At thirteen years old, Hart Main had an idea… or at least, his sister did. She asked him, “Why don’t people make candles with scents that men like?“. Based on that idea, he founded ManCans – a company that provides some funky male scents to readers who prefer the smell of cigars, campfires, and coffee to the likes of lavender and rose.
Pictured below is the Cigar Box ManCan that uses a recycled cigar box to house the candle. Like vintage alcohol bottles, cigar boxes look baller. They emit a sense of old-timer style that the likes of Frank Sinatra would approve of. Though neither drinking nor smoking are perfect for one’s health, they’ve long since stood as icons of cool, and this little wooden candle box contains just a little bit of that vibe.
What do ManCans Smell Like?
Now, after lighting up the candle, I turned on a manly show – Entourage, and watched the group of friends mingling with stars while I sat back on a leather sofa with the scent of cigars waffling near my nostrils. The verdict? The concept of the cigar box candle is certainly unique, but the scent does need some work. It smells vaguely of cigars – which is great, but with notes a little too sweet to represent cigar smoke. The formula is solid, but the company could make this so much better with some more tinkering.
In addition to the cigar box candle, I also tried out the Campfire ManCan and Coffee ManCan. Like the cigar box scent, both the coffee and campfire scents only vaguely reminded me of the real smell of coffee and a campfire. The coffee seemed to smell of sugar and milk. Come on, guys, I only drink black coffee like a man! It was as if someone had microwaved some instant Nescafe and shoved it in front of my face. While overall not terrible, the coffee scent was very artificial. Not my cup of… coffee.
In contrast, the campfire ManCan was the closest of the three candles to smell like a real campfire. It lacked that sweet scent and instead released the aroma of hardwood slowly burning. I found this intoxicating at first, but sure enough, I could only handle the smell for ten minutes before nausea set in. It makes for a great novelty scent, but not something to sit back and relax to while watching a movie like The Sandlot.
