When things don’t work

Last week was Storm Noa here. Wednesday was a complete madness of high winds and heavy rain (Tuesday and Thursday were ‘just’ wind and rain). I wish a picture could be gotten of the eucalyptus dipping and swaying and looking like it could end up in my garden. But, doesn’t work. Really hoping this is the last storm of the season. I’ve seriously had enough.

Continuing from my post about candles that I finished, I managed to do another recently that wasn’t a blind buy but just didn’t smell that good to me in the end.

I went on the candle binge when I had quite a bit of disposable income and inflation wasn’t 10%. The times now require somewhat more discernment.

Buying a candle isn’t like buying perfume in that you test it on skin and go, ‘oh, that’s wonderful – I will have it’. Instead, you smell the candle itself and go, ‘oh, that’s wonderful – I will have it’. Meaning you have no excuse for not loving it because it’s very likely to smell like what you smelled. No chemistry excuses. No ‘I bought it blind for the notes which are favourites’. One’s own fault.

I found that with a candle I bought on a visit to Amsterdam six years ago. I’d researched the shop, visited, smelled what it offered and bought something called Objets d’Amsterdam (why the name was not in Dutch is something I didn’t ask about at the time; first pic is a china canal house my son gave to me; second, clearly, is a finished candle).

The notes for this are green tea, citrus and sage. I know I must have liked it at the time because I bought it, but it doesn’t smell like Amsterdam to me in the same way my Literie Hot Roasted Nut Cart candle really does smell like an aspect of New York City.

I guess if asked what Amsterdam smells like to me I’d say the swathes of hyacinth planted in the triangle near the round pancake house, the dampness of the canals, the hot metal of the tram tracks, hot chips and mayo from kiosks. I have no idea how you’d translate that to a decent candle.

In any case, I’m not sad to see this candle go and I plan for whatever I buy next (whenever I buy it) to be much more beloved.

So, really, what I’m getting at here is it remains a mystery to me why I bought something that didn’t smell really good. There’s no rhyme or reason.

I’m doing well at working my way through candles I don’t love with the plan of then savouring the ones I have that I adore and plugging holes with things I will really enjoy. No more blind buying of candles but of course there will still be a list of interests – I’m just not allowed to buy any of them unsniffed.

I’m currently working my way through the Druid leather and cardamon candle. I like this – it’s not love – so I’ll be pleased with myself once its container ends up in recycling.

What will that leave that I feel sort of indifferent about? Just the Geodesis Black Tea candle. Why is it so hard to find a true to smell, really strong black tea candle? Suggestions please.

Pics are Pexels and mine