Expensive Candles Are Hot, High-End Holiday Gift

And as with the label on the bottle, packaging of luxury candles can make up as much as 50% of the cost of production, Naji Absi, president of Unique Candles, a Northridge, Calif., manufacturer, tells the paper. "The candle is actually the cheapest part," he says. "The minute you walk into the store, what attracts you is the packaging."

And just as Greg Norman and Francis Ford Coppola have with wine, more celebrities are getting in with wax.

The Journal specifically points to a candle from fashion designer Jason Wu, launched last spring, that comes wrapped in tissue and nestled in foam inside a miniature, golden-lidded shoe box. It retails for $48. And Sir Elton John has his "Holiday" and "Woodside Garden" offerings.

"Everybody wants to do a candle, and they wind up in a price range from $50 to $80," Carro of Candle Delirium told the paper. "That's a tough price point to be in if you're someone that nobody knows."

But a note of caution. Hangovers are tough, but so is inadvertently burning down a house. More than 15,000 candle fires are reported each year, the paper notes, meaning the investment could, literally, go up in smoke.