Bath & Body Works Candles Versus ALDI Candles: Who Wins?
Ah, Bath & Body Works! I’m sure you’ve heard people rave about their amazing candles. But after scooping up the best deal on a candle I could find, I wanted to know if they’re really worth the splurge, or if our favorite discount retail grocery store ALDI might have a surprise in store for us. Here’s what I discovered!
1. The scent options
For this comparison, I needed the best of the best – which I’ve heard is, hands-down, the Bath & Body Works 3-wick candle. There were so many options, I wasn’t even sure where to start. Then, I bought a candle from ALDI because people tend to rave about how cheap (and amazing) they are. Though the selection is much more limited, I looked for similar scents, color, and overall appearance. In the end, I came home with the White Barn Linen & Lavender from Bath & Body Works and the Signature Huntington Home Cranberry Dahlia from ALDI.
🏆 Scent Options winner: Bath & Body Works
2. The price comparison
At Aldi, I grabbed the large gold candle for $7.99 and a Huntington Home candle in their Cranberry Dahlia scent for just $4.99. I have to say, I’ve never scooped up such a great-smelling candle for such an amazing price!
Hip Tip: You can also check your local store for ALDI’s Huntington Home 3-Wick Candles for just $3.99 and if you’re lucky enough you can scoop up their Lavender scent just like my Bath and Body Works one!
Come to find out, Bath & Body Works typically only have cranberry scents around Christmas time, so I picked out the closest scent I could find for my ALDI comparison. Linen and Lavender it is! They both had floral scents, so I felt that this was my best bet for an honest comparison of the two brands. Plus, I scooped up the Bath & Body Works Butterscotch Toffee since it was on sale, smelled so good, and I loved the glass container!
If you’ve shopped at either ALDI or Bath & Body Works before, you probably have a good idea of what the price difference is going to be for candles. I was lucky enough to scoop up my B&BW candle on sale, but normally they charge $24.50 for each 3-wick candle. I could buy up to five ALDI candles for that price! Talk about a huge price difference!
🏆 Price winner: ALDI
3. The ultimate burn test
The burn test between these two candle brands will show how quickly the wax melts at 10 minutes, at one hour, and at two hours. If a candle burns too quickly, you could be out of those intoxicating scents and that flickering light faster than you know it (and who has money to burn?). Here’s what I discovered.
After 10 minutes.
As you can see, my Bath & Body Works candle (left) started burning much quicker in the first ten minutes. To keep things fair, I only lit one wick on my Bath & Body Works candle since my ALDI candle only had one.
After 1 hour.
I blew the candles out after an hour to evaluate how much melted wax there was for each one. The ruler test speaks for itself! Not only is the diameter of the melted part larger on the Bath & Body Works candle (left) but I can only imagine how quickly this candle would deplete if all 3 wicks were burning! 😱
After another hour with all 3 wicks burning.
I had to test this out for myself! After burning all 3 wicks for an hour, the melted wax measured past the metal part of the eraser on a standard number 2 pencil. This makes me wonder: are the guaranteed Bath & Body Works truly tested?
🏆 Burn test winner: ALDI
4. How did they smell?
Alright, so I know not everyone cares about how fast candles burn. What matters most is how good these candles smell. Personally, I thought both of the candles smelled so good when I picked them out in the store. I don’t like candles that are too overpowering, and I didn’t feel that either scent was “too much“. Of course, Bath & Body Works has an endless amount of options, whereas ALDI only has a few, but I was able to find one I really liked at both stores.
When testing these out at home, I made sure to put them in separate areas of the house so that I could get a good idea of what they smelled like after burning and also how their scent fills a space.
After walking into my office where I had my ALDI candle burning, I noticed the scent, but it wasn’t overpowering the room. Plus, I was really impressed with how slow the wax was melting. Simultaneously, I placed my burning Bath & Body Works candle on my nightstand while I worked from my bed, and after about 10 minutes, I noticed the scent right away. I moved it over to my dresser on the other side of my room. While I was shocked at how quickly it was burning, I also could barely stand to have it lit for the entire hour because the smell was so strong and started to give me a headache.
🏆 Scent winner: ALDI
5. So what’s my verdict on the candles?
Is Bath & Body Works worth the splurge? After burning each candle for an hour, I came to a conclusion on which one I would spend money on in the future.
My overall verdict:
Given the price difference, scents, and burning time, I don’t think I would ever splurge on a Bath & Body Works candle unless I was looking for a very specific scent, which in that case, I can almost guarantee Bath & Body Works would have it. With that said, the ALDI candle wins it all for me!
This test was actually not fair. The three wick Bath & Body Works candle is made to burn all three Wicks it will not burn evenly if you only burn one Wick at a time. If you wanted to test it properly you should have bought a single Wick which is made to not have as strong of a smell as the three wick. You can imagine there is more oils and there is more fragrance in a three wick as of course there is more wax. Where the Aldi brand is very nice is a single Wick It’s Made To Burn differently which means it doesn’t have as much a strong fragrance and not as much oils as does the Bath & Body Works 3 Wick. If candle isn’t burning that quickly it’s because there’s more wax and it takes a longer amount of time to burn down. That’s not always bad thing. However again where this test is skewed is you used a larger three what candle to a single Wick candle by Aldi. When people come into the store buy a candle for a smaller space for an example your bedroom or an office or a bathroom oh, we suggest a single Wick candle as it won’t be as overpowering and as you found you won’t have to move it around the room to be able to smell it or in this case not smelled strongly. I don’t discount that all the candles are worth their money but as always you get what you pay for. The Bath & Body Works candle is tested time and time again burn times are tested time and time again to make sure that it is held up to the quality and standards that L Brands and white barn has put forth in all of their items.
I discovered the 3 wick Aldi candles last summer. I bought 5 for less than the cost of one at BBW. Even with half price sales and coupons, Aldi is a far better value. I’ve always loved the scents of my favorite candles at BBW, but the scents of my personal favorite Aldi candles exceed BBW in my opinion, just based on my favorites. They also last longer. My favorite Aldi scents are Lilac, Honeysuckle, Cozy Harvest, and Winter Balsam. My only complaint is that they are only seasonal items, and sell out quickly, so I’ve learned to buy multiples of my favorites. My house always smells wonderful now since I can afford to burn them for hours at a time.
I am a huge fan of the Aldi candles. You have to stock up though because they are there today gone tomorrow. Can’t beat the price and they smell great!
Per the Aldi Huntington Home 3 wick candles, are the scents that come out of season or every few week rotated back during the next year? Or are they always different? Example can you expect the same scents this fall that was on shelf from last fall?
Bath and Body candles are by far the best candles and it is very rare you pay full price as they are usually always on sale. I’ve gotten a candle for $8.46 with coupons. They have over 100 scents in 3 wick. Why didn’t you buy the one wick for comparison?
I’ve compared BBW candles with Yankee candles. Yankee candles last so much longer! I love BBW scents, but they don’t last long enough for me.
This isn’t a candle test. 3 wick candles need to all be lit at the same time to ensure a proper burn. If you wanted to keep things consistent, this test should have featured tests on candles the same size with the same number of wicks. It’s also incredibly bad practice to blow out candles after 10 minutes and an hour. You should always let candles burn the first time until there’s a full melt pool which takes 3-4 hours. To measure safely, you get a metal measuring stick specifically for this, and you dip it to measure depth of the melt pool. A properly wicked candle should burn 1/2 an inch after two hours. Finally, BBW candles are made primarily with paraffin, so you don’t get sick from a strong smell, the headache would be caused from the writer not understanding they’re sensitive to paraffin. All candles are 8-10% fragrance oil, so if you’re sensitive to a scent, it’s because your body doesn’t like what’s in it. Please read candle instructions pertaining trimming the wicks to 1/4 inch before burning (these look longer), establishing a full melt pool and not judging two completely different scents that use different wax blends on which one is stronger. There are wayyy too many variables here and too little understanding on how to properly light/use candles.
You can’t compare a burn test by.lighting just one wick. As a candle maker I can tell you that these wicks are so different. Size and composition. So the “test” you did is like comparing apes and oranges.
I totally agree that overall, Aldi candles are better than BBW. Yes, the scents are limited, but there are always one or two that are perfect to me, and I purchase 6 or 8 at a time. As frequent Aldi shoppers know, Aldi candles and Aldi finds go quickly. Now the secret is out about the high quality Aldi candles.
A 3-wick candle isn’t meant to burn the same as a 1 wick candle. I’d be interested to see how an Aldi 3 wick holds up to a B&BW 3 wick. But you can’t compare a 1 wick to a 3 wick.
If you keep your candles in the freezer they burn slower.
I’m going to have to go try an Aldi’s candle!! Thanks for the review and feedback.
You’re so welcome, Lesli!!!🥰