Rank 07 of 10
Nest New York
The candle you buy for every room in the house
- Origin
- New York, United States
- Founded
- 2008
- Wax
- Soy and paraffin blend
- Price range
- $22 to $68
The verdict
Nest is the practical answer. The classic 8.1 oz sits at $48 for 55 hours, the scents are legible and largely inoffensive, and the range is deep enough that you can run different fragrances in different rooms without them fighting in the hallway. Bamboo is the one everybody buys and it earns it. Nothing here surprised us in either direction, which is either the criticism or exactly the point.
Kate Gorski, Founder and lead reviewer
Background
About Nest New York
Nest New York was founded in 2008 by Laura Slatkin, who had already spent a decade building home fragrance programmes for other people's brands. That commercial background shows: the range is broad, the naming is literal, and almost every scent is engineered to be agreeable to a room full of people rather than thrilling to one.
Bamboo is the flagship and it is a genuinely well-built green floral, sharp at the top and soft underneath. Grapefruit is the summer alternative, Birchwood Pine is the winter one, and Moroccan Amber is the evening one. If you want to fragrance an entire house from a single brand, this is the easiest way to do it.
The wax is a soy and paraffin blend, which lands it between the pure soy brands and the paraffin ones on both throw and cleanliness. It fills a room in 38 minutes and holds at 21 feet, both perfectly respectable. It also leaves more carbon on the glass past hour 40 than we would like.
Raw data
The burn log
4 units, 214 logged hours, one 18 by 14 foot room with the door closed and the HVAC off.
- Time to full melt pool
- 38 min
- Throw distance
- 21 ft
- Units burned
- 4
- Wick
- Single cotton wick
- Vessel
- Clear glass with a printed pattern
- Tested unit
- 8.1 oz, 55 h
- Tunneling
- None on three units, mild on the fourth
- Soot
- Moderate carbon above hour 40
- Wick behaviour
- Stable, trim every two sessions
- End of life
- 6 mm residue, printed glass is hard to reuse
The range
Signature scents
- 01
Bamboo
Green floral with a citrus top. The flagship and the safest bet.
- 02
Grapefruit
Bright and slightly bitter. The best kitchen scent in the range.
- 03
Birchwood Pine
Cold pine and smoke. The reliable winter option.
- 04
Moroccan Amber
Amber, patchouli and musk. Heavier and best in the evening.
- 05
Ocean Mist & Sea Salt
Salt, driftwood and citrus. Cleaner than most sea scents manage.
The trade
What you gain, what you give up
In its favour
- One of the deepest scent ranges on this list
- Reliable 55 hours at a fair $0.87 per hour
- Scents are designed to coexist across rooms
- Full melt pool in 38 minutes
- Widely stocked, so easy to replace
Against it
- Soy and paraffin blend leaves noticeable carbon past hour 40
- Printed glass makes the vessel hard to reuse
- Nothing in the range takes a real creative risk
- One of four units tunneled
Buy it if
People furnishing a whole house with fragrance, and anybody who wants a candle nobody will complain about.
Skip it if
Anyone looking for a scent with a point of view. Try Boy Smells or Byredo.
The arithmetic
Price and value
We burned the Bamboo, 8.1 oz classic at $48, rated at 55 hours. That works out to $0.87 per burn hour against a board average near $0.89. On our value column Nest New York scores 8.2 out of 10, which accounts for measured performance and what the vessel is worth once the wax is gone, not just the rate.
Questions
Nest New York FAQ
Which Nest candle should I buy?
Bamboo if you only buy one. It is the flagship, it is the most versatile scent in the range, and it works in almost any room.
How long does a Nest candle burn?
The 8.1 oz classic is rated at 50 to 60 hours. Our four units averaged 55 hours, so the rating holds.
Is Nest a clean-burning candle?
Reasonably. It is a soy and paraffin blend, so it burns cleaner than pure paraffin but leaves visible carbon on the glass in the last third. Keep the wick trimmed to 5 mm.
Is Nest worth it compared to Diptyque?
For covering several rooms, yes: you can buy three Nest candles for the price of two Diptyques. For a single statement candle in a living room, Diptyque throws further and lasts as long.