Rank 05 of 10
Boy Smells
Most of the throw for half the money
- Origin
- Los Angeles, United States
- Founded
- 2016
- Wax
- Coconut and beeswax blend
- Price range
- $42 to $62
The verdict
Boy Smells is the most underrated candle on this list. The coconut and beeswax blend delivers most of Diptyque's throw at half the price: the room filled in 34 minutes and the scent held at 22 feet. Kush is genuinely strange in a way nothing else here attempts, which is either the appeal or the dealbreaker. The pink glass is a matter of taste and the lid is decorative rather than functional. On the numbers it is the best buy in the luxury tier.
Kate Gorski, Founder and lead reviewer
Background
About Boy Smells
Boy Smells started in a Los Angeles kitchen in 2016 with a deliberate refusal to sort fragrance into masculine and feminine columns. The scents are built to sit in between: Kush pairs cannabis and tuberose, Ash pairs saffron and cypress, Cowboy Kush adds tobacco and leather to the house signature. It is the only brand here that consistently takes a swing.
The wax is a coconut and beeswax blend, which is the practical reason this scores as well as it does. Coconut wax carries fragrance oil nearly as well as paraffin and burns cooler and cleaner. You get most of the throw advantage without the carbon, at the cost of a softer wax that pools deep and fast.
The vessel is matte pink glass with a printed lid, and it is the most polarising object in the test. Two people in the lab called it the best looking candle here. One refused to have it on a shelf. It cleans up easily and works as a pen cup, which is more than most of these can say.
Raw data
The burn log
4 units, 198 logged hours, one 18 by 14 foot room with the door closed and the HVAC off.
- Time to full melt pool
- 34 min
- Throw distance
- 22 ft
- Units burned
- 4
- Wick
- Braided cotton wick
- Vessel
- Matte pink glass with a printed lid
- Tested unit
- 8.5 oz, 50 h
- Tunneling
- None, though the melt pool runs hot and deep
- Soot
- Faint carbon ring above hour 35 on two of four units
- Wick behaviour
- Mushrooms if left untrimmed past four hours
- End of life
- 7 mm residue, glass cleans up with hot water
The range
Signature scents
- 01
Kush
Cannabis, tuberose and citrus. The house signature and the most divisive scent here.
- 02
Cowboy Kush
Kush with tobacco, leather and cedar. Warmer and less green.
- 03
Ash
Saffron, cypress and smoke. Dry, cold and very good in winter.
- 04
Italian Kiss
Bergamot and neroli over almond. The easy one in the range.
- 05
Rose Load
Rose with black pepper and cedar. Not a soft rose at all.
The trade
What you gain, what you give up
In its favour
- Best throw per dollar in the luxury tier at roughly $0.84 an hour
- Coconut and beeswax blend burns cool with minimal carbon
- Melt pool reaches the edge in 34 minutes, second fastest in the test
- Scent library takes real creative risks
- Vessel is genuinely reusable once cleaned
Against it
- Wick mushrooms if you leave a session running past four hours
- Soft coconut wax pools deep, so the last 7 mm is hard to burn off
- Pink glass is not a neutral object in a room
- Kush is not a scent you can gift blind
Buy it if
People who want luxury-tier performance without the luxury-tier receipt, and anybody bored of fig and amber.
Skip it if
Blind gifting. Buy Diptyque or Jo Malone if you cannot ask first.
The arithmetic
Price and value
We burned the Kush, 8.5 oz at $42, rated at 50 hours. That works out to $0.84 per burn hour against a board average near $0.89. On our value column Boy Smells scores 8.0 out of 10, which accounts for measured performance and what the vessel is worth once the wax is gone, not just the rate.
Questions
Boy Smells FAQ
What does Boy Smells Kush actually smell like?
Cannabis flower over tuberose and citrus, with a resinous base. It is greener and less sweet than most people expect, and it does not smell like anything is burning.
Is Boy Smells better value than Diptyque?
On cost per burn hour they are close: about $0.84 versus $0.80. Boy Smells gives you a 8.5 oz candle instead of 190 g and a cleaner wax, so you get more candle for a similar rate.
How long does a Boy Smells candle burn?
The 8.5 oz core size is rated near 50 hours. Our four units averaged 48 hours with a deeper end residue than the soy brands.
Do I need to trim the wick?
Yes, more than with most candles here. The braided wick mushrooms after about four hours of continuous burn. Trim to 5 mm before each session.