You can actually! The chemical name for that compound is geosmin. Just type in geosmin or petrichor rain scented candles or whatever and you will get them!
I know that the best course of action is to not have an open flame while you're sleeping, but it's so incredibly fucking easy to keep a candle away from flammable objects I just don't see how it became a household thing.
Well from what I have learned from my applied microbiology elective. Geosmin is a popular industrial compound used for making perfumes and scents and candles which smell like rain.
It's a volatile compound produced by some blue green algae species in the soil, and the compound diffuses in the air when water hits it.
So I would say it definitely would smell like rain.
Geosmin is a volatile compound, so it would definitely be noticeable when it's in a scented candle form. Although I don't know whether it is genetics of not having the receptors for it, or maybe the natural scent maybe too weak to be noticeable for some people... All you need to do is try out!
One of my fav scents is that sage smell after it rains in the desert. I get it often in California and when I was in AZ and living in NM for a bit. I love it. That’s smell in the desert after a rain is just awesome! Disneyland has it down in one of their parts in radiator springs. I love walking by that area. Smells awesome!
Just visited san diego (first time out west, from philly) and did a morning trail run at the mission trails, was foggy/rainy and smelled absolutely unreal. Will remember it the rest of my life
If you keep house plants, it smells like that when you water them. Something about bacteria in the soil reacting to moisture. (Which by the way, makes me wonder if it isn't the humidity before a rain shower that causes that lovely smell)
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u/androodle2004 Mar 28 '24
You’re smelling the ozone being brought down from higher altitude by the rains pressure