I Ranked Every Bath and Body Works Holiday Candle for the Sake of Merry Cheer

I have nothing else to say other than this smells like a mint Milano and I LIKE IT A LOT, OKAY?

I lit this waxy goodness while watching Dash & Lily on Netflix (a pure, low-stakes delight that my pretentious teenage self would have eaten up if it came out in 2010). Cozy? Check. Warm? Check. Festive? Duh. 

When I woke up the next morning my apartment STILL smelled like this. I was not mad about it. 

I woke up early on a Saturday morning to phone bank on behalf of Fair Fight Action for the Georgia Runoff elections and needed something other than coffee to get my mind up and moving. Surprisingly, it was this very minty, very soft holiday candle. Who knew! 

Very peaceful and calming—just like walking into a Pottery Barn and leaving with exactly one furry white blanket, one wreath, and four glittery bottlebrush trees. It's an aesthetic that I would like to be buried in, thank you. 

Okay, I was so sure this would be at the bottom of my list because overly sugary, sweet scents are not my thing. But after about eight minutes or so, I realized that this is stunning and I love it so? Who knew cotton candy and sugared berries would smell like the pink fairy gumdrop of my sugarplum dreams? (Bath & Body Works, they did.)

Reader, I audibly gasped "Oh!" when the sweet smells of woodland balsam, crisp eucalyptus, fir, and cedar took over my apartment. Are wedding scents a thing? Because this is what I want my wedding to smell like. 

On my first, unlit waft I was concerned everything would suddenly smell like Red Hots. After lighting it, it smelled less like Red Hots but still spicy and cinnamon-y! I loved it a *lot* more than I thought I would. And it doubles as simple festive decor. 

Oh, she's nice. Like, NICE nice. I grew up in New York City, so I never got to experience the whole giant tree farm thing that is basically Taylor Swift's entire holiday aesthetic, but I think I get it now? All thanks to the sweet mix of pine needles and spiced apple.

Are there better candles at Bath & Body Works? Yes. Will you regret this one? Absolutely not. It's spearmint and lavender mixed together so I'm sure your S.O.'s mom is going to looooove it. 

Pro tip: Light this one while baking to cover up anything you burnt with the smell of actual sweet cookies and vanilla. Just do it and we can DM about it later.

Hello, fresh! The spearmint and balsam scent was strong, but the real crowd-pleaser here is how the melted wax looked like the creature from the black lagoon was about to crawl up out of it. Yes, I stared at it for way too long instead of writing this very ranking. 

Fair warning: You can't get anything productive done while burning this delight of caramel, salt, and whipped cream on a cold day. Sorry, I don't make the rules. Bath & Body Works does.

Minus a ton of points for the not-explicitly-seasonal vibes because, again, that's what this ranking is about.

However, the scent is Bath & Body Works at its purest: slathered all over yourself after before heading to the middle school dance in your finest capri leggings. The white birch, velvety rose, and pungent strawberry made my adult boyfriend kiss me just, like, a lot and inexplicably start singing Jesse McCartney's iconique banger "Body Language"—save this bb for Valentine's Day.  

Honestly I forgot I had a candle burning with this one. But when I *did* remember, I liked it. It's cute because it literally smells like a marshmallow was bathed in gingerbread and dipped in eggnog.

Like every candle on this list, "Champagne Toast" is generally nice but this one isn't for the faint of heart because it smells like all the berries in all the world at once.  I don't recommend if you're hungover or get headaches easily (hi, me!), but I do recommend if cooking fish or if generally burning dinner is your thing.

Side note: That mouse is a visual representation of me smelling alllll of these candles for you. It's like they knew. 

Look, the site says it has notes of lavender, eucalyptus, and juniper berries but it really smells like the Axe body spray your first real crush wore.