The holidays are about simple pleasures. I recently expressed that sentiment with a straight face to a friend — after shouting with glee: “Cire Trudon makes room sprays now!” My friend read the Cire Trudon Les Parfums d’Intérieur PR announcement and said: “I get the ‘pleasure’ part, Kevin, but what’s so ‘simple’ about a $142 room spray?” Fair enough.

Cire Trudon’s new room sprays come in its most popular candle fragrances: Roi Soleil, Spiritus Sancti, Abd El Kader, Ernesto, and Nazareth. Since one of my favorite churches, Santo Spirito in Florence, is thousands of miles away, I opted for the Cire Trudon fragrance that might help me conjure its atmosphere this Christmas (provided I close my eyes, get my imagination in high gear, and queue Monteverdi, Cavalli and Albinoni on the CD player); I chose Spiritus Sancti.

Spiritus Sancti smells like “classic” church incense…

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Once again, a drool-worthy holiday candle collection from Diptyque. At left, Pin (“fresh and familiar, green and resinous, the scent of pine needles and a hint of patchouli”); at right, Orange Épicée (“With its emblematic note of sour orange with a mix of essences of winter spices: Indian ginger, star anise from China, clove”). Not shown is Oliban, in blue…

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From Ormonde Jayne, an engraved bottle (shown above left): “Ormonde Jayne will engrave your mother’s initials onto the gold and glass stopper of our iconic Pure Parfum bottle and have it delivered in a beautiful shagreen box.” The service takes about 5 working days (not including shipping), and a 50 ml bottle is £130; you can order online at the Ormonde Jayne website…

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I hate candles that have the sort of perfume that you might wear on your body. Our smells are different - we re-create the smell of the Mirror Gallery and the polished wooden floor of Versailles (Roi Soleil); we conjure up the fragrance of old stone walls in the shade of cloisters and convents (Carmelite); of churches (Spiritus Sancti); of freshly washed linen and swilled-down tiled floors (Manon) and of leather and tobacco in an old hotel in Havana (Ernesto).

— Ramdane Touhami of Cire Trudon, quoted by columnist Lucia van der Post in Lucia loves: scented candles at the UK Times Online. See also: Kevin's review of the Cire Trudon Mademoiselle de La Vallière candle.

On May 14, 1664, during the famous seven-day party called Les Plaisirs de l’Ile Enchantée that celebrated the inauguration of Louis XIV’s grand Versailles building project, the “scents of ambergris, rosewater and jasmine melded with the acrid fumes of gunpowder as fireworks swooped great arabesques of intertwining ‘Ls’ across the sky for Louise and her lover, King Louis XIV of France.”* Louise was Louise de La Vallière (1644-1710), the provincial, blond and blue-eyed, rather “simple” 20-year-old mistress of Louis XIV — and the inspiration for Cire Trudon’s Mademoiselle de La Vallière candle. Louise became Louis’ mistress in 1661, and she was eventually given the titles of Duchesse de Vaujours and maîtresse en titre; she bore the king four children.

The Cire Trudon candle works was founded in Paris in 1643 (just a year before the Versailles fête) and provided candles to the court of Louis XIV (and still provides candles — and candle-making expertise — to churches like the Église Saint-Roch in Paris and companies such as Hermès, Cartier, Dior, and Guerlain).

The creative force behind Cire Trudon’s perfumed candles is Ramdane Touhami who says, “Cire Trudon does not make perfumes, but creates smells”. It’s rare that I come across an entire line of perfumes, soaps, or candles and think: “I want EVERYTHING!” but that’s how I felt when I smelled the Cire Trudon line of candles at Barneys New York…

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If Dad deserves a gift fit for a king (or make that an emperor), how about an Empire candle from Cire Trudon? “Pine, sage and hay are vibrating in the air of the Napoleonian camp with hints of cades and maquis. The joyful and indulging warmth of thyme, marjoram and rosemary ring like a fife…” And so on. $70 at Aedes…

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