The Living, the Dead, and the Broke

So… for those of you hoping those Modern Alchemy candles I wrote about ordering last Friday weren’t worth it? Well, I’m not entirely sure they are worth $50 apiece, but they are varied and interesting and just what they say they should be. Candle nuts really should put at least one of these to their “to burn” list.

Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), with notes of marigolds and frankincense, notes for the living and the dead. Oh, dear, it really is beautiful, and it is just that, a contrast between a sunny, fresh, bright note of marigold and the more ominous frankincense. I wish someone would make a fragrance that smells like this candle, it is perfection.

Also arriving in my great big box is Tincture of Winchester, with notes of wood stock, 19th century lacquer and smoky gunpowder. Holy smoking Uzi, batman, I feel like I’m out in the country shooting at clay pigeons again! I had no idea that the smell of gunpowder could be this great in a candle, it is genius! Every time I go through the kitchen, I look up and then duck and cover!

The weirdest of the three I got so far (the other three are on their way). is Boston Tea Party, with notes of tea and cedar tangled in brackish seaweed absolute. Believe it! It really does smell just like that, and it’s weird in a funky fun way. The conventional tea and cedarish smell wafts up, completely wound up in a briny sorta thing — like a tea party in an old library with some old ghostie mariner wandering about the place with seaweed draping off of him. It seems out of place, but it’s just not!. This should not smell good, but it is perfect.

So for the coolest cominbation of smells that are completely interesting, I have to say I think they are worth it. But is any candle worth $50? That’s a lot harder to say, but maybe? Well, yeah, for me it is, but I wouldn’t say that’s true for most people. But if you’ll spend for The Burn candles, these should be gotten too.

Dolce & Gabbana The One — March was telling me a few of you were going on and on about this one, and I hadn’t heard of it before, so of course I ordered it pronto. Notes of mandarin, bergamot, litchi, peach, jasmine, plum, vetiver, amber, musk, available at Imagination Perfumery, for between $37.99 and 79.99. This goes on uber-fruity-ish, though not enough to start any cavities. Just about the time I am ready to chalk this up to another fruity floral, the base notes assert themselves and drag it back from the edge of celebsweet perfume stupidity into something that doesn’t really suck at all.. This one seems to have some of the same addictive qualities I find in Theorema, but love for Theorema makes perfect sense with the notes of cinnamon, pink pepper, amber, macassar, mysore, gaiac wood, etc. The One is not computing, but I still very much like it, and its drydown is more than the sum of its parts.