People who often go into the forest usually have their own way of remembering a trip. Some keep the creased paper map. Some keep a pebble taken from a streambed. And almost everyone remembers a smell: damp earth under the canopy, wood smoke clinging to a jacket, dry needles breaking underfoot.
So a gift for someone like that is best chosen along two directions. One thing small enough to travel with them on the road, and one thing waiting for them at home for that first evening after the trip, when the backpack is still standing in the corner and the legs are still tired.
Something that travels on the road
A 15 ml bottle of essential oil is what we usually choose for this direction. It is small, sits neatly in a side pocket of a backpack, and on the road it does a few light jobs. One drop rubbed into the palms and breathed in deeply on a cold morning. One drop on a handkerchief inside the tent. A few drops in a basin of warm water for washing feet at the campsite at the end of the day.
A 50 ml bottle of perfume is another fine choice, for the day they come back to the city. One bottle gives about 600 sprays, so it travels with a person a long time. For someone who knows forest paths, we usually lean towards a direction of scent with the clean note of leaves and plants, because it brings back exactly the air they go looking for.
As for burning candles outdoors, we save that for places where it truly belongs. The forest is somewhere we love very much, and our way of loving it is to keep fire under control, to use a proper stove and lamp in the right place, and then to leave the path just as it was when we arrived. A candle is at its finest when it is lit indoors.
Something waiting for them at home
The evening after a trip has an atmosphere all its own. The body is tired, the head is still full of images of the forest, and the room holds all the familiar things of ordinary life. A candle lit at that moment joins those two together.
For someone who loves the forest, we often choose the cinnamon cup or the concrete cup instead of glass. Cinnamon bark comes with a lid, has the true surface of tree bark, grows darker the longer it is kept, and sits on the table like a piece of wood brought home from a trip. The concrete cup is heavy in the hand, rough on the face, and gives the feeling of stream stone.
And if you would like the gift to be fuller, a candle jar together with a bottle of essential oil is a very fitting pair. One stays at home, the other goes in the backpack, and together they tell one story.
A few questions you often send us
Should I give a candle or an essential oil to someone who often goes into the forest
A 15 ml essential oil can travel with them on the road, while a candle is for the evening they come home. If you can choose both, the gift tells both halves of a trip.
Should I take candles camping
We leave candles at home and take essential oil on the road, because outdoors a proper lamp and stove are safer. That way also keeps the forest as it was when we arrived.
Which cup suits a gift for someone who goes into the forest
The cinnamon bark cup with a lid and the concrete cup both suit, because their surfaces are plain and durable and gain character the longer they are kept. The glass cup is light and easy to reuse once the wax is gone.
Read more the story of camping and leaving the forest as it was, a calm day of trekking, and how to choose a candle jar as a gift.