According to the Business of Fashion, candle sales are growing faster than the rest of the fragrance market, rising by one-third over the past two years. It seems a desire to cocoon ourselves from the outside world (olfactory, thermal or something more insidious) is higher on the agenda. Welcome to the cult of “smellness”: a small-scale form of self-care in a destabilised world.

— The Guardian takes a look at the world of scented candles. Read more at The cult of ‘smellness’: what’s behind the extraordinary rise in sales of scented candles?

The trend is called so-hwak-haeng, or "small but authentic happiness," home and tech analyst James Kang of Euromonitor International Korea told Business Insider. There's a more vulgar way to describe it: sibal biyong, or "f--- it spending."

— From Anxious South Korean youngsters have lost hope in their futures and don't want to get married — and that's unexpectedly fueling the country's $2.5 billion air-fragrance industry at Business Insider.

It smells like my dad cussing because the new tree is getting sap all over the carpet.

— Reflections on the Thymes Frasier Fir candle, from What’s with all the scented candles at Christmas? at Seattle Times.