Dancing Light, Lake Como

Bathe in the clear waters of Lake Como, framed by mountains and lined with romantic villages and celebrated villas, their gardens cascading to the water's edge. Dancing Light is a green aquatic floral fragrance: refreshing, luminous, built around flowers typical of the region.

Fig leaf and aquatic accord open it cool and bright; wisteria, magnolia and star jasmine carry the scent of the gardens along the shore; a base of musk, cedarwood and sandalwood gives it depth and longevity. The fragrance of the lake in spring, and the light that moves across the water all day.

Top notes: Fig Leaf, Honeysuckle, Aquatic Accord

Heart notes: Muguet, Wisteria, Magnolia, Star Jasmine

Base notes: Musk, Cedarwood, Sandalwood

The Bellagio water-taxi jetty on Lake Como, a striped mooring post in the water and mountains across the lake.

The place

The first time I saw Lake Como, I was in the passenger seat of an open-topped car, hair loose in the wind, on a hairpin bend that dropped without apology to the lake several hundred feet below. Chris was driving our navy blue car which had made its way from the classical squares of West London to the pre-alps in Lombardia. There was a wondrous excitement and a devouring appetite for discovery and adventure. We were deeply, completely in love, and entirely unable to look away from each other, or from the lake.

Each bend revealed another treasure of a view that could not be captured by my earnest yet amateur photographs: a dazzling blue silk with sequins made of shimmering sunlight. Tremezzo below us, white against the water. Villa Carlotta and its gardens in full, extravagant colour. The glistering light already moving across the surface, rearranging itself moment by moment.

Como changes with the seasons. Snow holds on the mountains into spring, the water turns a clear bright blue, and by high summer the heat sits over everything until you go down to the lake to cool off. A little under the surface it stays cold all year, cold enough to catch your breath in August, and you come out of it sharper than you went in. The flowers arrive with the warm months: magnolia, star jasmine in the evening, wisteria on the old stone walls. The light is the constant.

It is more than scenery. It is the majesty of the mountains and the warmth of the Lariani, the people who live here, watching it all ebb and flow with the seasons. Wordsworth was here before us. He called it "a treasure whom the earth keeps to herself, confined as in a depth of … privacy." It still is.

A place that is beautifully welcoming and quietly extraordinary. We came for an adventure and stayed because it lit something in us. What most see as a holiday, we now call home. Dancing Light is our love letter to it.

A Dancing Light, Lake Como diffuser on marble by an open window with wisteria, magnolia in a glass jug and fig leaves.

The fragrance

Composed by Ruth Mastenbroek and Nic Mastenbroek at Mastenbroek.

Dancing Light was created at Mastenbroek by Ruth and her son Nic, working together before she passed the reins to him. A collaboration between mother and son, which makes it something rather special. We have known them both for years, ever since Nic started training with his mother.

Most fragrance briefs begin with notes. We began with a feeling. We wanted something light and bright, a scent that fills your heart with the elation you get from seeing the majesty of the Italian lakes, breathing in their fragrant air. A spiritual coupling with the sheer splendour of nature.

Working with people you trust deeply changes what you can ask for and how you ask for it. We described the lake in spring, the glow on the water, wisteria tumbling from old walls, and the star jasmine that spills over the villas and releases its tantalising scent into the warm evening air. We gave them just enough without over-directing: the landscape, the flora, and above all the feeling.

The aquatic accord was something we asked for specifically, to reflect the lake itself. It gives the fragrance its vibrancy and pulls everything together, bringing through both the freshness of the water and the elegance of the Italian gardens. Freshness with depth. Light with presence.

Close-up of Kerry Lemon's hand-drawn Dancing Light illustration on a lit candle: a lakeside villa, wisteria, magnolia and a swallow.

The illustration

Hand-drawn illustration on porcelain by Kerry Lemon.

We needed an illustrator who could draw memory. Kerry Lemon is one of the most respected illustrators in the UK. She very rarely takes on commissions now. This one, she said, was too good to turn down.

The brief for Dancing Light was specific. Every motif had to mean something. Each element had to belong to this lake, this memory.

Wisteria is the perfect frilly frame to every awe-inspiring view at Como, hanging in great purple cascades through spring. Star jasmine climbs the villas in white constellations. Magnolia opens its pale blossoms on the terraces. Fig leaves bring the cool green of the gardens.

Then the architecture. Villa Balbianello sits on its headland like the lake's leading lady, a film set for so many memorable scenes that you almost feel you have been there before you have. The Duomo at the centre of Como is the elegant heart of the town, beautiful in a way that stops you. Both belong on the vessel because they belong on the lake.

And the swallows. Swallows undertake some of the most staggering migrations in the natural world, crossing continents between Europe and Africa each year. I asked Kerry to draw them rising, soaring, because the fragrance itself has that uplifting quality, the heart lifting at a beautiful view. They are also there for personal reasons. My own life has been a long migration across the world. My family has made the crossing from the UK to Italy. The journeys we have made, and the journeys still to come. The swallows are kindred spirits.

A Dancing Light, Lake Como candle refill, pale blue cotton pouch and vessel with gold lid on blue satin.

Made to be refilled

A Told London candle is made to be kept. The porcelain is yours for life: when the wax is spent you refill it rather than replace it, so the vessel stays in your home instead of being remade and shipped again. Each candle is hand-poured in England in natural soy wax, and the packaging is plastic-free and FSC-certified. Refill, don’t replace.

Recognition

Winner at the Platinum Beauty Awards 2026 for Best Luxury Candle, awarded to Dancing Light, Lake Como 300g candle.

Winner of an Haute Beauty Award at the Attracta Beauty Awards 2026 for Excellence in Home Fragrance. Awarded to Dancing Light, Lake Como.

Finalist at the Fragrance Foundation Awards 2026 for Best Interior Fragrance, for Dancing Light, Lake Como.

Have You Been Told About Lake Como?

That branch of the lake

Alessandro Manzoni opened The Betrothed on this branch of Lake Como, and the novel went on to teach a whole country what its written language should be.

Read the story