There are many ways to bring fragrance into a room: candles, diffusers, sprays. We began with the cone because of what it asks of you, and what it doesn't.
A cone is fragrance pressed into a simple shape, with a point to light and a wide base to stand on. You hold a flame to the tip, let it catch, then blow the flame out. What's left is a small ember that works its way down slowly, releasing scent as it goes. There is no wick to trim, no cord and no refill. When the cone has burned down, it's finished.
That beginning and end are the point. A candle can burn all evening in the background. A cone is something you choose, for a particular hour: before guests arrive, after the windows have been open all day, on a quiet morning with a book.
The form also suits the way scent moves. Because a cone smoulders rather than burns with a flame, its fragrance rises with a thin thread of smoke and spreads through the room gradually. It doesn't need to be strong to be noticed.
For our first release, we kept everything around the cone simple. The cones are kept in a brushed silver tin with a twist lid that closes airtight, so each one is as it was made when you reach for it. The Cones Set adds a ceramic burner with a metal dome, made to hold a lit cone, and to sit well in a room when it isn't in use.
We think of the cone as a small, deliberate act. Light one, and the room changes.