An Athens-made fragrance inspired by Greece’s famous horiatiki combines tomato leaf, cucumber, oregano and olive leaf, tapping into a growing appetite for fresh, garden-inspired scents.
One of Greece’s most famous dishes has inspired what some may initially consider an unlikely choice for a luxury scented candle. The traditional Greek salad, or horiatiki, has been transformed into a scented candle, with its familiar combination of tomatoes, cucumber and herbs reimagined as a fragrance designed to bring the freshness of a Mediterranean summer into the home.
Created by Australian entrepreneur Kate Lillian Muir, founder of the Athens-based lifestyle brand Lillian Muir, The Greek Salad candle is part of the company’s first home fragrance collection. Its arrival raises an interesting question: can the aromas associated with something we love to eat be just as appealing when experienced as a scent?
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There are few dishes more closely associated with Greek summer than horiatiki. A staple of tavernas, family lunches and seaside restaurants, its appeal lies in the simplicity of its ingredients: ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumber, feta, olives, onion, oregano and generous amounts of Greek olive oil.
Its popularity is not merely anecdotal. The Greek National Tourism Organisation includes horiatiki among the country’s most popular traditional dishes, while tourism platform Discover Greece notes that almost every restaurant in Athens serves some version of the salad. In an April 2025 ranking by international food guide TasteAtlas, horiatiki also placed second among the world’s best-rated salads.
Part of its enduring attraction is how readily it evokes a particular experience. A Greek salad is so much more than just another side dish. It is often placed in the middle of the table, shared alongside grilled fish, bread and other dishes, and enjoyed over a lunch that might stretch well into the afternoon. Its ingredients are particularly appealing during the warmer months, when tomatoes are at their ripest and cucumbers their freshest.
But translating those flavours into a fragrance requires a different approach.
Rather than attempting to reproduce the smell of a prepared salad, Muir’s candle concentrates on the ingredients’ fresher, more aromatic qualities. Tomato leaf, fresh cucumber and lemon zest form the opening notes, offering the sharp, green freshness associated with a vegetable garden. Basil, oregano and olive leaf provide the herbal heart, while cedarwood, sea salt and white musk soften the composition and give it the warmth expected of a home fragrance.
There is, perhaps fortunately, no attempt to recreate the smell of feta cheese or raw onion! And the tomato is represented by its leaves rather than the fruit itself. The intention is not to make a living room smell like lunch, but to evoke the garden, the ingredients being prepared and the atmosphere surrounding a Greek summer meal.
While a Greek salad candle might initially sound unusual, there is already a growing market for precisely this kind of fragrance.
Tomato leaf has emerged as a sought-after scent in luxury home fragrance, appearing in collections from Loewe, Flamingo Estate and Maison Margiela. Rather than the sweetness of a ripe tomato, these fragrances draw on the distinctive green aroma of its leaves and stems, often combined with herbs, citrus or woody notes.
The trend has attracted increasing attention from fragrance experts and beauty publications. In 2026, Harper’s Bazaar and Wallpaper* both explored the popularity of tomato-inspired candles, highlighting their appeal as fresher, more botanical alternatives to traditional floral and sweet fragrances.
That helps explain why the ingredients of a Greek salad might translate surprisingly well into a candle. Cucumber contributes a clean, watery freshness, oregano and basil introduce an aromatic herbal character, and tomato leaf provides the unmistakable green scent of plants growing in the summer heat. Cedarwood and musk then make the fragrance feel more at home in a living room than a kitchen.
There is also the emotional appeal of familiar smells. Research into scent and autobiographical memory has found that odours can evoke particularly vivid emotional recollections, sometimes more powerfully than visual or verbal cues. For someone whose memories of Greece involve long lunches, summer gardens and freshly prepared food, those associations may be precisely what makes the fragrance attractive.
For Muir, who left Australia to establish her skincare and lifestyle business in Athens, the candle is a natural extension of her interest in the everyday rituals of Mediterranean life.
Her original skincare collection was inspired by similar experiences, including the Greek freddo espresso, while her Kolonaki concept store has become a showcase for products that celebrate Greek ingredients, craftsmanship and design.
The Greek Salad candle is made in Athens using a beeswax and soy wax blend, fragrance oils and essential oils including oregano, basil, lemon and cedarwood. Available in two sizes, 200ml and 530ml, priced at A$69 and A$95 respectively, it comes in a reusable vessel designed to remain part of the home after the wax has finished.
As for how customers are responding to the idea of bringing a Greek salad into their homes, Muir is pleased with the early reaction.
“It’s been getting great feedback!” she told this masthead.
The Greek Salad is one of three fragrances in the new collection, each inspired by a different aspect of Mediterranean life.
Mediterranean Fig captures the freshness of a fig tree in summer, combining green fig leaf, bergamot and lemon zest with ripe fig, jasmine, cedarwood, amber and patchouli. The result is a fruitier, softer fragrance that draws on the scents of Mediterranean gardens and orchards.
Freddo Espresso, meanwhile, returns to the Greek coffee culture that first inspired Muir’s brand. Rich espresso and vanilla open the fragrance, followed by creamy milk, hazelnut and caramel, with dark chocolate, tonka bean and warm amber providing the base. Unlike the freshness of The Greek Salad, it is a sweeter, warmer interpretation of the familiar pleasure of lingering over a coffee.
Together, the three candles offer different interpretations of Mediterranean life, from the freshness of a Greek summer lunch to an afternoon beneath a fig tree or the unmistakable aroma of coffee in an Athens café.
The Greek Salad, Mediterranean Fig and Freddo Espresso candles are available through lillianmuir.com.au and at the Lillian Muir concept store, 11 Tsakalof Street, Kolonaki, Athens.
Follow Lillian Muir on Instagram at @lillianmuir.
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