Le Labo Santal 26 Candle Review

 I definitely meant to do this post a couple of weeks ago but I have been super lazy this past week. I got  my Wisdom teeth pulled last Thursday and went into work after...as well as worked the next day. I'm just made of the tough stuff 😁

Le Labo claims:

SANTAL 26 is an aristocratic scent, at once gentle, smoky, and leathery, that will fill your space and give it true personality. Come on baby, light my fire.

Our candles are developed with a high dose of fragrance oils, a custom blend of waxes, and wicks constructed with natural fibers to ensure a beautiful olfactive experience. Carefully poured by hand in the US, these candles are packaged in glass vessels and tucked into our classic kraft box with a personalized label. Please read the instructions before use and don’t forget to trim the wicks!

This candle is very popular and I really wanted to find out if it was worth the hype. I also bought a small size of the perfume (Santal 33) so I may be reviewing that soon as well. Whenever I watched reviews of this candle- most people say it smells like boutique shops in California. I've never been but I do want to travel to Cali one day. 

I had a gift card for $50.00 which is the only reason I bought this. I will always use a gift card to take off the sting off the price. So I really ended up paying $34 since gift card money does not count. 

First thing I noticed about this candle was that the presentation was sloppy. I ordered it from Nordstrom which is an official retailer so that wasn't the problem. The label was applied sloppily and had bumps in it...I was very unimpressed with the way it looked when I first opened it up. Given the price of this candle- that should not be the case.

It does come in a nice box though that looks like it was made of recycled material. I did visit the Le Labo store in Paris and all their products have an apothecary style. I liked the vibe of the store. Maybe I should have bought the candle while I was in Paris.... 

Anyway.. the packaging besides being sloppy is nice. 

It is a decent size at 8.6 ounces with a projected burn time of 80 hours. Not sure I believe that though. Also not sure exactly what the wax is as it doesn't say on the website. Maybe Soy? I doubt it's paraffin. It has mostly been burning cleanly- I don't really get soot as long as I keep up with the burning times and trim the wick. You can trim the wick quite a bit too to get a longer burn. It has been burning pretty evenly...as long as I let it have enough time to  burn to the edges

The scent is a spicy sandalwood. There is an undertone of creamy Santal, with lots of spicy spices such as cinnamon/nutmeg...basically baking spices. There may be a hint of vanilla. But I don't really detect the claimed notes of Amber, Cedar, or musk. It is also a bit smoky and campfire like. It definitely has very distinctive and unique scent to it..I do like the scent. I don't think I like it enough to buy at full price but it's nice.

The throw on it is pretty subtle though and doesn't go far or linger much after you blow it out. 

It definitely has been duped. When I was in the states I made sure to visit Tj Max to smell all the candles, I definitely picked up a candle or two that I thought smelled just like this scent- at a fraction of the price.

Overall, it's pretty nice. And it does smell unique but as with anything that gets very popular there are cheaper alternatives out out. If I won the lottery- maybe I would buy it again. But I think I will try some higher end dupes to see if they come close.