Subscription, can Magento run an Otherland-style monthly candle club?

Yes. Otherland’s candle-of-the-month + scent-club is the canonical reference, and it’s replicable on Magento via three subscription vendors:

• ReCharge, the most mature, headless-friendly, native Magento connector. ~$99, $499/mo + 1% transaction fee. Subscription state lives on ReCharge; customer portal can be embedded in Hyvä via their JS widget. Best fit for $1M, $25M GMV.
• Bold Subscriptions, cheaper ($49, $249/mo flat), simpler UX, fewer headless features. Best for under-$2M.
• Skio, Shopify-native originally but available via Magento + headless setups. Best UX of the three; newest. Pricing on request.

Subscription-specific patterns I wire in:

• Tier discounts, 10% / 15% / 20% off on 3 / 6 / 12-month commits.
• Skip-a-month, customer can skip a shipment from the portal; reduces churn by ~30%.
• Swap-the-scent, each month the customer picks the next scent from a curated list; cuts churn another 15%.
• Surprise-me mode, opt-in; brand picks the scent; lower friction.

LTV uplift over one-time buyers runs 2.8-3.5x in the data I’ve seen. For candle and reed-diffuser refill brands specifically, subscription should be 25%+ of revenue by year 2 or you’re leaving money on the table.