Half the fun of souvenir shopping is picking up something unique to that one place. Whether it’s a pair of leather sandals hand-crafted by a cobbler in Italy or a tagine that requires an excessive amount of bubble wrap to get back from Morocco intact, a good souvenir is worth the effort, especially when it’s something that mentally transports you back to that location long after you return home. French perfumer Diptyque’s City Candles, designed to evoke the smells of the cities they are named after, tick both those boxes. While they’re usually only available for purchase in their respective cities, Diptyque occasionally lifts the gate with an online sale.

For one week only, that opportunity is back: Between April 16 and April 23, travelers can shop candles from cities like Hong Kong, Paris, and Berlin on Diptyque’s website. There are nine candles in total, all of which come in gorgeous, six-and-a-half-ounce patterned glass jars, designed with the city’s landscape and architecture in mind, and are packaged in equally well-designed boxes you’ll want to hang on to, even just for decoration. 

The candles’ scents are made with varying degrees of city specificity: New York City’s, for example, blends cedar wood, vetiver, and patchouli, meant to harken the “golden age of alluring speakeasies and the city’s nightlife.” The Hong Kong candle, meanwhile, draws its floral-vanilla scent from the Bauhinia x Blakeana, also known as the Hong Kong orchid tree, a prized plant in Asia.

Hong Kong Candle

$76.00, Diptyque

Aside from being a nice way to fill your own living room or bedroom with the scents you’ve been missing over the past year—the London candle, for example, brings you to the Columbia Road Flower Market with its mix of heliotrope, lilac, juniper, hyacinth, and spice—these candles also make a great gift for pretty much anyone on your list, whether you’re celebrating a birthday, Mother’s Day, or a housewarming. For the friend who had to cancel a trip to Shanghai, the scent of osmanthus flowers and green tea (meant to pay homage to a traditional tea ceremony), may not be the next best thing, but it will surely be appreciated.

There are also options for those wanting to recreate the feeling of strolling through Tokyo (Japanese cypress trees), Paris (Chypre lavender), and Berlin (linden trees and light honey). Stateside scents abound too, with a citrusy Miami candle that will have them dreaming about key lime pie (for what it’s worth, Joe’s Stone Crab makes the best in Miami), and white flowers, mint, and lemon meant to replicate the palm-tree-and-garden lined streets of Beverly Hills. (Save that one for someone spending the winter somewhere cold—they’ll be happy to daydream about 70 degree days.) Die-hard Los Angeles aficionados may recognize the candle’s design, a nod to the Martinique wallpaper used at The Beverly Hills Hotel.

All nine candles will be available while supplies last on Diptyque’s website (in past online sales, they’ve sold out fairly quickly, so don’t delay if you have a certain candle in mind). After that, they’ll go back to being sold only in Diptyque boutiques in their respective cities.

Shop now: $76, diptyqueparis.com

This article was originally published in September 2020. It has been updated with new information.

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