I tried Aldi’s new £8.99 candle, reportedly a dupe of White Company’s £75 version

ALDI has announced its latest home fragrances to help interior enthusiasts update their scentscapes for winter.

With prices starting from £2.99, customers can get their hands on the new collection in the center aisle from October 17.

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Described as an “understated option that will look chic in any home”, the new Quiet luxury ceramic candle700g for £8.99.

It’s available in two scents, Cedarwood & Vetiver or Tuberose & Cashmere, each of which says it “induces warming feelings of calm and serenity.”

Better yet, Aldi says that “buyers can save themselves 87 percent compared to The White Company’s Ceramic 3 Wick Candle, which costs a whopping £75.

So I put them to the test.

Can we really call Aldi’s candle a dupe of The White Company?

Aldi’s tranquil luxury ceramic candle

First impressions: it’s chic, it looks expensive.

It comes in a beautiful stone vessel and I love the engraved Hotel Collection logo on the side and the name of the fragrance on the lid. Speaking of the lid, there is a rubber seal around it so that the scent is contained.

One thing I have found with Aldi candles is that the scents can be overpowering without a lid on, but this works perfectly.

On to the scent…cedarwood and vetiver.

Cedarwood is an essential oil from various types of conifers, or trees. It is produced from the foliage and sometimes from the wood, roots and stumps left behind after felling trees for lumber. It is usually referred to as a rather musky, masculine scent.

Vetiver, on the other hand – which I’ve never heard of – is a grass. It has a similar scent to lemongrass and citronella.

Aldi’s candle is a cross between dark, musky, woody and fresh lemon, or as I so politely described it as ‘musky lemon dish soap’.

The scent isn’t personally my thing, but my boyfriend said it smelled like his aftershave, and he really liked it.

As for how well it burned, getting the fuses to light was a challenge. I used extra long matches and by the time I got to the third fuse the match was almost gone.

The wicks were very long and thin to begin with, so the flames were smaller, which meant the amount of wax burned was a lot less.

I let the candle burn for two hours – note, the label advises not to burn the candle for more than four hours at a time – and about an inch of wax had melted. With a burn time of (approximately) 70 hours, the candle will last a few months if you burn it every evening.

It was quite strong and very clearly filled the room with the scent.

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The ceramic candle with 3 wicks from The White Company

The packaging from The White Company is at a new level: the candle is delivered in a beautiful branded box with lid and barrel safely packaged.

The vessel is made of smooth porcelain, which The White Company says can be reused after the wax has been used up.

But the lid doesn’t have a rubber seal and I quickly noticed that the porcelain can easily be stained.

The ceramic candle with 3 wicks is available in different scents: Nourish, Calm, Spa Restore and Sleep. I tried Nourish.

The scent description was “soft and comforting” and the scent notes were oats, bergamot and amber.

Made using the “highest quality mineral wax” – a mixture of coconut and paraffin – the candle is said to have “soft creamy scent notes of oats and barley, combined with bright bergamot and lemon, plus warming amber”.

Customers should be able to imagine “the gentle waves of a warm, sunlit wheat field, lightly brushed by a fresh citrus breeze” as the scent fills the room.

So when I lit the candle I was transported to a wheat field, surrounded by a citrus breeze? No.

But I was transported to a luxurious bedroom at the seaside beach house, with the windows open and the curtains billowing in the fresh sea breeze. That was the image I got when I smelled the candle.

It’s creamy, with a subtle hint of lemon, very spring-like. Very luxurious.

As for how well it burned, you can tell this is a well made candle.

The wicks are thick, which means the flames are larger, so a larger surface area of ​​the candle burns evenly and you don’t leave three holes and surrounding wax. And it subtly fills the room with fragrance, it is not overpowering.

The verdict?

I think the Quiet Luxury Ceramic Candle from Aldi is a very good product inspired by The ceramic candle with 3 wicks from The White Company.

But I wouldn’t call it a dupe.

First, the scents are very different. So unless it was the exact same scent, they can’t be a dupe.

I prefer The White Company scent, just because I’m not a fan of musky scents, but everyone likes different scents, and I would like to smell Aldi’s tuberose and cashmere candle.

Secondly: value for money. The Aldi candle costs just £8.99 – and I honestly doubted how good it would be, but I was really impressed. It’s a brilliant product at a brilliant price.

It’s not made from the most luxurious candle wax, nor does it burn 100% of the wax, but the packaging is beautiful and it would make a brilliant gift.

The one from The White Company, on the other hand, is simply pure luxury. You can tell that the ingredients used are expensive and it burns very well, so it is worth the price tag. But The White Company should take note of Aldi: the rubber seal around the lid is a really great feature.