If you are trying to work out which Anthropologie candle is the best one, most shoppers land on Capri Blue Volcano. It is the sugary citrus scent you smell the moment you walk into the store, and it tops this ranking for that reason.
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The swap we would pick for it is Adi, a citrus candle poured from 100% beeswax with a wooden wick and phthalate-free fragrance, because it is built on the same bright fruit Volcano is loved for. Every candle on this list gets a swap like that, chosen from the 100% beeswax candles we hand pour at MBur in New York City, so you keep the scent family you already like.
How these five are ranked, and what each swap has to match
The order follows how much of Anthropologie's candle reputation each one carries. Volcano comes first because the store itself is known for it. The rest serve readers with a different room or a different nose: one who wants flowers, one who wants warmth, one who wants dessert, one who wants a centerpiece.
Each swap has to clear two tests. First, it has to sit in the same scent family, so the room still smells like the candle you came for. Second, it has to pass a label check on wax, wick, fragrance and dye, which we walk through after the list.
So the ranking tells you which scent you love. The swap tells you how to bring that scent home in beeswax, with nothing on the label to wonder about. Start with the one that sets the standard.
1. Capri Blue Volcano: the store scent everyone asks about
Standout feature: Volcano is the scent Anthropologie runs through its stores, so for many shoppers it is the smell of the brand itself. It opens on sugared citrus and tropical fruit, with a green note underneath.
Best for: a living room or kitchen where you want a bright, sweet smell that reads from across the room.
Capri Blue pours Volcano in a soy wax blend, sold in colored and iridescent glass jars. A blend means more than one wax is in the jar. When a label says blend, the useful question is what the other wax is and how much of it there is.
The cleaner swap for Volcano: Adi
Peel a mandarin and the oil stays on your fingers for an hour, sweet and sharp at once. Adi starts there and builds every citrus fruit around it. The result covers the same bright ground as Volcano and finishes on soft peach and agave.
Our Adi citrus beeswax candle lists these notes: Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit, Mandarin, Tangerine, Lime, Peach, Agave.
Wax: 100% beeswax | Wick: wooden, one on the 5 oz, two on the 12 oz | Fragrance: phthalate-free | Burn time: 40 hours (5 oz), 80+ hours (12 oz) | Dyes: none
Pick the 12 oz Adi ($65) for a living room you light most evenings. Its two wooden wicks melt a wide pool across the jar, and a wide pool of warm wax is what pushes scent into a big room. Beeswax has the highest melting point of any candle wax, so it melts slowly and carries that jar past 80 hours.
2. Capri Blue Aloha Orchid: the floral side of the same shelf
Standout feature: Aloha Orchid is one of Capri Blue's top sellers, softer than Volcano with a tropical flower character.
Best for: a bedroom or a bath where you want flowers more than fruit.
It shares Volcano's house style and blended wax, so the same label question applies. If you love it, the swap below keeps the orchid and gives it a warmer base.
The cleaner swap for Aloha Orchid: Room Service
Walk into a good hotel lobby and the air smells like white tea and fresh flowers. That smell is planned. Large hotel chains hire perfumers to build a signature scent and run it through every hallway.
Our Room Service beeswax candle brings that lobby home, and it is MBur's number one bestseller. Its notes are Saffron, White Tea, Purple Peonies, Orchid, Tobacco, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Tonka Bean. The orchid and peonies give an Aloha Orchid fan the flowers she wants, and the vanilla underneath keeps them from going thin.
Wax: 100% beeswax | Wick: wooden, one on the 5 oz, two on the 12 oz | Fragrance: phthalate-free | Burn time: 40 hours (5 oz), 80+ hours (12 oz) | Dyes: none
For the living room where you host, the 12 oz with two wooden wicks fills the space. For a powder room or an entryway guests pass through, the 5 oz Room Service ($32) with one wooden wick is the right fit for the room.
I must say I was apprehensive at first... I couldn't smell much from the Room Service candle. Once I lit it, however, I fell in love!
Verified buyer, Room Service
That buyer's experience has a mechanism behind it. Beeswax is dense and melts at a high temperature, so an unlit jar gives off only a little scent. Once the flame builds a melt pool, the fragrance has a warm liquid surface to rise from, and the room fills.
3. Voluspa Baltic Amber: warm and resinous for cold evenings
Standout feature: Voluspa is known for its ornate printed vessels, and Baltic Amber is the house's best-known warm scent, rich and resinous.
Best for: someone who burns candles through the winter and wants a deep scent in the evening.
Cleaner swap: Room Service, for its base. The tobacco and tonka bean at the bottom give it the low warmth amber lovers look for. The white tea on top keeps it from feeling heavy, which matters in a smaller room. If amber is your scent all season, the 12 oz is the size you will reach for every night.
4. Anthropologie Boulangerie: for the gourmand fan
Standout feature: Anthropologie's Boulangerie jar candles lean into bakery scents, with blends like whipped cream and pear or espresso.
Best for: a kitchen or breakfast nook, where a sweet smell feels at home.
Cleaner swap: Room Service again, this time for its almond milk and vanilla. Those two notes carry the creamy sweetness of a bakery scent. The saffron adds a warm edge, so the candle reads as dessert in a nice restaurant rather than sugar in a jar.
5. Anthropologie Avila pedestal candle: the centerpiece pick
Standout feature: The Avila sits on a sculptural pedestal with more than one wick, in woodsy, sweet scents such as davana blackberry oud.
Best for: a console or dining table where the candle is part of the decor.
Cleaner swap: the 12 oz Room Service. Its two wooden wicks give you two flames on the table, and wooden wicks crackle softly as they burn, which adds sound to the light. The tobacco and tonka in its base sit in the same woodsy, sweet family as the Avila scents.
The five side by side, with the swap for each
| Rank | Anthropologie candle | Scent family | Best for | Cleaner swap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Capri Blue Volcano | Sugared citrus, tropical fruit | Living room, kitchen | Adi, 12 oz |
| 2 | Capri Blue Aloha Orchid | Tropical floral | Bedroom, bath | Room Service, 5 oz or 12 oz |
| 3 | Voluspa Baltic Amber | Warm amber | Winter evenings | Room Service, 12 oz |
| 4 | Anthropologie Boulangerie | Gourmand, bakery | Kitchen, breakfast nook | Room Service, 5 oz or 12 oz |
| 5 | Anthropologie Avila pedestal | Woodsy sweet | Dining table, console | Room Service, 12 oz |
Every swap in that last column clears the same label check. It starts with the ingredient that sets the floor for everything else.
The wax, which sets the floor for everything else
If you have wondered whether the candles you love put something into the air, that question is fair. Research has shown that burning paraffin releases benzene and toluene. Studies have also found formaldehyde in paraffin candle emissions.
To see why, follow paraffin back to where it starts. Refineries boil crude oil into fuels and lubricating oils. To keep lubricating oil flowing in the cold, they strip the wax out of it. That leftover wax is then bleached and sold to candle makers. Put plainly, paraffin is petroleum waste.
Soy is a step up. Soy wax is made by hydrogenating soybean oil, which turns the liquid oil solid. Plenty of soy candles are blends that include paraffin, and some may use toxic fragrance to push the scent harder.
Beeswax takes a shorter path. Bees make it to build their comb, and beekeepers melt and filter it after the honey harvest. It needs no chemical processing to become candle wax. It is also the oldest candle material people have used, going back to about 5,000 BCE.
| Paraffin | Soy | 100% beeswax | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source | Leftover from crude oil refining | Hydrogenated soybean oil, often blended | Made by honeybees |
| Processing | Refined and bleached | Hydrogenated | Melted and filtered |
| Melting point | Low | Low | Highest of any candle wax, so the slowest burn |
| Soot | Black soot on jars and walls | Less, depending on the blend | Minimal with a trimmed wick |
| Color | White, often dyed | White, often dyed | Natural gold, no dye needed |
Wax sets the floor. The next line on the label decides how much you actually know about what you are breathing.
The word doing the most work on the label: fragrance
On a candle label, the single word fragrance can stand in for dozens of ingredients. Some of them are phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals added to make a scent cling and last longer, and they turn up in many toxic fragrances along with parabens.
The trouble is that a label which only says fragrance gives you no way to tell what is inside. That is why phthalate-free is the phrase to look for. MBur uses only phthalate-free fragrance in every candle, so the scent you smell carries no question mark.
The two you can see with your own eyes: wick and color
Look at the wick. Some wicks have a metal core to keep them standing upright, and that metal burns along with the cotton. A wooden wick stands on its own, so it needs no core, and it burns with a low crackle.
Then look at the wax itself. Bright reds and deep blues come from chemical dye. Beeswax is gold straight from the hive, so an MBur candle has no dye to add.
A label check for any candle, and how the swaps score
Take this list with you the next time you shop, at any store:
- One wax, named in full, with no unnamed blend
- Phthalate-free fragrance, stated on the label
- A wick with no metal core
- No added dye
- A clear answer to where it was made
Adi and Room Service check every line: 100% beeswax, phthalate-free fragrance, wooden wicks, no dye, hand poured in New York City. That is the whole label, and there is nothing left to guess about.
Getting the most from your swap once it is home
On the first burn, let the melt pool reach the edge of the jar before you blow it out. A 12 oz jar usually needs two to three hours. Stopping early leaves a ring of hard wax, and the candle will tunnel down the middle from then on.
Trim the wooden wick to about 1/8 inch before each burn. Trimming too short can leave the flame small, so if the pool stalls in the center, give the wick a little more height next time. Keep each burn under four hours, and set the candle away from fans and open windows so the flame stays steady.
What Anthropologie fans ask before they switch
But Volcano fills my whole living room.
The 12 oz MBur jar has two wooden wicks for that reason. Two flames build a full melt pool faster, and the scent rises from that warm surface across the whole room. Buyers notice it after the flame is out, too.
They smell up a WHOLE room during the burn & even a while after blowing them out. I won't buy other candles anymore, they're just that good
Verified buyer
But I lean warmer than citrus.
Then Room Service is your swap, whichever Anthropologie candle you started with. Its tobacco and tonka base gives warmth, and its flowers keep it soft enough for a room you share.
But my room is small.
Choose the 5 oz in either scent. One wooden wick is the right amount of flame for a bathroom, a bedroom or a home office, and it still burns 40 hours.
FAQ
Does Adi actually smell like Capri Blue Volcano?
It sits in the same scent family. Volcano is known for sugared citrus and tropical fruit. Adi is built entirely on citrus, with a soft peach and agave finish, so a Volcano fan feels at home right away. You can read the full note list on the Adi citrus beeswax candle page.
How long do beeswax candles actually burn?
MBur's 5 oz size burns 40 hours and the 12 oz size burns 80+ hours. Beeswax has the highest melting point of any candle wax, so it melts slowly and lasts longer per ounce. The Room Service beeswax candle comes in both sizes, so you can match the jar to the room.
Which MBur scent works best in a bedroom?
Our pick for a bedroom is Do Not Disturb, a soft, warm scent made for nighttime. Its notes are Pear, Bergamot, Peach Blossom, Amber, Jasmine, Vanilla, Sandalwood. The 5 oz size fits most bedrooms.
Our pick: Adi, the Volcano swap
Volcano tops the Anthropologie ranking because its bright citrus is the scent of the brand. Adi gives you that same citrus family in a candle you can read top to bottom, with 100% beeswax, a wooden wick, phthalate-free fragrance and no dye.
The 12 oz Adi belongs in the living room you light most evenings. It makes the room smell like fruit you just peeled, all afternoon and into the night. Its two wooden wicks melt a full pool across the jar, and the beeswax carries it past 80 hours.
Everything from this company is amazing so this candle matching that energy is no surprise. Will definitely be buying again.
Verified buyer, Adi
If your current jar is down to its last inch, order now so Adi arrives before that candle burns out.
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