Candles to cover up bad smells in your home?
Ever heard that you should light a match after "dropping the kids at the pool"? That's just because the strong smell of sulphur will overpower and deaden your olfactory senses for long enough to get out of there!
We've all been there - languishing in odours we have gotten used to but which may hit visitors to our home smack in the face the second they enter!
Pets? Damp? Dead mouse in the chimney? Manure from the neighbouring farm? Or just a dodgy week-old cocktail sausage your toddler has hidden in a crevice of your house slowly releasing pungent vapours?
There are very few true odour neutralisers out there, but plenty of options to help mask it. Odours are particles in the air and while there are great neutralising options out there, they can be costly and not always super effective.
The best solution is, of course, to eliminate the source of the odour; a near-impossible feat for most of us. Our pets are our home and our homes do get smells from their surroundings as well as what's inside.
Here we neatly come to the question: can candles (and wax melts) eliminate or cover up bad smells in your home. The answer: yes they can. And there are two ways in which they do so:
1. Fire burns oxygen. So the flame from your candle/tealight wick will burn the oxygen molecules in your air, to which the bad odours are attached and travel. You do of course want to limit and contain the number of flames in your home, so always make sure you burn candles safely.
2. Home fragrance. Scented candles will cover up bad smells but not make them go away. Or perhaps cover them up for as long as it takes for them to go away! Some scented candles will give off great scent even when not lit as well.
This is where it gets good. There is an absolute plethora of home fragrance options out there, from reed diffusers, to scented candles, wax melts, plugins, room sprays and that 90's favourite - potpourri!
Ralph's Orchard have a huge line of scented candles and room sprays to please any tastes and sensibilities. The candles have a strong scent throw (hot and cold - fancy chandler speak for lit and unlit) and come in a variety of scents from floral and fruity to woody and musky and often combinations of all.
The sea scent (Amber & Rock Salt) has the comforting smell of fresh linen and is a great deodoriser against tobacco and pet smells. To trick our noses where deodorisers are concerned, clean linen and salty sea smells always come out tops in terms of masking nasty smells.
Amber and Rock Salt is a marine candle with the perfect cool water fragrance to remind you of the seaside.
Vintage Bookshop is a deeper fragrance with sandalwood, leather, warm ginger and a touch of citrus to bring to mind leather-bound books and creaky wooden bookshelves.
You could also get yours custom made in a repurposed vessel with multiple wicks for extra fragrance and flame. All Ralph's Orchard candles are eco-friendly, vegan and made with cruelly-free ingredients. A tree is planted with every purchase.
Enjoyed this article? Read more Notes from a Chandler or shop Ralph's Orchard collections.