According to the Business of Fashion, candle sales are growing faster than the rest of the fragrance market, rising by one-third over the past two years. It seems a desire to cocoon ourselves from the outside world (olfactory, thermal or something more insidious) is higher on the agenda. Welcome to the cult of “smellness”: a small-scale form of self-care in a destabilised world.
— The Guardian takes a look at the world of scented candles. Read more at The cult of ‘smellness’: what’s behind the extraordinary rise in sales of scented candles?
The trend is called so-hwak-haeng, or "small but authentic happiness," home and tech analyst James Kang of Euromonitor International Korea told Business Insider. There's a more vulgar way to describe it: sibal biyong, or "f--- it spending."
— From Anxious South Korean youngsters have lost hope in their futures and don't want to get married — and that's unexpectedly fueling the country's $2.5 billion air-fragrance industry at Business Insider.
It smells like my dad cussing because the new tree is getting sap all over the carpet.
— Reflections on the Thymes Frasier Fir candle, from What’s with all the scented candles at Christmas? at Seattle Times.
I wonder f there is a correlation between the decline in the percentage of real Christmas trees sold and the increase in pine/fir/spruce scented candles, or between the decrease in home cooking and baking and an increase in food scented candles (cookes/gingerbread/etc) ?
Considering that the first perfume was incense, in a way it is a reversion to a very old way of using scent.
Yes! And I would not be surprised if incense sales were down — wish there was a way to find that out, but doubt any big organization tracks.
Trying to sort out on what planet scented candles have only just suddenly risen?
Ha! They’ve obviously been a thing for awhile, but sales are rising.