If you’ve always fantasised about someone walking into your apartment, eagerly gesticulating, and asking in delight, “What’s that smell?” Maison Balzac has the candle collection you want to get behind. The masters of good smells and even better aesthetics have pretty much solidified their position as the go-to candle providers for It girls everywhere, and for good reason, too. Maison Balzac candles are as chic as they aromatic and as genius as they are simple. Each candle is handmade in Sydney using a pure fragrance developed ~exclusively~ for Maison Balzac, and each one has a story to tell. Très love.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again (and another million or so times, probably): not only are fancy candles a great sign that you’ve made it as an adult, they also make the perfect gift come Christmas. We can’t always justify buying them for ourselves, but receiving one is low-key what dreams are made of—and isn’t that the beauty of giving and receiving gifts? Adding a bit of luxury to someone else’s life that they might not be able justify themselves? *Wipes single tear from eye*

Since we’re as indecisive as they come, we couldn’t choose just one candle from Maison Balzac’s stellar lineup. But hey—this is good news for you! Below is a guide to our favourite Maison Balzac candles, and what kind of gal (or guy) they are most suited to. Let the gifting games begin!

For the beach lover: Maison Balzac’s candle with Matteau swimwear is the most beautiful collaboration baby to exist. Slip into your Maillot bathers, light ‘er up, and dream of all the long, lazy days at the beach you’re about to have.

For the hopeless romantic: The Sainte T candle is for a friend who loves the smell of freshly cut flowers (actually, isn’t that all of us?). It smells like walking into a florist with your lover, fingers intertwined, whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears, with green leaf, flower stems, rose, freesia, and musk providing a heavenly backdrop.

For the art nerd: 1642 is an ode to a 17th Century Vanitas, and is therefore perfectly suited to anyone who can list every art movement off the top of their head. It throws it back to the year 1642, bringing to life the perfumes of Still Life with Bouquet and Skull. So. Cool.

For the futurist: 2067AD is for your friend who owns money in Bitcoin and is known to slip into long monologues about what the future has in store. In Maison Balzac’s words, it’s a “phantasmic fragrance of a speculative future flower—after ‘La France,’ the first hybrid rose raised 200 years earlier.” I’m sorry, where do we sign up again?

For the chiller: Le Silence is for any of your yoga-loving pals who have been on at least one meditation retreat. The fragrance was inspired by the En Calcat abbey in the South of France, where silence is revered above all else. Aaand we’re being inspired to shut down all our electronics and float away on meditative clouds ourselves. Until next time, friends!

Photography, Sarah Adamson.