Our story
We make candles the slow way, on purpose.
ARDEUR started with a simple irritation: candles that smelled of everything for an hour and of nothing after. We wanted one that held its shape, burned evenly to the last centimetre and filled a room without shouting.
So we slowed everything down. Three layers instead of one pour. Fourteen days of curing instead of three. Two wicks instead of one. It costs us time. It gives you sixty hours of light.
The studio, Rua das Flores
A perfumer who trained in Grasse and a ceramicist who learned to pour wax. Everything else we figured out together.
Inès Moreau
Founder and nose
Tomás Abreu
Head of atelier
The process
Seventeen days from oil to shelf.
Oils are weighed and left to marry for a week. The wax is poured in three passes, a day apart, then cured for fourteen days before a single wick is trimmed. Every batch is burn-tested before it ships.
How we got here
Seven years, one room, and a lot of returned glass.
First pour in a Lisbon kitchen
Twelve candles, one scent, given to friends. Every one came back to be refilled.
A studio on Rua das Flores
A single room with a long table, a stove and enough shelf space to cure two hundred candles a week.
The refill programme
We started taking back our own glass. Today one in three vessels has been poured more than once.
Six scents, one vessel
The collection settles into six families, each poured in three layers.
What we will not compromise on
01
Plant wax only
Coconut and rapeseed, grown in Europe. No paraffin, ever.
02
Glass that comes back
Every vessel is made to be returned, cleaned and poured again.
03
Paid properly
Our perfumers and pourers earn above the Lisbon living wage.