THE CUT
THE CANDLE SMELLS DIRTY AND I LIKE IT
Among the minor things that greatly annoy me: hot dogs buns splitting into two pieces, someone else’s wet hair accidentally touching my arm, a sneeze that doesn’t live up to its full potential, and sweet-smelling candles. Sweet candles make me go into immediate migraine pose, except not for the ‘gram. Although I love baking and the smells it creates, any dessert-oriented candle gives me a blinding headache.
Maybe what I needed was a little dirt. Dirty Gingerbread is a gingerbread-baking-smell dupe. It smells like the home of your aunt who opens the oven to pull out a tray of cookies with an oven mitt on one hand and a glass of wine in the other — but it’s also extra spicy. The pepperiness is amped up, as are the nutmeg and cloves, and the vanilla is slightly tamped down. It creates a slightly sweet, but more piquant, fragrance that reminds me of the gingerbread from San Francisco’s legendary Tartine bakery, which are chewy with a bit of snap.
The scent was created by Douglas Little, perhaps best known as the perfumer for Goop’s vagina candle. The design of the box is brashly cheeky, featuring a gingerbread man dressed like a leather submissive in a harness and ball gag (it’s dirrrty, Christina Aguilera-style). If all this appeals to you, I highly recommend buying both the candle (did I mention it’s vegan?) and possibly also this collection of BDSM gingerbread cookie cutters to match. Happy naughty holidays.
SHOP DIRTY GINGERBREAD
