If the holidays and all their attendant mayhem have you feeling like Marie Antoinette about to lose your head, then it might be more prudent to pause and inhale deeply – and light your home like Versailles with a candle from Cire Trudon.
Founded in 1643, Cire Trudon served as the royal wax manufacturer for the Queen and her court, utilizing the best wax collected from the beehives of the Kingdom.
As of December 1, 2015, the oldest candle manufacturer in the world and wax supplier to the imperial courts of France debuts its first United States freestanding store in New York City’s Nolita neighborhood.
©Cire Trudon
Designed in collaboration with architect Fabrizio Casiraghi, New York’s Cire Trudon boutique is inspired by the “Galerie des Glaces,” a mirror gallery found in French chateaux. “The design of the store needed to house Cire Trudon’s DNA and to strike a harmonious balance between Paris and New York City,” said Casiraghi.
Similar to its counterparts in Paris and London, Cire Trudon’s Elizabeth Street store shares the brand’s warm “maison” feeling, albeit with a reflection of its Manhattan surroundings that includes industrial neon lights complemented by Art Deco lamps and antique vases. According to Casiraghi, Paris is invoked by “the two Maison Jansen chairs and the Japanese vases” while the lighting was inspired by “New York artist Dan Flavin [who] featured neon…in his installations.”
©Cire Trudon
In 1811, Napoleon celebrated his son’s birth with a Trudon candle encrusted with three gold coins. Today, Cire Trudon’s motto remains “The bees work for God – and the King.” Made in Normandy, France and housed in a gold-crested, hand-blown green glass vessel hand-poured in Vinci, Italy, Cire Trudon’s candles are distributed in 64 countries.
The Elizabeth Street boutique will offer Cire Trudon’s classic collection of 25 perfumed candles along with limited editions, as well as room sprays, scented matches, gift sets, and wax busts. Poured from Trudon’s signature vegetal wax, a mixture of soya and copra (dried coconut kernels), with a pure cotton wick, Cire Trudon’s candles are entirely biodegradable.
©Cire Trudon
Perfect for the holidays, Cire Trudon’s Spiritus Sancti opens with vapors of incense that will have you searching for the thurible. With a heart note of lily of the valley and a base note of labdanum that evokes the muskiness of amber, Spiritus Sancti is redolent of the cathedral affectionately known as “Smoky Mary’s” where midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is a banquet of bells and smells.
Once the fragrance permeates your rooms, it’s your call as to whether you’ll be singing Handel’s Messiah or declaiming, “Let them eat cake.”
