Bad smells.
December 23, 2021 2:20 PM Subscribe
Amazon Yankee Candle reviews are mirroring the COVID-19 surge — again: Northeastern University professor Nick Beauchamp [...], who specializes in natural-language processing and machine learning, used a scraping tool to pull reviews from the top three Yankee Candles that included the words "no smell" or "no scent." The pattern he found almost eerily resembles the current COVID-19 surge.
The graph doesn't show any bump from the initial (March 2020) surge. Does no one in NYC/NJ likes Yankee Candles? Did people forgot that covid causes anosmia? Or, worrying, did people forget there was a pandemic at all?
posted by meowzilla at 3:36 PM on December 23, 2021
posted by meowzilla at 3:36 PM on December 23, 2021
I am keeping a candle I got from work nearby me to keep smelling it to make sure I can still smell it.
I feel sorry for Yankee Candle with this stuff.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:25 PM on December 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
I feel sorry for Yankee Candle with this stuff.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:25 PM on December 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
Myself, I had Covid a year ago, my lost senses of smell and taste the first indicator. It's been a year, and my sense of smell is still not as strong as it used to be, in weird ways. I absolutely have a hard time smelling candles now (some scents are harder to sniff out!).
I feel bad for any candle manufacturer right now.
posted by annieb at 4:30 PM on December 23, 2021 [8 favorites]
I feel bad for any candle manufacturer right now.
posted by annieb at 4:30 PM on December 23, 2021 [8 favorites]
I only lost sense of smell for a few days and never lost my sense of taste. If I hadn't been responsible for changing a baby's diapers while in isolation, I might not ever have noticed!
posted by carolr at 4:44 PM on December 23, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by carolr at 4:44 PM on December 23, 2021 [7 favorites]
Canary-scented candle in a COVID mine.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:09 PM on December 23, 2021 [25 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 5:09 PM on December 23, 2021 [25 favorites]
can they do GOOP next?
posted by alpheus at 5:10 PM on December 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by alpheus at 5:10 PM on December 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Does no one in NYC/NJ likes Yankee Candles?
I admit I'm a data point of one, but....hell no, we can find better stuff.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:59 PM on December 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
I admit I'm a data point of one, but....hell no, we can find better stuff.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:59 PM on December 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
When Metafilter found out about the anosmia: one two
posted by hydropsyche at 6:18 PM on December 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 6:18 PM on December 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
So what exactly are these charts displaying? My best guess:
Blue dots: actual datapoints
Red line: smoothed data with ARIMA/ ETS
grey background: 95 percent confidence interval of the red line / forecast?
posted by pwnguin at 7:53 PM on December 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Blue dots: actual datapoints
Red line: smoothed data with ARIMA/ ETS
grey background: 95 percent confidence interval of the red line / forecast?
posted by pwnguin at 7:53 PM on December 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
"Btw, I wouldn't take this too seriously. Even looking at percentages, there seems to be a seasonal surge in "no smell" each winter. The recent Covid surges are larger, and the first wave is possibly visible as well, but this is also sensitive to how you smooth the data."
posted by pwnguin at 7:54 PM on December 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by pwnguin at 7:54 PM on December 23, 2021 [6 favorites]
I feel bad for any candle manufacturer right now.
Counterpoint: we’re going to need stronger candles.
posted by atoxyl at 7:55 PM on December 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
Counterpoint: we’re going to need stronger candles.
posted by atoxyl at 7:55 PM on December 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
People didn’t forget so much as they never thought at all.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 9:17 PM on December 23, 2021
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 9:17 PM on December 23, 2021
For real, though, at the moment it's smart to think "ah, covid" if you have loss of smell. I got it right in that first wave, March 2020, like a true fan. But one of the first symptoms was that I genuinely thought my cat was finally drinking enough water and her poop didn't stink for once. I was so pleased! But nah, it was covid. It very nearly murdered me in my fever dreams, but I lived to tell the horrible tale. It was six months before I could write about how terrifying it was without crying.
Even now, I'm pleased when I realize she's stunk up the apartment. If things don't taste or things don't smell, figure it out, yeah? I know omicron's got different symptoms; does this one hold?
posted by lauranesson at 9:22 PM on December 23, 2021 [29 favorites]
Even now, I'm pleased when I realize she's stunk up the apartment. If things don't taste or things don't smell, figure it out, yeah? I know omicron's got different symptoms; does this one hold?
posted by lauranesson at 9:22 PM on December 23, 2021 [29 favorites]
It’s been reported that it’s less common but, you know, who knows.
posted by atoxyl at 10:22 PM on December 23, 2021
posted by atoxyl at 10:22 PM on December 23, 2021
My understanding was that it was the seasonal shopping that led to more candles being gifted which led to more complaints, etc.
From what I gathered, this graph was made during the current epidemic. From what I saw, the ones from a couple years ago (pre-pandemic) have similar data points. Not to the same extreme that the recent ones have, but I believe that they're implying a correlation that seems tenuous at best.
That being said, please don't ever gift me a scented candle, much less a Yankee Candle. TIA.
posted by Sphinx at 11:30 PM on December 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
From what I gathered, this graph was made during the current epidemic. From what I saw, the ones from a couple years ago (pre-pandemic) have similar data points. Not to the same extreme that the recent ones have, but I believe that they're implying a correlation that seems tenuous at best.
That being said, please don't ever gift me a scented candle, much less a Yankee Candle. TIA.
posted by Sphinx at 11:30 PM on December 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Does this mean Gwyneth Paltrow is getting angry letters from customers who still don't know what her vagina smells like?
posted by Paul Slade at 12:09 AM on December 24, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 12:09 AM on December 24, 2021 [9 favorites]
I feel sorry for Yankee Candle with this stuff.
They'll be fine. Corona beer's doing great.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:12 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
They'll be fine. Corona beer's doing great.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:12 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
please don't ever gift me a scented candle
Same.
Even if I do wind up with COVID and won't be able to tell what scent it's supposed to have, whatever it does emit is more than likely to make my eyes swell shut and give me a vicious sinus headache.
posted by flabdablet at 12:12 AM on December 24, 2021
Same.
Even if I do wind up with COVID and won't be able to tell what scent it's supposed to have, whatever it does emit is more than likely to make my eyes swell shut and give me a vicious sinus headache.
posted by flabdablet at 12:12 AM on December 24, 2021
Counterpoint: we’re going to need stronger candles.
I live in an apartment building and my neighbors can trigger my migraines with the ones they already have when I walk out into the shared hallway which is not great timing because I am on my way out somewhere.
The pandemic has reinforced my belief that people just don't really care about other people.
Candles, incense, colognes and perfumes taught me this first though.
posted by srboisvert at 4:28 AM on December 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
I live in an apartment building and my neighbors can trigger my migraines with the ones they already have when I walk out into the shared hallway which is not great timing because I am on my way out somewhere.
The pandemic has reinforced my belief that people just don't really care about other people.
Candles, incense, colognes and perfumes taught me this first though.
posted by srboisvert at 4:28 AM on December 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
Candles, incense, colognes and perfumes
are nothing more than chemical manspreading.
posted by flabdablet at 4:36 AM on December 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
are nothing more than chemical manspreading.
posted by flabdablet at 4:36 AM on December 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
deodorants accounted for like 25% of ancient world economy.
posted by clavdivs at 8:39 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 8:39 AM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
please don't ever gift me a scented candle
Obligatory SNL Christmas Candle song.
posted by naoko at 8:45 AM on December 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Obligatory SNL Christmas Candle song.
posted by naoko at 8:45 AM on December 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
I just passed The Candle^ along! It was some rank unidentifiable crap that said lavender but that wasn't lavender and I got it from a coworker. I shoved it in a friend's Christmas stocking along with a bunch of other crap I culled from my stupid work tchotchkes, which have been getting on my nerves. (But I also layered in a ton of equally rank but everybody-knows-it's-expensive Lush crap, because this is a good friend so some of the stuff should say, "a spendy stink that's weird, new, and just for you." Also Santa chocolate. And of course socks.) Everybody's stocking this year smells to absolute high heaven, so if omicron causes anosmia, then I might not have it, yet.
posted by Don Pepino at 9:59 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Don Pepino at 9:59 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Nobody actually wants a scented candle (and I say this as someone who likes them). So why are they always being gifted? I got 2 at work this year.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:44 PM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:44 PM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
are nothing more than chemical manspreading
surely feminine coded (cologne guys excepted) and perhaps literally toxic
posted by atoxyl at 5:05 PM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
surely feminine coded (cologne guys excepted) and perhaps literally toxic
posted by atoxyl at 5:05 PM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
The scented candles and plug-in scent things that I notice are all really horrible, but I am sure that is some kind of observer bias, where I'm not noticing any that are inoffensive or actually pleasant.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:44 PM on December 24, 2021
posted by Dip Flash at 5:44 PM on December 24, 2021
No. They genuinely are all really horrible.
I am keenly aware of my scent environment at all times because of the allergy. Catching the smallest hint of something I know is going to do me in and removing myself from it within seconds can make the difference between five minutes of swollen eyes and sinus misery and half an hour of same, the latter not multiple hours only because antihistamine medications are a thing.
So I'm on a permanent hair trigger when it comes to scent emitting devices that other people might plausibly think of as "nice" and inflict on the rest of us on that basis, and can confirm that scented candles and plug-in scent things divide into those I must remove myself from immediately and those that are offensive but tolerable. I have never encountered one I would actually have chosen to fire up myself because all of them just make me sad.
And it's not as if I would prefer not to smell anything ever. I like the scents of flowering jasmine, flowering paulownia, lavender, mint, rosemary, basil, cypress, sandalwood, linseed oil, beeswax, raw coconut oil, Earl Grey tea, rain after a hot day and fresh-baked lasagne, to name but a few. But the point of a scent is to help us be aware of what's around us. Flooding the zone with so much of any single scent that it's all we can smell is straight-up hostile, and the presence of so much utterly overpowering scent in so many mass marketed products is one of the 21st Century's worst features.
posted by flabdablet at 6:13 PM on December 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
I am keenly aware of my scent environment at all times because of the allergy. Catching the smallest hint of something I know is going to do me in and removing myself from it within seconds can make the difference between five minutes of swollen eyes and sinus misery and half an hour of same, the latter not multiple hours only because antihistamine medications are a thing.
So I'm on a permanent hair trigger when it comes to scent emitting devices that other people might plausibly think of as "nice" and inflict on the rest of us on that basis, and can confirm that scented candles and plug-in scent things divide into those I must remove myself from immediately and those that are offensive but tolerable. I have never encountered one I would actually have chosen to fire up myself because all of them just make me sad.
And it's not as if I would prefer not to smell anything ever. I like the scents of flowering jasmine, flowering paulownia, lavender, mint, rosemary, basil, cypress, sandalwood, linseed oil, beeswax, raw coconut oil, Earl Grey tea, rain after a hot day and fresh-baked lasagne, to name but a few. But the point of a scent is to help us be aware of what's around us. Flooding the zone with so much of any single scent that it's all we can smell is straight-up hostile, and the presence of so much utterly overpowering scent in so many mass marketed products is one of the 21st Century's worst features.
posted by flabdablet at 6:13 PM on December 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
surely feminine coded
Code it however you want. The essence of manspreading is deliberately taking up way more space than is in any way fair or reasonable because fuck you that's why, which is exactly what aggressively scented people are choosing to do regardless of gender.
posted by flabdablet at 6:31 PM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Code it however you want. The essence of manspreading is deliberately taking up way more space than is in any way fair or reasonable because fuck you that's why, which is exactly what aggressively scented people are choosing to do regardless of gender.
posted by flabdablet at 6:31 PM on December 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Nobody actually wants a scented candle
No candles of any sort have been used in the virago household in the past 20 years. Not only because of the pungent aromachemicals (and I say this as a person who likes patchouli oil), but also because I've always shared small spaces with cats who would jump up on any surface where I'd be putting a candle. The possibility of ending my life and that of my beast (not to mention the lives of my neighbors) isn't worth whatever enjoyment I'd get out of even an unscented candle.
posted by virago at 5:26 AM on December 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
No candles of any sort have been used in the virago household in the past 20 years. Not only because of the pungent aromachemicals (and I say this as a person who likes patchouli oil), but also because I've always shared small spaces with cats who would jump up on any surface where I'd be putting a candle. The possibility of ending my life and that of my beast (not to mention the lives of my neighbors) isn't worth whatever enjoyment I'd get out of even an unscented candle.
posted by virago at 5:26 AM on December 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Okay, I actually do like scented candles and scents in general (I am sitting next to one of those fancy-ass oil diffuser thingies right now).
My thing about Yankee Candles (and often Bath and Body works candles) is the quality, and the propensity towards overly-sweet and overly-floral blends. I tend to like much more earthy, grassy, herby, woodsy scents, which rarely show up in the big-name-brand candle world.
Also, the big-name-brand candle versions of a lot of scents read as really fake to me - I do like rose and lavender scents, but real rose and lavender; the scented-candle version is often overly-sweet and overly-floral, and misses the herby notes of lavender and the depth of the rose. And they always pair the woodier scents with something like vanilla or gardenia or something which is REALLY not what I'm looking for.
There are companies that get it right - Homesick Candles bills itself as a company that makes candles that smell like certain places, and while I don't necessarily have a memory flashback to my childhood when I burn their Connecticut candle, I do like the way it smells; it's a nice blend of scents and there's no "fake" or "chemical" element. There's also an indie candlemaker that I've tried that caters to the booklover/fantasy fan market, with candles that smell like old bookstores or Quiddich fields or Winterfell or whatever, and they're pretty high quality.
The trouble is that high quality comes at a hefty price tag, so it's more of an occasional and artfully-minimal indulgence.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:49 AM on December 25, 2021
My thing about Yankee Candles (and often Bath and Body works candles) is the quality, and the propensity towards overly-sweet and overly-floral blends. I tend to like much more earthy, grassy, herby, woodsy scents, which rarely show up in the big-name-brand candle world.
Also, the big-name-brand candle versions of a lot of scents read as really fake to me - I do like rose and lavender scents, but real rose and lavender; the scented-candle version is often overly-sweet and overly-floral, and misses the herby notes of lavender and the depth of the rose. And they always pair the woodier scents with something like vanilla or gardenia or something which is REALLY not what I'm looking for.
There are companies that get it right - Homesick Candles bills itself as a company that makes candles that smell like certain places, and while I don't necessarily have a memory flashback to my childhood when I burn their Connecticut candle, I do like the way it smells; it's a nice blend of scents and there's no "fake" or "chemical" element. There's also an indie candlemaker that I've tried that caters to the booklover/fantasy fan market, with candles that smell like old bookstores or Quiddich fields or Winterfell or whatever, and they're pretty high quality.
The trouble is that high quality comes at a hefty price tag, so it's more of an occasional and artfully-minimal indulgence.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:49 AM on December 25, 2021
One part of witchery that defines olfactory sence is YC ' Clean Linen' because I remember sheets drying in the sun smell from childhood. CL tarts either smelled like clean linen or nothing. I just want to know the whole mystery of clean sheet smell on the clothes line.
sun, soap, thread count, timing what, what is it and how was it replicated into candle wax.
posted by clavdivs at 8:36 AM on December 25, 2021
sun, soap, thread count, timing what, what is it and how was it replicated into candle wax.
posted by clavdivs at 8:36 AM on December 25, 2021
Iirc it’s mostly ozone from the UV breakdown of cellulose, insofar as it has been publicly studied.
posted by clew at 12:04 PM on December 25, 2021
posted by clew at 12:04 PM on December 25, 2021
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