Intrepid commenter Jes pointed me toward this article about Mud in My Blood’s line of Harry Potter-themed candles. Each candle features three scents which represent a particular character; since they also appear to have three layers of color I’m assuming that each color has a separate scent instead of the whole thing having a blended fragrance.* Whilst it’s easy to figure out what some of the fragrances smell like (“raspberry jam,” “spearmint toothpaste”), some of them seem a little more vague (I have no idea what scent “pygmy puff” or “Hogwarts halls” would be).

The “scents that represent a character’s qualities” thing seems to be fairly popular. Fandlemonium offers candles like “Belle” (bookshoppe, French pastries, and enchanted rose) and “Sherlock” (tobacco, clean clothes, and old books); Bubble and Geek has “Hobbit” (English ivy, oak moss, apples, strawberry, garden mint), “Sunnydale Library” (leather-bound books, rosewood, hot brewed tea, house plants), and “Winter is Coming” (garden mint and vanilla).

Fortunately, candles–particularly jar candles–are extremely easy to make, so if you’ve always suspected that your favorite character smells like leather, smoke, and pine (Aragorn) or lavender, fresh linen, and mist (Mina Harker), you can custom-make a candle just for them.

There are plenty of tutorials for making jar candles: She Knows and Peak both have easy-to-follow instructions for the basic technique, and About has instructions for making them layered instead of single-color. If you want to get a little fancier, there’s a tutorial on Queen of DIY for making layered pillar candles.

You can get candlemaking supplies at many craft stores, and they’re widely available online. Lone Star, CandleScience, and The Candlemakers Store all have good selections, but a quick google will turn up plenty of others.

You can print out a simple paper label for your finished jar candles, but there are plenty of other ways to decorate them: BreeCraft has a neat book-themed design (which doesn’t even require the rending of a book); the LOTR suggestion would pair nicely with the natural herb-infused candles from Live Simply. The jars can also be wrapped with lace or ribbon, decoupaged with autumn leaves, or decorated with beads.

It should go without saying that scented candles are great favors for parties or weddings. Not only are they inexpensive and easy to make in quantity, they can be customized in all sorts of ways to match your theme.

*I unfortunately can’t tell for certain because The Mud in My Blood store doesn’t seem to be online at the moment; the site linked to in the article is “under construction” and the Etsy shop referenced on the placeholder page is defunct.