Just wondering if anyone on the board suffers from the same kind of uncontrolled spending of scented candles, fragrance oil and the various accessories that go with them. It’s a good time of year for it . . . and it’s cooling down enough to enjoy spice, pumpkin, leaves, cinnamon and cloves. It’s just as bad as WHOA, maybe worse. I end up buying more than I need. There’s a sick pleasure in coming out of Yankee Candle or Bath and Body Works with a bag full of loot . . . I can’t stand to wear perfume but I love putting the oil warmer on in the evening.
No, I tend not to accessorize, whether it be myself, the house, the air…I think I’m just boring that way.
Although I will confess to acquiring, within the past 3 years, a couple of small candles from Whole Foods–most notably Mexican Cinnamon Cocoa. I usually don’t think to burn them though.
Nope. Just one more thing to acquire. Not going to do it. In the event that something in the house smells bad and people are coming over, we just put a few drops of already owned patchouli on a lightbulb or boil some clove, cinammon, & orange peel on the stove quickly.
(Don’t bother bad mouthing patchouli. Your comments are falling on deaf ears. I’m a hippie. It’s a requirement.)
I’m the guy who can’t stay in a boutiqu-y store with too much potpourri - I get smoked out.
Once upon a time at xmas in America, we had bayberry candles. I liked those, then everybody went nuts. I do like Yankee Candles to a point, particularly their apple ones, But the imitators sure don’t match up.
Cinnamon is great, but I feel a bit put out if I don’t get something to drink along with it (like cider and such)…
When I was coming up we had a candle factory in town and they hired local women to decorate their candles at home for a couple of pennies a piece. They supplied all the materials. I still have about ten pounds of glitter my mother-in-law had from when she worked for them. I’ve been afraid to toss it for fear it’s toxic, ya wouldn’t believe the amount of lead paint they would use on those things. I imagine they have probably stopped that, right? I think the factory was Carolina, sorta funny being in Wisconsin.
Fortunately, I have a bit of asthma, so I’m not inclined toward the candle and scenty oil thing. However, a goodly number of BBW’s lotions and such generally – and blessedly – do not trigger wheezing, which makes them excellent products for Christmas gifting at work. If I swamp the office with antibac hand cream, which is such good quality that no one will use anything else, I can spend the rest of the year breathing freely. It’s a fine product–smells nice, but isn’t overpowering. Moisturizes, but dries quickly so you don’t stick to your keyboard.
You know how much that stuff costs, so I wait for those fall sales and coupons. And, as you probably already know, the more you buy the better the coupons get. You can’t just buy the gifts . . . the sales and coupons kind of run over and you end up with bags and bags of stuff.
Last fall, I discovered that their Bigelow lip glosses are pretty good, as well as tasty, so I decided to give that instead of the antibac lotion. That was a mistake. “Where’s the hand lotion? We’re all out.” So, I had to go back. More bags. This year, they have that nifty foamy antibac hand cleaner. Got a couple of bags of that. And some hand lotion.
Vanilla Bean Noel is excellent. Everyone likes the antibac version of that, but I couldn’t find any last year. Had to make amends for that. More bags.
There are a couple of new holiday scents coming out which I’m dying to try. I’m hoping there will be some gingerbread again this year. Yum!
Sadly, most fragrances that are supposed to freshen things up or create ambiance give me a roaring migraine. I also associate scents with what they try to hide. Artificial fresh baby reminds me of dirty diapers. Scented products can cover up the sexy odor of a woman with good hygiene. Dryer sheets are pure evil.
Apparently regular candle use give you the same kind of lung problems as you get from regular cigarette use.
My main candle use is to defuse/diffuse the cigarette smoke when I play backgammon with my regular gaming partner - a chain-smoker.
A few weeks back we poured our own candles from a bagful of crappy wax she had saved since the flood. The candles that came out are slightly glittery and faintly but pleasantly scented.
As a pagan I should (maybe) be regularly burning candles on my home altar. I do from time to time, but mainly on special occasions, like Samhain.
Mute, I’m with you on Patchouli. I like it. As you say, it’s compulsory for us.
When I was young, I used to love fragrances from scented candles and perfumes. However, little by little I have become sensitized to many common scents. My idea of a good scent is no scent at all. I don’t go into stores that have scented candles. I wait outside while my wife goes in to shop. I think that the growing incidence of asthma in the USA is due in part to the increasing use of chemicals in the environment. One whiff of Fabreeze, Lysol, or Downey and I start coughing and head for uncontaminated air to breathe.
If I’m in the mall (my own version of HELL), and I sense a Yankee Candle store approaching, I have to go as far around it as possible. As I get older (and my other senses fade, I fear), my olfactory sense has heightened, and I absolutely LOATHE stinky candles. It’s so sensitive that the few stinky candles we have in the house which DO NOT have those little glass covers, I have to put things on top of them, or turn them upside-down when I’m close.
They have one really good use at least, though: if you own a cabin that you close up and leave vacant for the winter, just lay lots of dryer sheets all over the place before you lock up. The mice will absolutely stay out, and while you’ll get that dryer-sheet smell when you open it up, it goes away quickly with a good airing and is better on the nose than mothballs. And cleaning up and discarding dryer sheets is better by far than cleaning up dried urine and mouse turds peppering every horizontal surface in the place, no question.
My next door neighbor uses fabric softener, and her dryer exhausts quite close to the “fresh air” vent for our furnace/air-conditioner. Currently I have duct tape over the vent and a make shift vent from another side of the house to keep from drawing in the fumes that I simply cannot tolerate without becomng sick. I’m sure that this must be a problem everywhere.
Do you know how hard it is to find unscented candles any more? It’s really frustrating.
At a local store I repeatedly put in a request for one - just one - selection of unscented candles out of their gazillion of scented ones (and most of those are almost toxic-smelling to me). During one of those requests the cashier gaped at me and asked what the point of burning unscented candles was. It has come to that.
I like pure beeswax candles with non-metallic wicks. I don’t like the perfumed candles at all. I will occasionally use a few drops of essential oils in water over a candle, but only when I have a cold. (The oil will be something like eucalyptus that helps clear my sinuses a bit.) No incense or dryer sheets for me, thank you very much. No cologne, either. And my wife doesn’t wear perfume.
Oh, and patchouli is foul, evil, nasty, vile and disgusting. IMO.
