If you want to know what colognes will make you smell like a boss—Welton Iconic Amber Oud, Tom Ford Ébène Fumé, Parfums De Marly Haltane, Frederic Malle Promise and Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede (“It’s very CEO of a conglomerate!”)—or the candles the “it” girls are burning (Carrière Frères Geranium, Phlur Missing Person and Flamingo Estate Fir & Ancient Vetiver), Sir Candle Man is your man on social media.
The man behind the hot candle handle, Kudzi Chikumbu, 36, has been expressing himself digitally for over a decade. As a YouTuber in Johannesburg 15 years ago, his videos focused on African cultural commentary. He also started blogs about R&B music and released songs on SoundCloud. And, of course, like any self-respecting millennial, he was on Tumblr. “Early Tumblr was really fun because you just posted into the void, it was actually wild,” he says. “It was just like your thoughts, which, when I look back, they were very random. It was just like, oh, today was a good day.”
TikTok is Chikumbu’s current platform of choice for sharing candle care education and products he thinks are hits and misses. “There’s so much inspiration to pull from, and it feels like the stakes are lower,” says the now Los Angeles resident. Chikumbu has 223,600 followers and 3.7 million likes on the platform, where he happens to be global head of marketing. On Instagram, he has another 139,000 followers.
Chikumbu has gone beyond candle content to candle creation. He’s collaborated with L’or de Seraphine on freshly sweet candle Soft Life and LAFCO on spicy vanilla candle Heart of the Matter. He’s even published a book called “Let It Burn: Illuminate Your Life with Candles and Fragrance” that’s a guide to incorporating scent at home.
Let It Burn: Illuminate Your Life with Candles and Fragrance
Let It Burn: Illuminate Your Life with Candles and Fragrance
Ahead, we speak to Chikumbu about his love of scent, LAFCO partnership, top-performing content, favorite candles and predictions for where 2024 will take the fragrance category.
Where does your love of scent stem from?
I’ve loved scent ever since I was young. When I was much younger, my aunt in South Africa used to work at a department store. She used to bring samples home, and we used to fight over them. That’s truly where it began. It was like being transported into this luxury world that I couldn’t afford.
Then, my mother was a florist growing up, and when you’re in a flower shop, there are so many scents like the green of the chlorophyll. She would also make bouquets at home with the roses we had in the garden.
Five years ago, I was in Paris for a Beyoncé concert. I was shopping with friends, and I hate shopping with friends. I’m a fast shopper, so I was waiting for them and smelling Maison Francis Kurkdjian fragrances. The store sales associate told me to try smelling the candles. I smelled this one specific candle called Au 17, and it felt like a story had come to life, like something switched in my mind.
The candle actually is about Francis Kurkdjian’s home and how it reminds him of Paris. The gold lid is a reflection of the gold that you see in Paris when the sun hits the roofs and, interestingly enough, when I smelled that candle, I immediately, without knowing what it was about, felt like this is what my life would smell if I lived in Paris.
After that, when I got back home, I started posting about candles. I’ve always been a creator online in different forms over the years, and I thought this could be really cool to share, but it was just to share. It was just supposed to be a niche page for my friends where I just talk about the candles that I like.
With your mom being a florist, do you naturally gravitate toward floral scents or the complete opposite?
It was the complete opposite, and now it’s kind of gone back. Maybe, when you get older, you find that reconnection with your parents. When I first started, it was all woodsy, smoky, all the things they tell you are masculine, which the more you learn about fragrance, you realize that’s not a real thing. There’s no gender to scents.
Now, as I’ve gotten to learn more and really smell ingredients, I love florals. A white floral that’s really high quality like a true rose or jasmine, I’m obsessed with. I like them in my home, and I also like to wear them on my body.
Was there a moment when Sir Candle Man took off and you were like, OK, I might really have something here?
I got an inkling that there might be something here when I had about 400 followers, so nothing big, and The Hollywood Reporter asked me to do a gift guide column for the holidays. I remember thinking to myself, that’s kind of wild, and I was like, what is it about Sir Candle Man that stands out?
I think it’s a couple of things. There are very few Black men in fragrance, and the content is very honest and true and authentic, which is I know a word people use, but I truly shoot it once. It’s my honest opinion. I’m not over-crafting it. I think there’s an accessibility there. Then, it’s a world online that I think people haven’t truly been showing. You talk a lot about fine fragrance, but candles are just so quirky.
In the beginning of the pandemic, mid-2020, I was like, OK, I got to figure out how to get more views and followers. Rihanna’s fragrance had just come out, and I thought, well, I’ll be the first person to post about this just to capture the attention of the people since you’ve got to get the review early. I posted the video, and it flopped. It was not a hit. There were a few hundred views, and someone wrote in the comments, “That’s not how you spray perfume.”
I rubbed my wrists in the video, which we know crushes the top notes and the heat can mess up the fragrance. I looked it up and I was like, oh, how do you actually spray your fragrance properly? I made a video in response to that comment that was like you’re spraying your perfume wrong, this is how you spray it properly in three steps. It got two million views in one day.
I was like, let me take that and do that for candles. So, I did you’re burning your candles wrong: You need to trim your wicks, you need to let them burn for a long time, where to place your candles, how to buy candles, the wax of the candles. They all got millions and millions of views. I realized, oh, there’s this intersection of fragrance and education that no one has tapped into.
That allowed me to build a community and start to truly enter into the fragrance world from, not just speaking about fragrances, but actually learning about the perfumers and getting to meet some of them and people in the industry. That was the beginning of education-driven fragrance content.
@sircandleman Reply to @nikkiwebdev well well well, we learn something new everyday ✨😩. how to spray perfume. #fentyparfum #perfumetiktok #learn #learnwithtiktok
Do educational videos still perform the best for you?
For the most part, if I really want to get more views, education performs the best. I think a pure review performs the worst, but that’s what I love the most because I like trying the product, and I love sharing them, but a lot of them are sometimes considered inaccessible from a price point. So, I don’t think that’s very attractive to people. I’m OK with them not performing well if it’s part of the array of content.
What also performs well would be listicles like three fragrances or three candles for insert situation. Sometimes, if I’m being a troll, just for fun, I’ll do a video that’s like if you wear this fragrance or if you have this fragrance in your home, don’t invite me, but that’s just entertainment.
Does content that performs best on TikTok also perform best on Instagram?
Education definitely performs best for both platforms for me. I do see, on Instagram, more lifestyle stuff like day in the life-type content, where you show self-care, where you pour the coffee and wear the robe, that does much better on Instagram than TikTok. There’s more of that premium lifestyle vibe.
On TikTok, people want a straight shooter, less curated. It definitely feels more like a community. You also don’t have the same co-creation tools [on Instagram], which I think helps the community grow [on TikTok]. You can respond to someone’s comment with a video or create a stitch, which forms an instant connection. But I like both because I’m a creator. To me, it’s more about the creativity of it.
Do you think there’s a big difference between gen Z consumers and older consumers and how they relate to fragrance?
I don’t have the data, but, from what I see online, older followers definitely love brands they grew up on, mainstream brands. Those are the department store fragrances, big ones. The older audiences, they always tell me I can’t buy it unless I’ve tried it, whereas I do find the younger people take less convincing. They trust influencers more, or they’re just more willing to shop for things that they maybe can’t smell because that’s what they’re used to.
But they do want more story to the fragrance, not just this is the brand mission, but really what does this fragrance feel like? Where is a situation where you will wear it? The gen Z audience also wants to know the notes, even though I feel like most people, including myself, can’t name notes if they just smell something.
“On TikTok, people want a straight shooter.”
You launched a candle with the brand LAFCO. How did that partnership came about?
I have over a thousand candles, and I smell a lot of things. I post about lists of things I love, and LAFCO is always on a list. They just have the most gorgeous, complex fragrances that are really refined and elegant. The wax is perfect, it burns so clean, and the vessels are gorgeous.
Last year, I was doing a livestream series where I was talking to brand founders on Instagram. I did one with Jon Bresler, the founder of LAFCO. We were chatting about the brand, why they focus on natural ingredients and try to use absolutes and very few synthetics. We started talking about vanilla specifically. They have this candle called Amber Black Vanilla, and it looks yellow, but it smells really good.
He was like, “The reason people don’t like vanilla is most vanilla is vanillin, which is synthetic and can smell very fake and sometimes plastic-y. It gets you in that baked goods world, but real vanilla is yellow, so it sometimes dyes the wax, and people don’t like that, but it also smells really good. It’s more like the woodsy, earthy, sweet kind of molasses-y kind of scent.” He sent me two vanilla absolutes, and I was truly captivated.
I was like, I want to do a new candle. I’d done one the year before with a brand called L’or de Seraphine, really cool brand. That was my first candle, so I wanted to do everything that I ever wanted. The vessel’s really funky, and it had stone fruit and fig and cedarwood. There was a lot going on. It was great, but I was like, let me try something that really pushes me from a perfume perspective and a storytelling perspective.
I went to LAFCO, and I said, “I’d love to do a candle.” Jon is like, “What are you thinking?” I was like, “I really want to explore being a better perfumer or being better at perfumery.” I sent three pitches, one was about exploring the fragrance pyramid, so base notes like a cedarwood. One was about middle notes, vanilla, something around the heart of the fragrance. On the top notes, it was something juicy. And I called the middle concept “Heart of the Matter.” It was supposed to be just a concept name, not a product name, and that’s the one that we both loved because he remembered our vanilla conversation.
The story I wanted to tell was, in 2013, I took this “Eat, Pray, Love” trip. I was trying to find myself. I used to be an accountant, and I was not loving my life. I was an accountant by day, YouTuber by night. I took this trip to Southeast Asia, and it was a way for me to just reconnect with myself, take a bit of a break.
I remember seeing really gorgeous sunsets and trying to get to the heart of who I am as a person and being around all these amazing smells. I was trying to capture that look and feeling and that was the inspiration, this idea of turning back inward, remembering who you are, getting down to the heart. That was the concept that we pitched, and that’s how the candle came to be.
What brands do you think are doing exciting things with candles and fragrance now?
There are a bunch. For those that have been around for a while, Nest New York, which I know everyone knows the famous holiday candle, but they really have been putting out new surprises and hits over the past few years. Their wellness range I think is so, so good. There’s one called Wild Mint & Eucalyptus. They have another one called Lime Zest & Matcha. They keep releasing new products, which I think is really cool.
There’s this cool brand called The New Savant, which is new and small. It’s woman-owned, it’s incredible. They have this candle called Mixed Feelings that has a jasmine rice and white floral. They just released a holiday one and I was like that’s the kind of candle I wish I had made as well. It’s called Library in a Forest and smells like crisp book pages, bark, needles and leather.
Trudon, of course, which people love. They have some incredible releases. They did a line of Maître Tseng candles that are like these fermented tea notes that I think is really cool. Then, Mizensir. They made a candle that I’m obsessed with, it’s called Chocolat Suisse like Swiss chocolate. It’s spicy chocolates as a candle. It’s my favorite holiday candle right now, and they make fragrances that I love. Alberto Morillas, the perfumer, has made a bunch of hits like CK One and Marc Jacobs’ Daisy. This is his personal brand, and they have incredible scents. I probably wear more Mizensir than anything.
I also discovered I’m one of those people that love Francis Kurkdjian scents, the Baccarats, all that, but I’ve been going deeper into their scent realm, and they have so many great ones like Amyris Homme, which is more fresh. I love the Rose, which I wear all the time, and Aqua Media Cologne Forte, which they released this year. Diving deeper into brands is really, really fun for me.
Where do you see the candle and fragrance segment heading in 2024 and beyond?
I feel very happy that I made a candle centered around vanilla because there were so many vanilla releases this year. I felt like, oh, I’m really in the industry, which is fun because you plan nine months ago. We did musk in 2021 when everyone was at home and wanted to feel comfortable. We were excited about vanilla because it’s still comforting, but fun.
Next year, I think there’s going to be outside energy, so there’s going to be even more exuberance and trying new things. Floral will continue to do well and juicy fruits. Kayali just released their lychee fragrance, so did Nest basically a week or two apart. Phlur just came out with a Moodring fragrance, which I think has a lot of juicy notes. I feel like that’s where we’re going, fruits and florals, people want to have fun. I think they’re still recovering from a few years ago.
I do think people want to know what’s in stuff. The word “sustainable” means a lot to a lot of people, but I think there’s, what are the ingredients? How are they made? Who made them? So, the Henry Roses of the world. There’s a Gucci range which is trying to use fewer ingredients. I think that’s something that people care about.
Then, celeb owners. I think it’s still cool to see Michelle Pffeifer as an entrepreneur. Courteney Cox of Homecourt. Mona Kattan, who owns Kayali, she’s about to be on the Dubai version of “Bling Empire.” So, that’s really, really cool.
What’s next for you as Sir Candle Man?
I’ve had a year, so I’m going to take a bit of a break, just breathe, go home for the holidays. After the candle and the book, I’m plotting and planning. I definitely want to do some type of entertainment property like a podcast that’s not just about fragrance, it’s about life featuring fragrance. I used to have one about dating in LA years ago called “Love in Limboland.”
You’ve done it all.
Creating is my self-care. You know how people play golf? I like to make videos.
