Trudon – candles, wax and perfume since 1643

Trudon begins in Paris in 1643, when Claude Trudon takes over a shop on Rue Saint-Honoré selling spices and candles. In 1737 Jérôme Trudon buys the royal wax manufacture in Antony – the only candle maker ever to hold the title "Manufacture Royale" – and supplies the French royal court, and later Napoléon Bonaparte. The manufacture's motto, "Deo Regique Laborant" – "They work for God and the King" – refers to the bees whose wax made it all possible. Today Trudon is the oldest candle maker in the world still in operation.

Every candle is still poured by hand in the house's own workshop in Normandy: wax and fragrance are blended, poured into the glasses, the wicks straightened by hand and the labels applied by hand. Since 2007 each scented candle tells a story – Ernesto, Abd El Kader, Spiritus Sancti, Cyrnos – alongside scented wax cameos and objects such as La Promeneuse. In 2017 Trudon released its first five perfumes, created with perfumers including Yann Vasnier, Antoine Lie, Lyn Harris and Émilie Bouge.

We love how much history lives in a single Trudon candle – almost four centuries of wax craft, and yet it smells of today. The perfumes carry the same signature onto the skin: smoky like Révolution, luminous like Vixi, spicy and mysterious like Mortel.