Hakanai: The Takamichi × Stylus Candle
Hakanai is a beeswax candle we made with Stylus, the acoustic salon opening at 48 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side in early 2027. It is written 儚い, and the word means ephemeral, fleeting, transient, which seemed the only honest name for an object whose entire purpose is to be used up.
It is 8 ounces, it is $92, and it launches at the shop on Thursday, October 29, from five to eight in the evening.
Why is it called hakanai?
Stylus describes itself as a sanctuary dedicated to the ephemeral arts, and the listening room at the heart of its ground floor is called, simply, Ephemeral. Music played in a room is gone the moment it is played, and so, in its slower way, is a candle. We took the word at face value and gave it to the one thing we could make that disappears as you enjoy it.
What does the Stylus candle smell like?
Takamichi asked for two things that do not obviously belong together: smoke, and something fizzy, the way a champagne bubble arrives and is gone before you have quite registered it.
Cade answered both. Distilled from juniper wood, it is smoke that reads as celebration rather than warning, more fireworks and a long night with music still going in the next room than anything left burning on the stove. It is also an unforgiving material, capable of moving from glowing ember to cold ash in the space of an hour, which is why perfumers use it sparingly and rarely alone. We wrote about it at more length in our Sunday Reading on cade, long before we knew we would be building a candle around it.
The candle opens sharp and quick with spice and clove. At its heart, cade sits with birch, sesame and smoke, the sesame giving it something almost edible underneath. Texas cedarwood and patchouli settle the whole thing at the base, so that the smoke stays in the room instead of drifting off somewhere more interesting.
Why beeswax?
This is our first candle in beeswax, and it behaves differently from anything we have poured before. It burns longer and cleaner, and it carries a faint sweetness of its own, which means a fragrance has to be composed around it rather than simply laid over the top. For a scent built on smoke, that sweetness turned out to be the thing holding it down.
How did Takamichi and Stylus come to work together?
Arani and Mita Bose, who founded Stylus, came to us as clients. That is the whole origin story, and we rather like that it is not more complicated: someone came into the shop, and then kept coming back.
Hakanai is the third scent Takamichi and I have made for a New York room. The first was for Nine Orchard, where we developed the hotel's scent and amenities, and the second was Daido, which Penny took for its powder room.
What is Stylus?
Stylus is an acoustic salon for cultural exploration, opening at 48 Clinton Street in early 2027. The building was first a market in 1942, then became Loho Studios in the 1980s, where Patti Smith, Joey Ramone and Willie Nelson recorded, and later served as the Blue Man Group's rehearsal studio. It has been redesigned by O'Neill Rose Architects, with a structurally integrated sound system by Devon Turnbull of OJAS and a spatial audio system by Amadeus Acoustics that lets the ground-floor listening room be tuned to the reverberation of an intimate jazz club, a concert hall or a cathedral. Anita Lo is the culinary director.
What does it look like?
The glass is red, deepening to near-black at the base. It comes boxed in white with the single word 儚い on the front, and it is made in the U.S.A.
When and where is the launch?
Thursday, October 29, from five to eight in the evening, at Takamichi Beauty Room, 125 East 17th Street, near Gramercy Park. Come and smell it, and if you cannot make it, the candle will be online as well.
Questions we get asked
What is the Takamichi × Stylus candle?
Hakanai (儚い) is a beeswax candle made by Takamichi Beauty Room with Stylus, the acoustic salon opening at 48 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side in early 2027. It is 8 ounces and costs $92.
What does hakanai mean?
Hakanai is a Japanese word meaning ephemeral, fleeting or transient. The candle is named after the Ephemeral listening room at Stylus, which describes itself as a sanctuary dedicated to the ephemeral arts.
What does the hakanai candle smell like?
Smoke with a bright, fizzy edge. Spice and clove open it, a heart of cade, birch, sesame and smoke carries it, and Texas cedarwood and patchouli hold it at the base.
Is hakanai a beeswax candle?
Yes. It is Takamichi Beauty Room's first beeswax candle. Beeswax burns longer and cleaner than most waxes and has a faint natural sweetness, which the fragrance was composed around.
Where can I buy the Stylus candle?
At Takamichi Beauty Room, 125 East 17th Street in New York, and online at takamichibeautyroom.com. It launches on Thursday, October 29, 2026, with an evening at the shop from 5 to 8pm.
What is Stylus NYC?
Stylus is an acoustic salon founded by Arani and Mita Bose, opening at 48 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side in early 2027, in the building that once housed Loho Studios. It was designed by O'Neill Rose Architects, with sound by Devon Turnbull of OJAS and Amadeus Acoustics, and Anita Lo as culinary director.
Has Takamichi made scents for other places in New York?
Yes. Hakanai is the third, after the scent and amenities for the Nine Orchard hotel and the Daido candle, which Penny took for its powder room.