Rylan Clark: 'I'm obsessed with candles, I have 24 in one room'
As part of our interview series, My Happy Home, Rylan Clark tells us how he's obsessed with the smell of candles, and shares his fascination with Victoria Beckham's beauty drawer.
Rylan Clark shot to fame on ITV talent show The X Factor in 2012 where he came in fifth place, capturing the nation's hearts with his outlandish style, witty banter and crazy pop mash-ups. He went on to win the 11th series of Celebrity Big Brother a year later. Since then, the 34-year-old former model – Rylan was a finalist on Sky Living modelling competition Signed in 2011, when he struck up his long-standing friendship with Katie Price – has carved a successful career as a TV presenter and radio host.
He lives in Brentwood, Essex, where he designed his own house, and says he has created his 'own little Rylan-land' to remind him of his London roots. There's a bus stop and phone box, and he shares his garden with a visiting pheasant named Patrice and Suzie the squirrel.
As well as his own home fragrance range, Luxenoa, Rylan has now become the first-ever scent sommelier for homeware retailer Homesense.
What makes you happiest at home?
RC: It's when I walk through the front door and smell my home. I always remember what people's houses smelt like when I was a kid. My cousin's house always smelt like laundry, my friend's house smelt like Angel Delight. I'd know the smell of my house even if I was blindfolded or bundled in a boot.
The word I'd use [to describe it] is brothel, or like an expensive church. It's very incense-y. I've got my favourite certain types; amber, woody, and at the moment, an oud scent which is Arabic. Spicy or wood scents, these are my go-to scents for wintery nights in.
Lavender and patchouli are my favourite scents to create a relaxing vibe when you need to unwind or destress, but to get yourself energised, citrus and ginger combinations work wonders. I'm not the biggest fan of floral fragrances, but scent is all about individual choice.
People don’t often connect their personal fragrance – perfume or cologne – to their candle choices, but it's such a great tip. The scents you prefer to wear will likely be the ones you enjoy having in your home.
Tell us about your childhood home
RC: I lived in Stepney Green, east London, with my mum and my nan, Rose. It was a terraced three-bedroom house. When I was a kid, my house to me felt really big. My lounge seemed enormous, but that was because I was small. I used to run around my garden – we had a little garden but that seemed huge to me too.
The whole time I lived in London, until I was 14, I had a single bed and my little TV with a video player in it. I’m obsessed with technology and I bought a doorbell from the pound shop which I put up on the bedroom door.
The wallpaper in my room was that textured kind, with a shell-shaped pattern. You could push it in with your fingernail. Back then in east London, your neighbours were real neighbours – people's doors would be open all the time.
When we moved to Essex, I started doing my own room, and I discovered that it was very different to my mum's taste [Rylan's mum Linda, 71, is familiar to TV viewers through their joint appearance on Celebrity Gogglebox]. She's a real hoarder, she won't throw anything away.
When you get home, what is the first thing you like to do?
RC: When I get home, the first thing I do is light a candle. When I think of getting home, I think of evening. I've got all low-level lighting, and I like the lighting to be welcoming but subtle. I'm obsessed with candles. Honestly, just from sitting here, in my kitchen/living room, I can count 24 candles in this one room.
All I ever wanted was a candle-making set from Argos. But the first candle I can remember buying was when I was 10, from Steve's Best Sellers in Chrisp Street market [Poplar, east London]. It was near to Halloween and this candle was shaped like a triangle and it was ombre; it went from deep orange at the bottom to bright orange at the top.
A few years later, when I finally got my candle-making set from Argos, I had the clever idea of melting down my precious orange candle. But when it melted down all the orange disappeared and it just turned into a sludgy brown.
Which room do you spend most of your time in?
RC: My kitchen, it's the biggest room in the house, like a kitchen area and living area in one. I spent a lot of time in here – even though I've got a cinema room, it's where I sit at night, and watch TV.
Describe the view outside your bedroom window
RC: It's my patio area, my garden area, with outdoor buildings. What's in them? A swimming pool. I've got a lovely outdoor kitchen area with a sink, a barbecue, fridges, a pizza oven, lovely, built last year, but I confess, I haven’t actually used it yet. I need some friends to come round. There's also a crystal maze dome [a see-through shelter]. In my bedroom, one wall opens up almost full width, with a Juliette balcony, so I do get an amazing view.
What would we find in your bedside table?
RC: My bedside table? I’m a single man, you know! No, well, you would find retainers from when I had my veneers – I don't wear them every night, but I should – room spray, sleep spray, and bottles of water. My room spray is quite sweet, really calm, with scents of jasmine. I call it a lifestyle spray because I spray it everywhere, on everything. The sleep spray is extremely lavender heavy, with a little bit of mint.
What is the best decorating advice you have ever received?
RC: For me, it's underfloor heating. It was a piece of advice from someone when I was building the house. You don't have to have radiators, it saves so much space. The whole back of the house is glass, so that's a wall gone already. Underfloor heating – it's a wet system, run off hot water – was a lifesaver.
I do like the underfloor heating, don’t get me wrong, but it can be very expensive. What I've discovered now is rather than having underfloor heating, I'd like heated skirting boards. The heat is radiant and just comes from them, and I mean, who really thinks about skirting boards in a room anyway?
What is the best home bargain you've ever snapped up?
RC: It was from Homesense, a really large pump bubble bath, massive three litres. I can't remember how much it cost, but it was hardly anything and it lasted for ages.
What would top your list for the worst decor trend?
RC: This is the second house I've designed. In my first house, everything was white, everything grey, with just one colour in every room. When I built this house though, I put in polished concrete floors, everything was cool white, that was seen as ultra-modern. But then when I went through a bit of a life change, I thought f*** this, and went from cool white to warm white, silver to gold, greens...it's all a lot warmer now.
Me and my mum have different tastes. I think I very much like to colour match, she likes to contrast. Her kitchen is very royal blue and rose gold, then she’ll go shopping and get something gold, and it doesn't quite go. In her house I'm building her a dressing room. But like I said, she's a hoarder and I’m like a clean freak. If there's a cupboard, she will stuff it full.
What is your most treasured possession at home? Why is it so special?
RC: I've got a glass paperweight that's got a coloured swirl in, and it's really special to me because it's got my nan's ashes in it. I have it here, on the shelf, in the living room.
If you could have a snoop around anyone's house, whose would it be and why?
RC: The Beckhams. I just want to have a little look through Victoria's beauty drawer and a little look in David's wardrobe.
Are you green-fingered?
RC: I would actually say I am a bit. You give me a leaf blower and I'm anyone's. Weirdly enough, although I've got a garden back and front, I spend most of my time out the front. My office is there and so is my gym. I've got a lot of good plants, my favourite is a jasmine creeping up when you walk past. I've got some houseplants too, but I'm not very good with them. I've managed to keep a little cactus alive, but I've got a lot of faux foliage.
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