Victoria Cator London Candles

Victoria Cator London is a new luxury collection of candles, created by the London-based interior designer, whose life-long love affair with the power of fragrance has led her to create complex fragrances to stir the senses and give evocative experiences as they burn.

Since visiting Grasse in Provence as a child, Victoria has played with fragrance, and the purity of her interest is reflected in the high potency of the essences she uses in this initial range of six luxury candles; Rose Ancienne, Vert de Serendip, Cuir de Sacre, Delice de Deux, Touche Bois, and Casablanca. The variety and complexity of each of these candles allows for personal interpretation; evoking and creating memories old and new in a flame. The focus on quality also goes beyond the scents; each candle has the highest quality wax with two wicks for even burning during their 60 hour burning time.

Their elegant design of heavy midnight blue glass containers with beautifully simple gold lettering, means they also make a welcome addition aesthetically to any home. Victoria Cator, said: “I have always had a passion for fragrance. My childhood involved a lot of travel as my father was a soldier, but the continuity of smell that was created where ever we lived gave me the security of being ‘home’. If someone can say – I’ve smelt this before, it reminds me – when these candles are burning, then I have succeeded.I love the idea that scents can conjure up brief glimpses of the past to bring depth to the present.”

Victoria has lived all over the world and worked in Hong Kong and New York in jobs from fashion and retail to government work. In London in the 1990s she studied at Christies and developed her own successful interior decorating business, which she runs from Chelsea. A true home maker on every level, she has also written a cookery book, ‘Flavour of the Month’ published in 2008 and warmly received. Everything she loves is brought together in her work and her love of an evocative world of scents.

Rose Ancienne

Incense wafts at dusk, the echo of chanting in an old monastery. Ancient warm stone palazzo, the shriek of a train and en route for the Orient. Bare tan ankles tied in leather sandals brush through thyme and juniper, crush a musky rose. Flare a taper for an oil lamp beaming east to bustle and barter at the souk for rich spices and cardamom, lemon peel and coffee, hand beaten slippers, the hot eucalyptus of the Hammam, the essence of an apothecary’s chest of delights. Sift pot pourri from apothecary’s copper bowl.

Vert de Serendip

Sun flares on the hot terrace, lavender shadows beneath umbrella pines, glimpse azure sea through wafting pale linen, curtains move in the breeze. Cicadas, sun tan oil and the heady glamour of a Mediterranean garden, cuts through the tang of sea salt, sweat licked from skin, a twist of juniper, spritzed with orange blossom, and a siesta tumbles afternoon into evening, sun kissed skin blooms out of the dusk, eyes shine about a perfect mouth. Hot heaven and honeymoon.

Cuir de Sacre

Late night louche and the music is intimate, the spirit smoulders. A trickle of absinthe on the rocks, the dazzle of gemstones crack like a whip on an ebony floor as a necklace breaks. A stolen kiss, the smoky nightclub, metal taste of bitten scarlet lips, a sigh of passion, silk crushed against leather, a trail of whispered promises in the dark velvet night, this is a candle for sin… a scent that gets under your skin.

Delice de Deux

The peachy bliss of the hot house, still and silent, a scent escapes, running along paths, creamy flowers fragrant, enveloping. Bury the face in tuberose in jasmine and breath, its edible elixir, delicious. A cool church, a song of sweet sultry summer, cream and satin, pearls and champagne, a spray of flowers sing, light pours in, music dances up to the rafters and scent hums exotic, ethereal, celestial. Time stands still while summer shifts on the breeze.

Touche Bois

Catch the essence of a red coat, silver spurred spurs glinting cavalry man as he vanishes out of the tack room, leather gleams, saddle soap softens reins, polish the brass, a slick of hair oil, gleam of bees wax and texture of silver backed brushes. In the library a fire crackles, the hearth gleams beyond a rosewood desk, piled with leather bound books, Italian ink and a lingering puff of black tobacco, lighter fuel tangled with horses, hoof oil and gunpowder. Exciting, evocative and eternal.

Casablanca

Love spills out of the windows, laughter in the rain, opening the door to a bunch unexpected flowers, fresh cut green stems plunged in water, elegant, exuberant and utterly chic. Walk in the door and heads turn, an adventure, a room with a balcony, a rumpled bed and outside a city lit with possibility, people, excitement and glamour in the air. Unforgettable scent – every room must smell of lilies sometimes, fleeting yet forever. Candles cost £48 each

 

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