Apocalyptic odours - Telegraph The end of the world according to perfume house Byredo smells of hot metal, warm wood and with a smattering of rare black raspberry. And it's beautiful. Byredo , the super-cool perfume house founded by Ben Gorham (the equally cool Canadian Indian and now ex-basketball player turned perfumer) have just launched their timely Apocalyptic candle. SEE: What to wear for the end of the world Fascinated by mythical symbolism attached to the Mayan apocalypse, Gorham challenged himself to create a new home fragrance. "Artistically I wanted the challenge of creating a scent that nobody has ever experienced," says Gorham. Ben Gorham, founder of Byredo Lucky we're still around to smell it, because the unique warm, woody fragrance based on ancient papyrus and smouldering birch with hot metal notes (trust us, it's more enchanting than it sounds) and rare, black raspberry from Oregon is actually very special. There's a real luxury to the scent this candle burns. Plus you can smell the quality; buying candles from a fragrance house means they use real perfume to scent the wax rather than synthetic fragrance so you'll smell it in every room, for longer. If you're not convinced by the candle, our advice is to take a look at his other fragrances. Green, Gorham's first fragrance, is bursting with fresh notes and is absolutely exquisite, while Gypsy Water, "a glamorisation of Romany lifestyle," is heavenly. We're just hoping we have enough hours to burn the whole thing.