Behind The Design: The Story of Our Concrete Candles

Since 2013, we’ve been rethinking fragrance and every element of its design, which is how Scent Space came to be. In 2021, we set out to bring that same modern approach to the candle category.

From formulating a non-toxic black wax, to recreating our Expressive fragrance oils to designing a modern, architectural vessel you’d want to see in your home—every detail has been crafted with intention. Here’s a look at how we brought these candles to life, and why it took 4 years…

Custom-Designed Hex Shape

Before the candles, our products and packaging embodied the elemental simplicity of Commodity: clean, round bottles and sleek, square boxes. We experimented with these shapes for the candles, but ultimately decided on a new shape to identify the candles as their own category.

An early prototype of round, glass vessels.

Sampling different vessel materials.

The final hexagonal shape was inspired by the molecular structure of fragrance itself. Many key ingredients, such as Iso E Super and Ambroxan (Amber), feature a hexagonal molecular shape (pictured below). This design choice ties the candles back to the elemental heart of our brand while still giving them their unique identity.

Fragrance Oil

The Concrete Candles feature the same distinctive aromas as our Expressive fragrances. While the formulas differ—some fragrance oils have flash points that make them unsuitable for candles—they are crafted to give the same olfactive impression.

As part of Scent Space, they mirror our Expressive fragrances’ projections. Designed to comfortably fill a room, their presence makes a mark, not a scene.

Non-Toxic Black Wax

When designing our Concrete Candles, we envisioned black wax to mirror the Expressive fragrance bottles. However, this design element came with its own set of challenges.

Traditionally, black wax is derived from paraffin, which can produce soot when burned and pose health risks. Chemicals in the sooty residue include benzene and toluene, which are cancer-causing and affect the central nervous system.

Determined to create a cleaner alternative, we sourced a non-toxic soy wax, which is now dyed black and hand-poured on-site.

Shop the Candles

The journey to crafting our Concrete Candles was one paved with intention–element-by-element, year-over-year. Usually exclusive to our NYC flagship store, you can now shop the custom-designed collection by joining our free Rewards program, Commodity.Circle.