Music by Candlelight

Celebrities have been active participants in collaborating on signature candles, especially since the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. One sub-sector of this space consists of musicians who have partnered to create candles, often trying to capture the essence of their most recent album or song titles in the form of scent. Here are some examples from this year: 

• Just this month, R&B singer and candle lover Tyrese Gibson, who is also an actor (including in the Transformers and Fast & Furious franchises), announced a collaboration with Wick and Glow Candle Company for a Beautiful Pain home fragrance collection inspired by and named for his most recent album. Macadoo and Blitz Media Group were also involved in the deal. The assortment includes three double-wicked coconut soy candles (with QR codes linking to the album) and three room and linen sprays. Both the candles and sprays come in three scents, Beautiful Pain, Wildflower, and Rescue, all of which are names of songs on the album. More products are planned for 2025. 

• The estate of Betty Wright, along with BWL Entertainment and the Betty Wright: Music Royalty brand, partnered in June with Wick and Glow, in association with Macadoo, for a collection of three-wick, luxury scented candles. The objective for the creation of the line was to reflect Wright’s legacy as a singer who crossed into the R&B, disco, and pop genres and as a black female entrepreneur; she also loved scented candles. Wright’s three daughters were involved in developing the scent blends, which included some of Wright’s favorite ingredients.

• Country singer Ernest teamed with Nashville fragrance house Ranger Station in May for a two-wick candle named 1992 (feat. Ernest). It smelled “like Old Nashville, a southern memory, and a seasoned guitar,” according to the packaging. A portion of proceeds from the collection, which included a unisex perfume as well as the candle, benefited mental-health nonprofit Porter’s Call, which serves recording artists and their families. The products were named for the singer’s birthday year and timed to the release of his 2024 album, Nashville, Tennessee.

• Wallows, a Los Angeles-based alt-rock band, worked with P.F. Candle Co. in early 2024 for the Your Apartment candle, named after a song on the band’s Model album. The scent was described as having base notes of bonfire smoke, crushed shells, tonka beans, and patchouli and top notes of marine air, hemp, and ocean salt to suggest a “nostalgic, clean, and dreamy” apartment. 

• Kacey Musgraves paired with Boy Smells in February for a candle named for and inspired by her single “Deeper Well,” which was included on the album of the same name released in March. This was the country singer’s second collaboration with the company. The goal was to capture the feeling of the song by creating a familiar and comforting scent that reminds the users of someone they love and have missed.

Other musicians that have lent their names to candles in the last few years range from Grace Jones, with Boy Smells, to Drake, through his own Better World Fragrance House. 

These musician-connected candles—which tend to be promotional rather than having ambitions as long-term programs—are typically limited-edition, “luxury-scented,” and long-lasting. The examples listed here were introduced with retail prices of between $28.00 and $56.00 per candle. 

A reminder that Raugust Communications’ monthly e-newsletter will hit email in-boxes tomorrow, November 19, 2024. The Licensing Topic of the Month looks at topline trends from analysts’ forecasts for the upcoming 2024 holiday season, which gets its “official” start later this month. In keeping with the seasonal theme, the Datapoint research spotlight analyzes the ever-popular novelty Christmas sweater market. If you are not yet a subscriber of this free monthly publication, you can sign up here.