environment - The Seventh Sphinx

I thought I would just mention this candle, as I think it smells fantastic, but it turns out to be really difficult to find, some rare collaboration between Nieman Marcus and Ambercrombie & Fitch. TJ Maxx yields mysterious gems, now and then. I only picked it up to investigate because I thought the packaging was cute/ridiculous.

I’m going to mention it anyway.

Usually I don’t buy scented candles. I think this is one of just two that I have, and the first one I was given. It now inhabits that category of not-very-desirable objects I haven’t quite thrown away yet. I have one of those little tea candle diffusers that I sometimes put essential oils in or, more likely, just drops of perfume. With candles the scent is often too cloying, even if it is abstractly nice, or too cheap/synthetic. This one, though, just smells so good. I bought it impulsively and stuck it in my closet. The official notes are teakwood, mahogany, cherry bark, sweet tobacco, amber, and plum. I pick out amber, cedarwood, and sweet tobacco, with the amber rather dark (which I could see as plum-influenced) and dominant but I would say balanced with the wood.

I suspect this is a testament to the virtues of paying up. That is, expensive candles, not unlike expensive fragrances, where the expense is reflected in the ingredients, really do smell better than their cheap cousins. This is particularly evident when I note how pungent the candle is just sitting around, unlit.

So I guess I like expensive candles now.

UPDATE July 2013: This candle, while high quality enough to smell very good, is not high quality enough to burn well (evenly, completely). Lesson learned. It turns out there is (as with so many things. As, really, with everything) a whole world of candle knowledge.

Hm. So…I have a bunch of vintage posable Care Bears.

I don’t really collect them in a purposeful way. Exactly. I don’t really collect anything. I just, sort of…have them. You know how you just have things? Some I’ve had since I was very small*, and some I got later because I like them, and figure if you ever want something that’s vintage, the sooner you get it, the better (ah, eBay, eBay, eBay. So many curious acquisitions can be traced back to eBay). These are such hardy little toys, the kind of thing I would want on hand if I had a baby.

They are from 1983, like me.

I came across them in storage recently and took them out in a fit of nostalgia. I frequently rearrange my environment, and am always wondering how I can edit it, make it more fitting to the moment. So, for now, vintage Care Bears. They keep me company while I brush my teeth and whatnot. Funshine bear is encouraging me to floss.

[This is the kind of bizarre stuff you can do if you don’t have to share a bathroom.]

And here is the soap of the moment†, the Nancy Boy Signature Body Bar. A nice, classically soapy and unobtrusive scent, all natural, and the bar is a generous size. It’s sitting on my cobbled together soap dish thing, which I really like. My personal environment is an extension of myself, re: style, and it gets the same attentions, bit by bit.

†I like bars of soap, as opposed to some substance that can be dispensed. They are more tactile, more sensual, and there is more art and history behind them.

* As it happens, I really like the wooden Nancy Boy soap dish as well. If you are into soap dishes…

Tag: environment

smell this: Manly Indulgence humidor candle

details: by the soap dish