Me and my brothers, we live on a 4 storey apartment building in Manila where we occupy the 4th floor. We’ve been constant tenants of the building ever since it opened, neighbors came and went and still we stayed put. Our newest neighbor (NH) occupied the unit below us on the 3rd floor, I think they’re a family because we hear quite a lot of movement from their unit. Why I think they’re a family? It’s because I hear the full range of household chores that I wouldn’t hear coming from our unit, I hear laundry being done and a LOT of cooking. Lately we’ve come to know of their penchant for fish, specially fried fish. We know this exactly from the smell of our apartment whenever we come home at the end of the day.
Let me just make it clear, I have no qualms about people eating fish, I’m not an elitist, I grew up in the province, I came from a coastal town in Bulacan. My beef is with the smell, of course it’s gonna smell if you’re cooking but after a long and stressful day at work, fighting your way to commute it just gets me on a foul mood when I come home to an apartment that smells like fish. I’m an olfactory person, I like smelling good and I don’t like smelling bad things. It would be understandable if you’re outside walking on the streets, this is Manila for crying out loud it’s a messy city but at the end of the day I want to come home to a nice smelling apartment. I would like the place where I sleep, where I lay my head to rest to smell at least neutral not good neither bad. The only bad smell I can tolerate is the smell of old books, I actually spent a lot of time snoozing on the libraries of UP when I was still an undergrad student.
One day I got fed up and so I started a war on odor, that night I sprayed Lysol all over the apartment but I needed a firmer solution.
Solution 1: Alice Blue Candles
Scented candles always did the trick for me, and when shopping for scented candles I only buy from one source, I only buy Alice Blue Candles. I discovered Alice Blue Candles about 5 years ago at the pay lounge in Trinoma, the space smelled really nice and I saw that the smell came from a lighted Alice Blue candle. Curiosity got the better of me so I lifted the candle to see just what scent the candle was, it read “Berry Crumble” and indeed it was very berry-ish. I found a stall in Glorietta and bought the same scent which lasted me forever. Their candles are hand poured soy based candle, not only was it green it also lasted longer than regular candles. Berry crumble is their best seller but this time I wanted to buy a pillar candle, one without the glass because I found it bothersome lighting the glass candle when it’s half way through lalo na I’m just using a match stick to light it. This time I bought White Tea and Ginger scent, reminds me of one of my mom’s perfumes. Their website describes the scent as “a blend of bergamot, mandarin, white tea and ginger, with accents of jasmine and lavender”. It’s lighter than Berry Crumble but strong enough to get the job done, I definitely get the jasmine and lavender notes. I don’t know what it is about lighting candles but my mood always gets elevated.
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| My New AB Candle with the used old one |
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| White Tea Ginger pillar candle (pic from AB's website) |
The good thing about buying the one with the glass is that maisisimot yung laman not like the pillar ones when the wicker is all used up you end up with the unburned/unused wax. The one with the glass all the wax gets melted and burned up. I wish pwede i-return yung glass vial and get a discount on the succeeding purchase.
Alice Blue delivers! Check their website http://alicebluecandle.com , they don’t have an online payment facility yet but they’ll ask you to deposit the money to their bank account, tell you what their votive candles would make perfect Christmas gifts!
Solution 2: Daphne Home Scents for Bench
Daphne Osena Paez, that amazing TV personality not only designs furniture and jewelry she also collaborated with retail giant Bench for her reed diffuser home scents called Daphne Scents. It’s a trio of scents, Mint Jasmine Infusion, Acres of Lavender, and Home Made Lemon Tart. Mint Jasmine and Lavender smelled girly, the Home Made Lemon Tart smelled like what a perfect country home should smell like so that’s what I bought.
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| Home Made Lemon Tart (Yumm!) |
At first I tried being matipid, I wanted it to last long so I only used 4 reed sticks but found it to be faint, I could only smell whiffs of the fragrance when I pass by the place where I put it so I added another which solved the problem.
Retails at around Php 350 at Bench and Dimensione Stores.
Solution 3: Incense
"Oohh I know what I’ll try next, I’ll try incense. I want my apartment to smell like the IYCM studio, maybe then my self-practice would lengthen to a full hour and a half from my regular 40 minutes."
This was what I said before I tried the incense thing, I just came from Bali and they were selling a lot of incense and aromatherapy items. Balinese are big users of incense, the whole island practically smells of incense which I love.
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| Incense from Bali, Shorter ones are Ylang ylang scented, longer ones are Lavender scent |
On my last day I bought incense at a supermarket, they were really cheap and had a lot of varieties. I've always loved the smell of real Ylang-ylang flowers, our neighbor used to have a tree near our house and it always smelled wonderful so I chose the Ylang-ylang and Lavender scents. Lavender was said to have a calming effect and help one sleep better. The packed came with a small incense holder but I also bought a proper one with Ganesh on it.
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| Incense holder with Ganesh, if my mom knew who Ganesh is she would freak out! |
The shorter ones last for like less than 30 minutes, it doesn't last me through my regular 40 minute home practice but smells terrific whenever it's lighted. Feel na feel ko ang practice with matching bow before Ganesh before starting practice. I haven't tried this one though against fried fish stench, magkakaalaman next week!
My idea of heaven is a beachfront library where they play good-soothing music and aside from the smell of the sea outside, inside it smells fantastic. I don't know how that heavenly smell smells like but it definitely is not of fried fish.
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