Feel Ordinary Life Aromatic Candles

Feel Ordinary Life Aromatic Candles

Feel Ordinary Life Aromatic Candles is an award-winning giftware design that represents a sophisticated fusion of traditional Chinese culinary culture with contemporary aromatic product design, conceived by designers Chunyang Wang and Qianqian Yao for Yepspace, a multidisciplinary design studio based in Hangzhou, China. This innovative collection of handcrafted scented candles draws inspiration from three fundamental ingredients ubiquitous in Chinese cuisine: ginger, garlic, and scallions, transforming these ordinary culinary staples into extraordinary olfactory and visual experiences through meticulous artisanal craftsmanship and thoughtful scent composition. The design concept deliberately juxtaposes the familiar, often pungent nature of these everyday cooking ingredients with refined, elegant fragrance profiles, creating an unexpected sensory contrast that challenges conventional perceptions and invites contemplation on the intersection of the mundane and the artistic. Each candle within the collection is meticulously handcrafted to replicate the exact botanical form of its inspiration, requiring exceptional precision in mold-making to achieve natural, vivid, and lifelike reproductions that honor the organic complexity of these plant forms. The ginger-shaped candle features a sophisticated fragrance composition with top notes of aldehydes, pear, and lily-of-the-valley, transitioning through middle notes of iris, rose, and orange, and settling into base notes of musk, patchouli, and abelmoschus, creating a floral and fruity olfactory experience. The garlic-shaped candle opens with fresh notes of coriander, lavender, and white pine, develops through a spicy heart of nutmeg, pepper, and hemlock, and concludes with a woody base of iris, musk, and cedarwood. The scallion-shaped candle begins with citrusy top notes of bergamot, cardamom, and vetiver, evolves through a heart of sandalwood, cypress, and abelmoschus, and finishes with a soft base of white musk, violet, and patchouli, offering a woody and floral combination. The asymmetrical nature of these botanical forms ensures that each candle burns uniquely, with the melting wax creating constantly evolving sculptural forms that transform every lighting into a dynamic artistic performance. The packaging design demonstrates equal attention to detail, measuring 124 millimeters by 320 millimeters by 83 millimeters, containing 200 grams of product, and employing sophisticated production techniques including hot stamping in white and silver, pearl cotton cushioning, 300-gram special paper, die-cutting, and gray card construction. Feel Ordinary Life Aromatic Candles was developed as a client project and was exclusively available as a limited-edition gift at Tsutaya Books, OoEli, Hangzhou from April 2023 to April 2024, positioning the design within the context of curated retail environments that emphasize design excellence and cultural sophistication. The design earned the Bronze A' Design Award in the Giftware Design category in 2025, one of the world's most prestigious design competitions, which recognized the work for its creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness in blending traditional cultural elements with contemporary design sensibilities. The Bronze A' Design Award designation acknowledges designs that demonstrate strong technical characteristics combined with tasteful use of creative skill, representing esteemed creations that incorporate best practices in art, science, design, and technology while providing quality of life improvements through thoughtful attention to detail. The recognition validates the designers' ability to create professionally executed, innovative products that authentically express vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness while contributing meaningfully to the advancement of giftware design standards. Feel Ordinary Life Aromatic Candles exemplifies the broader movement within contemporary design toward cultural specificity and narrative-driven product development, where designers draw upon regional traditions, culinary heritage, and everyday experiences to create objects that resonate with both local and international audiences through universal themes of transformation, surprise, and sensory delight. The design demonstrates sophisticated understanding of material culture, olfactory design principles, and the psychological impact of unexpected juxtapositions, employing these elements to create products that function simultaneously as functional aromatherapy objects, sculptural art pieces, and cultural commentaries on the relationship between the ordinary and the extraordinary in daily life.

Aromatic candles, Chinese culinary inspiration, giftware design, handcrafted scent products, botanical form replication, sensory experience design

— Adam Dawson

CITATION : "Adam Dawson. 'Feel Ordinary Life Aromatic Candles.' Design+Encyclopedia. https://design-encyclopedia.com/define/feel-ordinary-life-aromatic-candles?E=483262 (Accessed on October 14, 2026)"