Good Smells Only

Bad smells are a problem. But bad smells are not the problem.

No, when you smell something truly rank, you take action. You locate the source, and you do what you need to do to remove it. You take out the trash. You do the dishes. You search the fridge for whatever it is that went bad in there and throw it out. You scoop the litter box. You give the dog a bath.

But even doing these things will not eradicate the bad smell entirely. It will linger, and when it does, you’ll want a nice candle.

You can use one of these for that.

Yes, they’re elegant. Yes, they provide a soothing glow. Yes, they have a fancy little gold symbol on them. Nonetheless, they are totally capable of doing some nasty jobs, like erasing the memory of whatever you smelled when you unguardedly tore open the lid to the Tupperware that had been hiding behind some seltzer and a gallon of milk.

But again, we must return to our initial claim: that the worst smells are not your worst problem. After all, the word is not aromasearch&destroy or aromasurgery. It’s aromatherapy, implying a long-term commitment to mental health.

Big, gross smells present a crisis, one that must be dealt with post haste. But the general stale smell that permeates your house most days? That will send you into a state more dangerous than crisis-management mode. It’ll leave you in a funk, a mild yet inescapable malaise. You’ll start to feel as stagnant as your environs smell, as trapped as the air is.

That’s the thing: you deal with this issue most frequently at the height of summer–when the house is shut up to keep in the AC–or in the winter–when the house is shut up to keep in the heat. No spring breeze blowing through, no inviting sound of fall leaves rustling outside an open window. Just you, in a house, with the windows closed. And there’s no rooting out the problem. Because the problem is that your house is a space with people and stuff in it.

In these conditions, you have but one option. Light a nice candle, like one of these, and enjoy a nice smell. And although aromatherapy is a bit of a grandiose term, we will say: something to cut through the stuck-inside-too-long air will impact your mood.

So get some candles. You’ll like them, we think.