Hello candle lovers and scent aficionados! Welcome to our Blog Series!
For those who are not familiar, I am Travis R. Ferguson, founder, general manager, and chief crafter at Goombay Labs.
The Goomaby Labs Blog is a weekly blog post series highlighting our amazing candles and skincare products. Every week, we will be dropping a blog post, on goombaylabs.com, giving you guys some candle tips, tricks, general how-to's and generally useful bits of information about your favorite Bahamian candle and skincare brand.
To start off the series, I decided to start with some important scenting theory: Room Scenting Basics. So listen up candle lovers, class is in session.
First of all, some housekeeping points of note. If you haven't already followed us on YouTube, please go and show our channel some support by subscribing. In fact, while you are at it, show Goombay Labs some support by liking and following us on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIN and Instagram. With your help, we can grow!
Now that's in order, let's proceed. Room Scenting Basics, is it as simple as picking a favorite scent and putting it wherever you want? Heck no!
Scenting your home should be a deliberate activity to get the best results out of the practice. The fact that you are reading this means you already know and appreciate the benefits of aromatherapy so I will not spend time trying to convince you why you need to be a candle burner, or a scent enthusiast.
As long as you follow our simple cardinal rules, you will be on your way to a blissfully fragrant, stress relieving home 24/7. For the purpose of this post, we are going to refer to the four typical rooms you can find in any home; bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living room or family room (any room where the majority of people lounge together).
The smelliest room in everyone's household: the bathroom!
How do we deal with it? Firstly, by not buying any foody, fruity, or spicey fragrances to put in the bathroom. Secondly, by not purchasing the dreaded can air fresheners with the obviously synthetic fragrances with the all to identifying chemical smell that accompanies them.
Referring to the aforementioned, stay away from the foody, the fruity, and the spicey. That means no apple cinnamon, not fruity pebbles, and definetly no gingersnap or shortcake fragrances. Not only are these scents too overpowering for such a small space as a bathroom, they do not mix well with typical bathroom odors.
What you should use in your bathroom, are floral fragrances. Floral fragances are excellent middle tone and mild scents that blend in and mask unpleasant odors wonderfully with haste. If you don't believe us, where do you typically find potpourri? See, we know what we are talking about. Another amazing thing about floral fragrances is that because they are mild, they will not overpower such a small space as a bathroom. From the Goombay Lab's Candle line, we suggest any of the following amazing fragrances: Plumeria Fields or Blackberries and Sage. Lavender Chamomile also works wonders as well. If you are doubting, try it out and leave comment on your experience at the end of the post. There's a power in the flower!
Next on the agenda: the kitchen!
Your kitchen is probably the greatest source of odors in your home. In fact, it's probably one of the only rooms in your house where you can smell what's in it from anywhere inside your home. That being said, if you've been frying a mean old fish or currying up some chicken, or even chopping up some garlic, there is a not so secret fragrance commonly used to cut through all of those delicious odors in your kitchen: lemon or citrus based scents.
That's right, you definitely want to use any sort of lemon based or citrus based fragrance in your kitchen to cut through those delicious but pesky odors. But why lemon and citrus? Because they are excellent at what they do. Citrus fruits physically can cut through grease like a hot knife through some chilled guava duff sauce. The fragrances do the same.
In fact, if you light your citrus based candle while you are cooking, you can effectively create a neutralizing barrier that prevents odors from escaping. Also, fun fact here, did you know that our minds are programmed to automatically associate lemon and citrus based fragrances with cleanliness? Think about it, all of your favorite household cleaners either have a lemon, citrus, or pine based aroma. Hence, whenever you smell them in any setting, you always think how fresh and clean the place is and you are more at ease.
From the Goombay Lab's Candle line, we would recommend our Citrus and Herbs Candle to burn while you are throwing it down in the kitchen.
That brings us to the living room! Now, in your living room, family room, or the room that is the designated common area in your home, you should be using fragrances that are common and popular. You should also be using middle tone fragrances, those that are strong enough to notice but not strong enough to give you headaches.
Typically you want to use those popular fragrances that are fine with most people, for example, anything based in vanilla, pine, florals, and even those fragrances that are popular in that season. Now here's the deal with common areas, you can have hits and misses because everyone will be affected by a fragrance differently. Additionally, depending on the size of the room, the fragrance can take on a different note, in terms of strength that is: typically the smaller the room the stronger the fragrance, the larger the room, the more mild the fragrance as it disperses through the air.
So if you are going to choose a fragrance that is not so popular, take into heavy consideration the size of the room you are going to burn it in. But again, use fragrances that are popular or in season. From the Goombay Lab's Candle line, we recommend our Eclectic Cocktail or Mystic Mangroves candle.
So we conclude with the final room: your bedroom! Now this is the room where the magic does or does not happen. So therefore, you can burn whatever you want as it is your personal space, and what you bring into your space is totally your discretion and is determined by what pleases you.
However, there are a few tidbits you can try depending on the mood your are trying to create for special occasions, but we will discuss that in another blog post.
And there you have it. So to recap, for your bathroom, use floral scents. Stay away from fruity, foody, and spicey scents- those scents containing cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla etc. For your kitchen, stick to lemon or citrus based scents. Thirdly, in common areas use mild or popular and in season scents. And for your bedroom, it is totally your discretion.
As a side note, try to stay away from those can air freshners, not only do they not work - they're really not good for your health in the long term. Many of them emit over 50 different chemicals and are known to cause allergies and other problems for people with sensitive lungs. Aside from that, the cheaper brands contain numerous cancer-causing chemicals. If you don't believe us, on your next stroll through the supermarket, pick up a can and see if they list all what's inside of it on the back label. Ingredients should be transparent, if not, does it mean they have something to hide?
Thank you guys so much for tuning into this blog post. If you have any other tips or tricks about maksing unpleasant odors, or have a few suggestions you want us to test, comment below!
And if you haven't already, pop over to the Shop, slide to the candle tab, and light your happiness with one of our amazing candles because if you ain't happy, what are you really doing?!
Until next time, cheers to a better natural skincare and candle experience!
Travis Ferguson
General Manager
