Kitchen candles

Another mailbag question: Can you recommend a good candle for kitchen smells?

Yes I can, thank you for asking! The idea of a kitchen candle is kind of weird – burning a candle while you’re cooking or baking is either extremely chaotic or gilding the lily. I’m not a big fan of gourmand scents in the first place; I can’t do an overly sweet or sugary scent, and making my house smell like banana bread when there is no banana bread is not welcoming, it’s just cruel. I do get the vibe of wanting a food-scent candle to burn when the kitchen is closed; I keep my cilantro candle and my olive leaf and lemon candle in our kitchen, and in the summer often use a tomato-scented room spray. I like a fruit or veggie or even cocktail-y candle, but it’s got to be light and chill. But for me, the number one goal of a kitchen candle is to cover cooking smells. I’m a sensitive flower and I don’t want my house to ever smell like eggs, even if I’m eating eggs. Of course, a candle isn’t going to get rid of a smell, but a good one can mask and distract without being too Glade-in-the-work-bathroom.

If you’re looking to neutralize an unwanted scent rather than augment a nice one, here’s what I’ve found works and what doesn’t:

Price’s Fresh Air Candles: The gold standard. I stock up on these every time we go back to England, but you can also overpay and get them from Amazon, which I do religiously. I’m never without one of these because they are the only thing I’ve ever found that actually distracts from bad food smells, and does so very quickly. From their website: “The Fresh Air range contains our Odourfoyl technology, which efficiently eliminates bad odours by neutralising them rather than masking them.” Odourfoyl sounds like some 1950s advertising BS but whatever it is, it works! You will suddenly think, “Wow, what smells so fresh? Oh wait, I don’t smell onions anymore! Let’s go for a drive in our Chevrolet and have 2.5 children!” My favorites are the Chef’s candle (green label) but the Household (yellow label), Open Window (white label), and even Anti-Tobacco (blue label) all work too. On Amazon you can usually find the 6 oz. in a glass jar, as well as the smaller tins or even tea lights. I prefer the larger size just for the throw, especially in a kitchen. Heads up: you are overpaying for these on Amazon; like these are >£10 in the UK and ~$20 on US Amazon, but don’t OVER-overpay – I would never pay more than $24 for this. But I totally do pay $24 for it, because it’s the only candle I’ve found that will quickly cover a cooking smell. (My hope by sharing this is that everyone buys these now so they’re easier to find, not the opposite. I will be my own worst enemy if it’s the opposite. I stocked up before hitting publish just in case.)

And now for the meh:

Brightland Digestif: I was excited when I got an ad for this, but ultimately let down. This was a nice idea – a candle made by an olive oil company – with no execution. It smells mildly sunshiney? Really takes a while to get the throw going – the cooking smells have dissipated on their own by the time you start to smell this lit candle. It also cost $42, which would be steep even if it worked when Price’s is over there at half the price even with international shipping inflation. When I ordered this there was a delay in shipping and then Brightland accidentally sent me another one a month later, and that second one is still in its box in my closet and will stay there until I need an oh-shit gift, hopefully for someone who never reads this. (Hi, sorry!) Another mark against Brightland: I went to their website just now to double-check the price on this, and despite not having visited since April 2021, they immediately sent one of those desperate “hey did you forget this item” emails even though I didn’t even put it in my cart. Bad Brightland! I had bigger hopes for you.