A CANDLE-MAKING AFTERNOON IN YORKVILLE
There are only so many times dinner and drinks can qualify as a plan. If you're looking for something more hands-on, KANDL Artistique turns candle making into a surprisingly polished afternoon in Yorkville: choose your fragrance notes, blend a scent that feels like yours, pour the candle and leave with something you'll actually use at home.
The experience happens at KANDL's space at 88 Avenue Road, part candle studio, part fragrance shop and part café. It's an easy idea for a date, birthday or afternoon with friends, but at $95 and up, it's worth knowing exactly what you're booking before committing to your new career as a perfumer.
By CELESTE FERNER SEPTEMBER 17, 2026
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN A CANDLE MAKING CLASS?
The class is less about learning how to start a candle business and more about creating one personalized candle from beginning to end. You'll learn about fragrance composition, experiment with different notes and create your own scent before combining it with wax and choosing the final details for your candle.
KANDL offers 125 possible fragrance combinations, so this is where we'd spend most of our attention. Rather than immediately choosing three scents we already know we like, it's worth testing combinations and letting the instructor help with balance. Something that smells beautiful alone doesn't necessarily behave the same way once another fragrance joins it.
The entire experience takes around 90 minutes, and unlike pottery, there's no three-week wait followed by a second trip across Toronto. Your finished 10 oz candle is packaged to take home the same day.
THE CLASSIC LAB
If it's our first visit, Classic Lab is the class we'd book. The full experience costs $95 per person, with a 50% deposit of $47.50 paid when booking and the remaining balance paid at the studio.
This is the straightforward candle-making experience: fragrance discovery, creating your own blend, working with the wax and personalizing the finished candle, including its label. The final 10 oz candle comes packaged, which makes the whole thing feel a little more finished than the average craft workshop.
We also like that the activity doesn't require any previous skill. You're being guided through the process rather than being handed wax and wished good luck, so it works just as well for someone who has never thought about fragrance notes as it does for the friend who can somehow identify sandalwood from across a room.
OR TRY THE GLOWNESS LAB
Glowness Lab is $110 per person and takes the candle-making process in a slightly more wellness-coded direction. Along with creating the fragrance and candle, the experience incorporates elements such as crystals, colour and intention setting.
Whether we'd spend the extra $15 really comes down to personality. If the fragrance-making itself is what sounds interesting, Classic gives you the core KANDL experience. If your camera roll currently contains crystals, astrology screenshots and several saved wellness retreats, Glowness probably makes more sense.
Either way, we'd choose between the two based on the experience rather than assuming the more expensive class is automatically the better one.
STAY FOR THE KAFÉ
One thing that makes KANDL different from a standalone craft studio is that the candle lab isn't the only reason to be there. KANDL Kafé serves coffee, matcha, Mariage Frères tea, wine and sparkling wine, so the class can easily become part of a longer Yorkville afternoon rather than a 90-minute activity followed immediately by the subway home.
Food and drinks aren't included in the class price, which is worth knowing when budgeting. There are also larger food experiences, including high tea and charcuterie-style options, that need to be arranged ahead of time.
For a date, we'd probably keep things simple: book the candle class, get a drink afterwards and walk through Yorkville. For a birthday or small group, the café element becomes more useful because there's somewhere to continue talking once everyone has finished debating what their candle should smell like.
BEFORE YOU BOOK
KANDL is at 88 Avenue Road, right by Yorkville Village. There isn't dedicated parking at the studio, but paid parking is available nearby at Yorkville Village; if we're coming from downtown, the TTC is probably the less annoying option.
Plan to arrive at least 10 minutes before the class. The sessions follow a schedule, so arriving late can mean having to reschedule rather than quietly slipping into the back of the room halfway through fragrance selection.
The other detail we'd pay attention to is the price shown during booking. $47.50 for Classic and $55 for Glowness are 50% deposits, not the full class prices. The totals are $95 and $110 respectively, with the remaining balance due after the class.
Private and group bookings are available too, which makes the format particularly easy for birthdays, bridal events or corporate outings. For a normal date or afternoon with one or two friends, we'd simply book one of the scheduled public sessions.
