritual I developed in order to stay on task and get work done (the other step is turning lo-fi beats on my TV). It sort of still is a part of my working ritual, but my deep dive into scented candles has gotten admittedly out of control since then.
Now that I’m out of my Bath & Body Works phase (I still like Wine Cellar but they rarely bring it back), I’ve been trying lots of candle brands in an attempt to find my favorites. But honestly, also just for the joy of trying new things and discovering good stuff I’d never heard of before. I also now know way more about candles, candle-making, and candle-burning than I ever imagined, so I figure doing some reviews may be helpful, and at the very least, it’s fun for me.
the vessel
One of the first brands I tried after outgrowing Bath & Body Works was Otherland. The company is based out of Brooklyn, NY and was founded by a woman named Abigail. What most grabs people’s attention when it comes to Otherland, and what grabbed mine, was the vessel design.
The core collection consists of some everyday-friendly scents and comes in matte white vessels, which I don’t usually see for candles. They have these graphic but sophisticated stickers printed on them that are evocative of the scent in color and shape, but don’t actually say the scent name. Instead, the Otherland logo is printed in metallic gold.
I find the vessels really elegant, and they fit well in the kind of beige-mania interior design trend that has dominated the zeitgeist for the past four or five years. The seasonal vessels also come in frosted matte glasses with stickers that match the collection and a patterned lid that suctions. The vessels are fine. They’re sturdy and pretty. Even when I’m not burning one, I feel like I should be displaying it.
the fragrance
The way Otherland’s inventory works is the same as many candle brands. There’s a core collection of versatile scents and then seasonal collections that are pretty much the same every year. There’s a spring collection of florals called Garden Party, a summer collection called Beach Club, two fall collections, and two winter collections (I think that’s it?).
The fragrances themselves are Otherland’s best quality. You can tell that Abigail has a background in design and really cares about creating a cohesive portfolio. The collections feel very complete and smell related to each other. You can tell they belong in a collection together by the scent, not just the visual design.
The same way makeup companies say that an eyeshadow palette has a “color story,” I think the Otherland collections have “scent stories.” I love scents that are more conceptual, not just a one-note replica of something that exists (citrus, lavender, etc), but something that evokes a time and place, even a time or place you’ve never been. Garden Party has a lavish Bridgerton-esque feel. Beach Club smells like expensive hotels, clear water, sunscreen, and ripe fruits. That sort of thing.
I think everyone can find a scent they will love among Otherland’s collections. I was a big fan of the summer’s Matchpoint, a tennis court fragrance, and of the fall’s Spice it Up. All of the core collection is good, in my opinion, but Kindling and Canopy were my favorites.
The cold throw is average. Hot throw tends to be a bit subdued. It’s ideal for people who like that “naturally good” smell in a room. It isn’t totally obvious that there’s a candle burning, but you’re aware of a pleasant aroma. And then you look around a bit and realize that yes, there is a candle burning! It’s subtle, but fills my office nicely.
A big selling point of Otherland is the clean ingredients. They have cotton wicks and a coconut and soy wax blend. This, along with the elevated design, make the candles true midpoint luxury candles sitting at $36 a candle. I find that there are candles that are the “affordable but nice” that stay at a $25-30 range (think Brooklyn Candle Studio, Anecdote, and PF Candle Co), another more bougie range that is the $35-40 (Otherland, Boysmells), then true luxury candles that are usually at least $60. Otherland’s fragrances and overall brand quality match up with other brands at its level.
the performance
I really need to talk about the candles’ performance. It leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve tried a few candles from across the company’s collections, so I’m writing off the possibility of having gotten a dud or two. This is more of a brand-wide issue when it comes to burn quality.
It’s hard to tell if there is a wick issue, a wax issue, or both, with how poorly these burn. Every single candle I’ve burned from Otherland needs to be babysat constantly. Trimming wicks before burning is par for the course and you should be doing it with every candle for an optimal burn, so that’s nothing to write home about. I also made sure to let the wax pool evenly and never burned anything for under an hour.
Even then, I had to consistently cotton ball wet wax and keep a tinfoil border around the lid to get anything close to an even burn. The wicks were miserable. They curl over and dud out and fall apart. One of my candles I gave up completely on burning even though there was half of the wax left. I just could not get it to light again because of the wick. The candles tunnel intensely, so if you are really dedicated to finishing the candle, you should be tinfoiling it and cotton balling the wax if it starts drowning the wick.
Towards the end of the burn, it starts throwing ash like crazy. The vessels are pretty, so I wanted to keep and reuse them, but I found by the end that the candles had become so ashy that they weren’t worth reusing.
For $36 a candle, I should be able to burn the entire thing without it dudding out on me. I don’t know what’s going on with the burns on these, but it was a big disappointment.
If you’re okay with performance issues, these are still great to collect and they make for awesome display pieces. I like their eco-friendly packaging options and think more companies should be doing something similar.
They’re pretty and I love the scents. I wish I could buy more and enjoy them, especially since I haven’t tried anything from the winter collection, but for me, it just isn’t worth the poor burn. I don’t see myself buying more of these in the future, but I adore how conceptual the fragrances are.