Scent, as we all know, is a great transporter, carrying us to faraway places, exotic locations, dim and distant pasts.  Bamford’s Candied Orange, Frankincense, Cardamon candle evokes the festivities of Christmas and the anticipation of warm family gatherings, filled with laughter, love, familiarity and kinship. For me, it takes me back to Christmas Eve spent with my family and grandmother at our family holiday home in Portsea on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. As darkness descended, I’d be permitted to stay up late and help with the finishing touches to the merriments of the Christmas Day banquet.  While I was tasked with studding the pickled port with clove, the mince pies were being dusted with icing sugar and the table was being laid amidst decisions on wine selections from the cellar and chaotic, last minute gift wrapping.

This scent epitomises a sense of eleventh-hour preparations and anticipation, of ovens roasting, pots boiling and food processors whirring; tied together with Westminster choir carols and frenzied excitement.  I muse that this fragrance exemplifies my Southern Hemisphere roots and our annual charade of Christmas celebrations being carried out amidst grey skies, blustery and wintery afternoons by the fire, watching the snow blowing about the garden.  But instead we’re dining al fresco, under umbrellas and garden hoses, fanning ourselves over steaming roast turkey and potatoes.

Bamford Candied Orange, Frankincense, Cardamon:
Top Notes of sweet and sticky candied orange, juicy tangerine and syrupy mandarin
Heart notes of frosty pine, heady jasmine and ylang ylang and spicy cardamon and frankincense
Anchoring base notes of smoky vetiver, thick and musty patchouli, powder musk and rich amber

SMc