Difficult themes and why it is important that we broach them
Hello internet. Black Phillip here. Once again, I have taken control of my vessel, so I can explain to you about why we deal with dark themes, and why we think it is important to do so.
It is a question that comes up at market events, to people who don't really understand what we strive for. So, the time has come for me to explain it, once and for all. I hope you can understand my words.
We deal with very dark themes. This should be obvious from the get-go, if you are seeing us at a market, or viewing this website for the first time. We take an idea - a myth, a legend, a piece of dark history, or a piece of grim nature, and manipulate that idea into a scent profile. But why? Why don't we go for more common scents? Why do we feel the need to push boundaries, instead of just making something pleasant, that will definitely sell? The answer, much like our scent profiles, is very complex.
I have touched upon part of the answer before in previous blog posts. My vessel and I see ourselves as pioneers. We strive to innovate and create. Plenty of people out there already have scented candle companies that make more standard, crowd-pleasing blends. So we walk to the beat of a different drummer, so to speak. Where would we be if everyone did exactly the same thing? In a very dull world - that's where! It would also make no sense from a business point of view, to just do the same as everyone else. The scented candle market is incredibly saturated with "pleasant" aromas. To my knowledge, Room Spell is the only candle company in the world that creates darkly themed scents. We create things for people like my vessel; alternative beings who want unusual aromas for their home. Creativity and the implementation of it, is absolutely vital for society and culture. Standing still is boring and achieves nothing.
But there is another reason for why we create darkly-themed scent profiles. We believe that some of the subjects we deal with should never be forgotten about or ignored. Especially the scent profiles which come from a type of human suffering. At the time of writing this blog post, we are on the verge of releasing a new scent profile, which smells of phosgene gas. Phosgene was used in the trenches of world war one as a weapon. It killed many people. Why would we want to release that sort of scent? Because horrors like these should never be forgotten about. They must be remembered, preserved and (where possible) experienced. It is the only way that humans can learn from their mistakes. When we offer something darkly themed and grim, we are basically holding up a mirror to the human race. The image that comes back is not often a beautiful one. Scented candles that are purely designed to be pleasing on the nose are somewhat false. They create a space that smells lovely, when in reality, that is not how human life smells. Human beings are dirty, complicated, fickle and cancerous creatures. They are destroying planet earth, whilst simultaneously destroying each other. They need to be reminded, like a thorn in their side, of what they are capable of when they are at their worst. So we exist, to provide that in our own small way.
The bonus is that we have discovered that our scent profiles appeal to those who follow a dark path in life. We have a very small, but very committed, customer demographic in the gothic community and it's various subcultures. Many of these people not only have a taste and preference for things that are dark in nature, but some of them also have an understanding of why we are important as a company. It is the, dare I say, "normal" people (but what actually is normal?! That is a topic for another blog post entirely!) who seem to not understand us. And this is why I am writing this blog post.
In short - we don't just like to be different and/or we don't do what we do just to get attention. We force people to remember what they want to forget. But with that said, we'll take all of the attention we can get! Which business wouldn't?!
I hope this blog post will stop you from sending an email, to tell us that what we are doing is "weird".
This is Black Phillip, signing off and returning control to my human host.
It is a question that comes up at market events, to people who don't really understand what we strive for. So, the time has come for me to explain it, once and for all. I hope you can understand my words.
We deal with very dark themes. This should be obvious from the get-go, if you are seeing us at a market, or viewing this website for the first time. We take an idea - a myth, a legend, a piece of dark history, or a piece of grim nature, and manipulate that idea into a scent profile. But why? Why don't we go for more common scents? Why do we feel the need to push boundaries, instead of just making something pleasant, that will definitely sell? The answer, much like our scent profiles, is very complex.
I have touched upon part of the answer before in previous blog posts. My vessel and I see ourselves as pioneers. We strive to innovate and create. Plenty of people out there already have scented candle companies that make more standard, crowd-pleasing blends. So we walk to the beat of a different drummer, so to speak. Where would we be if everyone did exactly the same thing? In a very dull world - that's where! It would also make no sense from a business point of view, to just do the same as everyone else. The scented candle market is incredibly saturated with "pleasant" aromas. To my knowledge, Room Spell is the only candle company in the world that creates darkly themed scents. We create things for people like my vessel; alternative beings who want unusual aromas for their home. Creativity and the implementation of it, is absolutely vital for society and culture. Standing still is boring and achieves nothing.
But there is another reason for why we create darkly-themed scent profiles. We believe that some of the subjects we deal with should never be forgotten about or ignored. Especially the scent profiles which come from a type of human suffering. At the time of writing this blog post, we are on the verge of releasing a new scent profile, which smells of phosgene gas. Phosgene was used in the trenches of world war one as a weapon. It killed many people. Why would we want to release that sort of scent? Because horrors like these should never be forgotten about. They must be remembered, preserved and (where possible) experienced. It is the only way that humans can learn from their mistakes. When we offer something darkly themed and grim, we are basically holding up a mirror to the human race. The image that comes back is not often a beautiful one. Scented candles that are purely designed to be pleasing on the nose are somewhat false. They create a space that smells lovely, when in reality, that is not how human life smells. Human beings are dirty, complicated, fickle and cancerous creatures. They are destroying planet earth, whilst simultaneously destroying each other. They need to be reminded, like a thorn in their side, of what they are capable of when they are at their worst. So we exist, to provide that in our own small way.
The bonus is that we have discovered that our scent profiles appeal to those who follow a dark path in life. We have a very small, but very committed, customer demographic in the gothic community and it's various subcultures. Many of these people not only have a taste and preference for things that are dark in nature, but some of them also have an understanding of why we are important as a company. It is the, dare I say, "normal" people (but what actually is normal?! That is a topic for another blog post entirely!) who seem to not understand us. And this is why I am writing this blog post.
In short - we don't just like to be different and/or we don't do what we do just to get attention. We force people to remember what they want to forget. But with that said, we'll take all of the attention we can get! Which business wouldn't?!
I hope this blog post will stop you from sending an email, to tell us that what we are doing is "weird".
This is Black Phillip, signing off and returning control to my human host.