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Best Candles That Smell Like Bath and Body Works Merry Mimosa: Get That Bright, Bubbly Scent Back Year Round

November 05, 2026 by MBur Candle Co.

Merry Mimosa has slipped off the Bath & Body Works shelf again, and the question in your head is simple: which candle gives you that same bright, bubbly smell right now? The answer depends on which part of the scent you miss most, because Merry Mimosa does two jobs in one jar.

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Our top pick is the Adi Candle. Its eight layered citrus and fruit notes give you the fresh-squeezed glow of a mimosa, and the 12 oz jar burns for 80+ hours. If you loved the fruit and sugar side most, Retail Therapy is the second pick, and both come from our pure beeswax candles, hand poured in New York City with wooden wicks and phthalate-free fragrance.

What Merry Mimosa smells like, and the part you actually miss

Bath & Body Works lists three notes for Merry Mimosa: sparkling champagne, red apple slices, and iced sugar crystals. Fans describe it as bright and fruity-fresh, with a crisp fizz on top. Next to Champagne Toast, its better-known cousin, it smells less sweet and leans more tart.

That crisp edge is the whole appeal. A heavy apple candle smells like pie cooling on the counter. Merry Mimosa smells like the first cold sip at a late brunch, dry and a little sharp before the fruit comes in.

So you are really hunting for two things. The first is brightness that opens up your nose the moment the flame catches. The second is juicy fruit with a light sugar finish, sweet enough to feel like a treat but never syrupy.

A replacement has to do both, and it has to keep doing them for hours. That last part depends less on the fragrance and more on the candle itself, which is the next question.

Why bright notes fade in some candles and hold in others

Bright citrus and fizzy notes are the lightest part of any fragrance. They lift off warm wax first, which is why you smell them first. It is also why a weak candle can smell great for ten minutes and flat after an hour.

What keeps those notes going is a steady, even melt. When the flame melts the wax all the way across the jar, fresh fragrance keeps rising from the whole surface. When the candle tunnels down the middle, the scent shrinks to a small pool and the room goes quiet.

Tunneling is one of the most common complaints shoppers raise about multi-wick jars in this scent category. Two things decide whether it happens: the wax and the wick.

Beeswax has the highest melting point of any candle wax. That means it burns slower and lasts longer than other waxes, so the jar keeps releasing scent for more hours. A wooden wick burns with a wide, flat flame that spreads heat across the surface instead of drilling straight down.

On our 12 oz size, two wooden wicks share that work, so the melt reaches the edges of the jar. You also hear a soft crackle while it burns, which suits a scent built around something sparkling. That is the standard the ranking below uses.

The best candles that smell like Bath & Body Works Merry Mimosa, ranked

Each candle is ranked on two things at once: how well it delivers that bright, sparkling fruit mood, and what is inside the jar.

1. Adi Candle by MBur: best overall for the mimosa glow

Think of a late Saturday brunch, with a pitcher of fresh orange juice sweating on the table next to a cold bottle of something sparkling. Someone tears open a mandarin, the oil sprays off the peel, and the whole table smells bright.

That is the smell our Adi citrus beeswax candle puts in the room. Its notes are Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit, Mandarin, Tangerine, Lime, Peach, Agave.

Standout feature: layered citrus with a cool edge. Mandarin brings the sweet, juicy opening. Grapefruit adds a softly bitter note that feels cool more than sour, and that coolness does the same job Merry Mimosa's dry fizz does.

Peach and agave sit underneath. They give the light sugar finish that iced sugar crystals give the original, so the candle ends sweet and clean. Agave also nods to a bar cart, which keeps the whole thing feeling like a drink poured for a reason.

Best for: the reader who misses Merry Mimosa's brightness most, and anyone who wants the brunch feeling in a living room or open kitchen.

Wax: 100% beeswax | Wick: wooden, two on the 12 oz size and one on the 5 oz | Fragrance: phthalate-free | Burn time: 80+ hours (12 oz), 40 hours (5 oz) | Dyes: none

Size for this room: the 12 oz size ($65). Its two wooden wicks melt the full surface of the jar, which keeps the citrus strong in a larger room you light most days.

One verified buyer put it plainly: "Everything from this company is amazing so this candle matching that energy is no surprise. Will definitely be buying again."

2. Retail Therapy Candle by MBur: best for the fruit and sugar side

Some Merry Mimosa fans never cared much about the fizz. What they loved was the red apple slice and the sugar, the part that smells like fruit just cut on a cold morning.

For that reader, our Retail Therapy beeswax candle is the right one of our two. Its notes are Red Currant, Black Currant, Jasmine, Peach, Black Tea, Amber, Anise, Tonka Bean.

Standout feature: juicy fruit with a sour spark. Ripe peach and two kinds of currant run together, sweet and bright, with a little tartness snapping underneath. Black tea and tonka bean give the sweetness a base to rest on, so it lasts through the burn.

Best for: a bedroom or reading corner, and the reader who wants Merry Mimosa's fruit with a warmer finish.

Wax: 100% beeswax | Wick: wooden, one on the 5 oz size and two on the 12 oz | Fragrance: phthalate-free | Burn time: 40 hours (5 oz), 80+ hours (12 oz) | Dyes: none

Size for this room: the 5 oz size ($32). One wooden wick and 40 hours of burn time suit a smaller room you light a few evenings a week.

A worry many Bath & Body Works fans bring with them is throw, meaning how far the scent travels. A verified buyer answered that for this exact candle:

"This scent has me in a chokehold. I burn it in my room and my living room and it fills my space SOOOOO nicely... Theres nothing I hate more than a candle that can't fill the room and baby this is NOT that. This candle permeates every corner of the room."
Verified buyer

3. Bath & Body Works Bright Christmas Morning

When Merry Mimosa is gone, this is the scent longtime Bath & Body Works shoppers most often call its sister. It shares the same sparkling fruit and apple direction, so it reads familiar the moment you smell it.

Who it fits: the shopper who wants to stay inside the same house style while waiting for Merry Mimosa to come back. If the goal is that bright mood poured in 100% beeswax with a wooden wick, picks one and two already cover it.

4. Bath & Body Works Aloha Kiwi Passionfruit

Fans recommend this one when they want the same lively punch in a tropical key. It trades the champagne idea for bright island fruit.

Who it fits: the reader whose favorite part of Merry Mimosa was the fruit-forward energy, and who leans toward tropical. MBur's own tropical answer is in the FAQ below.

5. DW Home fruit and sherbet candles

DW Home is known for playful fruit-cocktail and sherbet scents, the fizzy, candy-sweet kind you often see in home-goods stores.

Who it fits: the reader who liked Merry Mimosa's sugar more than its crispness. Readers who want that crisp edge kept intact land back on Adi.

The ranking at a glance

Rank	Candle	Scent direction	Best for
1	MBur Adi	Layered bright citrus, cool grapefruit edge, peach and agave finish	Living rooms, open kitchens, brunch hosts
2	MBur Retail Therapy	Juicy peach and currant, tart spark, warm tea and tonka base	Bedrooms, reading corners, fruit lovers
3	Bath & Body Works Bright Christmas Morning	Sparkling fruit and apple	Fans staying in the same house style
4	Bath & Body Works Aloha Kiwi Passionfruit	Bright tropical fruit	Tropical-leaning fans
5	DW Home fruit and sherbet lines	Candy-sweet fruit cocktail	Fans who want extra sugar

What is in the jar sets how long the brightness lasts

Start with where most candle wax comes from. Crude oil is refined into fuels, and a thick, waxy residue is left at the end of that process. The residue is filtered and bleached until it turns white and solid.

The result is paraffin. Put those steps together and the conclusion is plain: paraffin is petroleum waste with fragrance poured into it. Many soy candles are blended with paraffin too, so the word "soy" on a label tells you less than it seems.

Beeswax skips all of that. Bees make it while they make honey, so every jar is a byproduct of beekeeping. It is also the oldest candle material people have used, going back to about 5,000 BCE.

Fragrance is the next thing to read on a label. Many candles use toxic fragrances containing phthalates and parabens. Phthalates are chemicals added to make a scent cling longer. MBur uses only non-toxic, phthalate-free fragrance oils, so you get the citrus and fruit without that ingredient in the mix.

The last two checks are ones you can see. MBur adds no chemical dyes, so the wax keeps its natural shade. A beeswax flame also gives off light closest to natural sunlight, which suits a scent meant for bright mornings and long brunches.

How to style the Merry Mimosa mood at home

Place the candle where the brunch actually happens. A spot near the center of the table, a little away from plates, lets the citrus reach everyone without crowding the food.

Light it about half an hour before guests arrive. That gives the wax time to build a melt pool, so the bright top notes are already in the air when the door opens.

For holiday mornings, set it in the entryway or by the tree. The citrus greets people the moment they walk in, and the warm glow reads well in early winter light.

In spring, crack a window and burn it in the kitchen while you cook. Fresh air and bright citrus work well together, and the room feels new.

A few care habits keep the scent strong to the last hour. On the first burn, let the melted wax reach the edges of the jar before you blow it out. Trim the wooden wick to about 1/8 inch before each burn, and keep each burn to four hours or less.

Questions shoppers ask before they switch

But Merry Mimosa fills my whole downstairs.

Throw comes down to melt and size. The 12 oz size has two wooden wicks, so it melts a wide surface and pushes scent into a big, open room. Set it near the middle of the space instead of in a corner.

One verified buyer described MBur candles this way: "They smell up a WHOLE room during the burn & even a while after blowing them out."

But for me, Merry Mimosa is a Christmas scent.

Merry Mimosa has shown up in both winter and spring collections, so the mood travels. Adi fits a Christmas morning table the same way oranges fit a stocking, and it carries straight into spring brunches.

But I want sweeter, not sharper.

Then Retail Therapy is your candle. Peach and currant bring more sweetness than Adi's grapefruit edge, and the tea and tonka base keeps it soft. Pick by room: Adi for the bright shared spaces, Retail Therapy for the quieter ones.

FAQ

What does Bath & Body Works Merry Mimosa actually smell like?

It lists sparkling champagne, red apple slices, and iced sugar crystals. The overall feel is bright and crisp with a light sugar finish. If brightness is what you miss, the Adi citrus candle is the closest match to that mood in our line.

Does Merry Mimosa smell the same as Champagne Toast?

Fans say Merry Mimosa is less sweet and leans more tart, with crisp red apple in place of a heavier sweet profile. If the fruit was your favorite part, Retail Therapy's peach and currant blend gives you that juicy side.

I liked Aloha Kiwi Passionfruit too. Is there an MBur candle for that?

Yes. Our Out of Office beeswax candle has the notes Spearmint, Pineapple, Bamboo, Coconut. It smells like cold pineapple cut open on a hot afternoon, with a cool green line of mint over it.

Which size should I get for my living room?

Get the 12 oz size. It has two wooden wicks and burns 80+ hours, so it melts evenly across the jar in a bigger room. That size of Adi is the one we recommend for a living room you light most days.

Is Merry Mimosa a holiday scent or a spring scent?

It has been released in both winter and spring collections. Bright citrus works in either season, which is why Adi fits a December morning and an April brunch equally well.

Our pick

What you miss about Merry Mimosa is a bright, crisp lift with a light sugar finish. Adi gives you that through layered citrus, and its 100% beeswax and two wooden wicks keep the brightness going from the first light to the last hour.

Choose Adi for the room where people gather, because it makes a Saturday morning feel like a brunch you planned. The logic backs the feeling: eight citrus and fruit notes, phthalate-free fragrance, and 80+ hours of burn time in the 12 oz size. As one verified buyer said, "Will definitely be buying again."

Merry Mimosa comes and goes with the seasons, and Adi is on our shelf all year, so you can have that brightness back this weekend.

Bring home the Adi Candle in the 12 oz size for your living room, because it is the candle you will reach for every bright morning you want the house to feel awake.