Pandan Dreams Makes Confectionery-Like Candles That Double As Art
Pandan Dreams' hand-piped sculptural candles will make you question, "Is it cake?".
Visual artist Sheryll Goh’s hand‑piped, rose‑inspired candles – or what she calls “flammable sculptures” – straddle that grey zone between function and ephemeral art (yep, you can burn them) and, with their pretty colours and icing‑like textures, tend to make one gasp with both delight and surprise on first sight.
WHO’S BEHIND IT: Running the object‑focused studio Pandan Dreams is the fashion‑trained visual artist Sheryll Goh, who is known for creating surrealist tableaux populated with squiggly ornaments. Those who’ve been to seafood bistro Marcy’s would have seen the 32‑year‑old’s works decorating its interiors. Or if you’re into kooky dining experiences, you might have taken part in Awkward Party, co‑founded with fashion designer Rachael Cheong, and one of its experimental bashes: The last in 2023 saw the duo take over the Middle Eastern restaurant Artichoke with colour‑drenched, Play‑Doh‑like sculptures. Little wonder she calls herself a “maximalist homeware artist”.
THE MERCH: Pandan Dreams offers up candles that resemble the dreamiest buttercream confections – entirely hand‑crafted out of a custom blend of soy wax and beeswax (read: no moulds used at all). Goh hand‑pipes each detail layer by layer, meaning no two pieces are exactly alike.
THE CUTE FACTOR: At a quick glance, one might easily mistake Goh’s candles for icing – the glistening, candy‑coloured type found on old‑school cakes. It’s intentional – the notion of kitsch has long informed her work. “I’ve always been obsessed with kitsch, especially the sort of ‘cheap’ objects you’d find donated to The Salvation Army. They hold so much humour, but also tenderness and a kind of naivety that I find beautiful,” she tells us. The spark for this series of wax‑based objects, which was launched about two months ago, started when she fell down a rabbit hole researching vintage feminine accoutrements – the likes of greeting cards, makeup compacts, wooden hairbrushes and plastic serving trays – from the 1950s to the ’80s. She found that a common motif they shared was that of a rose. Combine this with her love of the ornate decor of Victorian‑era cakes and the result are these “flammable sculptures”, as she calls them, that are as edgy as they are sweet.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Goh has just launched her own online store (pandandreams.studio) and each candle starts from $160. For those who want things even more over‑the‑top, she’s working on a bejewelled version – search Pandan Dreams on TikTok or Instagram to stay updated.
This article first appeared in the June 2025 Cuteness Overload Edition of FEMALE