Candles for the Dinner Table: Why We Choose Unscented

The best candles for a dinner table are unscented ones: candles that give light without adding a fragrance to the room while people eat. Add a sensible height, a form that stands steadily for the length of the meal, and a wick kept short, and the candles do what they are there for. They make the table feel like an occasion and then quietly stay out of the way. This is a short guide to choosing and placing candles for the dinner table, from an ordinary weeknight to a long winter dinner with friends.

LLIOR is a Dutch candle brand that makes unscented candles from a 50/50 blend of beeswax and soy wax, with a cotton wick and no paraffin, added fragrance or dye.

What are the best candles for a dinner table?

Unscented candles, low enough or slim enough not to block anyone's view, and large enough to burn through the whole evening. That is the entire brief.

A dinner table asks something different of a candle than a living room does. In a living room, a candle can be the centre of attention. At the table, the food and the people are. The candle's job is to set the mood with light, to make faces look warm and the room feel smaller in the best way, and to do it without competing with anything on the plate.

• No added fragrance. The table already has a scent: the food.
• The right height. Guests should be able to see each other without leaning around a flame.
• Enough burn time. A good dinner easily lasts three or four hours.
• A steady form. A candle that stands firmly, in a holder or on its own base, can stay lit while plates and glasses move around it.

Should you use scented candles at a dinner party?

Many cooks and hosts would say no. A scented candle adds a second aroma to the table, and that aroma meets the food at exactly the moment people are trying to taste it.

The reason is simple. A large part of what we experience as flavour is in fact smell: aromas from the food in the mouth travel up to the nose as we chew. A room filled with vanilla, fig or cedar does not switch that off; it mixes in. A delicate fish, a glass of something cold, the smell of bread from the oven: each of those is easier to notice when the air around the table carries nothing else.

Scented candles have their place, in a hallway or a bathroom perhaps. At the table, the most considerate choice is light without scent. It is also the reason we make our candles unscented in the first place, which we wrote about in Unscented Candles: Why We Make Them.

How tall should candles on a dinner table be?

Keep the flame out of the line of sight between guests. In practice that means low candles that sit below eye level, or slim tapers that people can easily look past.

The one arrangement to avoid is a wide candle with its flame right at face height in the middle of the table, where everyone ends up talking around it. Two simple ways to get it right:

• Low pillars as a centrepiece. A pillar or a small group of pillars sits well under the sight line and gives a soft, wide glow across the table. Our Pillar Candle Set pairs two forms of different height that are designed to be placed together.
• Tapers in candlesticks. A taper is narrow, so it barely interrupts the view even when the flame is higher. Our Four Tapers are 27 cm long and 2.2 cm across, ribbed, poured in soy wax and unscented.

How many candles should you put on a dinner table?

As a rule of thumb, enough to light every place setting softly: a group of three for a table of four, or a line of four tapers down the middle of a table for six to eight.

Odd-numbered groups tend to look more natural than pairs, and varying the height inside a group gives it depth. For a long table, repeat the same small group at regular intervals rather than placing one large arrangement in the centre, so the light reaches both ends. Leave enough room around each candle for serving dishes to be passed without reaching over a flame.

Tapers or pillars: which suits a dinner table best?

Both work, and they do different things. Tapers give height and a classic, formal line; pillars give a low, generous glow and need no candlestick at all.

	Taper candles	Pillar candles
Look on the table	Tall, slender, formal	Low, sculptural, relaxed
Needs a holder	Yes, a candlestick	No, a plate or tray underneath is enough
Burn time (ours)	6 to 8 hours per taper	60 to 90 hours (Pillar I and II), 180 to 200 hours (Signature)
Best for	A single long dinner	Many evenings at the same table

Many tables use both: a line of tapers for height and one or two pillars lower down for warmth. Because all our candles are unscented and undyed, they combine without clashing. For more on burn times, see How Long Does a Candle Burn?

How do you keep candles burning beautifully through dinner?

Trim the wick to 0.5 to 1 cm before lighting, light the candles shortly before guests sit down, and keep them out of draughts.

• Trim first. A wick of 0.5 to 1 cm gives a calm, even flame. Our guide on how to trim a candle wick explains how.
• Light them before the first course. The flame settles and the top of the candle starts to melt evenly before anyone is seated.
• Mind the draughts. An open window, a door that keeps opening or a heater nearby makes a flame flicker and burn unevenly.
• Give a new pillar its first evening. The first burn of a pillar should last at least two hours, so a dinner is an ideal moment to light one for the first time.
• Four hours at a time. After that, burn a pillar for up to four hours per session. That fits most dinners comfortably.
• Stay at the table. Never leave burning candles unattended, and put them out before everyone leaves the room.

How do you put candles out at the end of the evening?

With a snuffer, ideally. Lowering the flame into the wax keeps the wick straight and centred for the next dinner, and it avoids blowing hot wax across the tablecloth.

There is something fitting about it, too: the last small ritual of the evening. Our brass Snuffer is made for exactly that moment, and How to Put Out a Candle compares the different ways to do it.

Why we make candles for the table

We think of a candle as part of the table setting, as considered as the plates and the glasses. That is why our candles carry no added fragrance, no dye and no paraffin: only a natural wax, a cotton wick and the flame. On a table, that restraint is the point. The light is there, the food smells of food, and the conversation gets the attention. You can see the full range in the collection.

Frequently asked questions

Are unscented candles better for a dinner table?

For most dinners, yes. Unscented candles give light without adding a second aroma to the food, so the meal tastes and smells the way the cook intended.

Should candles be lit before guests arrive?

Light them shortly before everyone sits down. The flame has time to settle, and you are there to keep an eye on them from the start.

How long does a taper candle last at dinner?

Our Four Tapers each give six to eight hours of light, comfortably more than a long dinner.

Can you mix tapers and pillar candles on one table?

Yes. Tapers add height and pillars add a low, warm glow. Unscented, undyed candles combine easily.

How short should the wick be for dinner candles?

Trim the wick to 0.5 to 1 cm before each burn. That keeps the flame calm and even throughout the evening.