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Best Candle to Remove Shrimp Paste Smell, and How to Clear Your Kitchen Now

October 26, 2026 by MBur Candle Co.

If you are searching for the best candle to remove shrimp paste smell, you probably fried belacan for sambal tonight, and the kitchen still smells like it hours later. You can clear the smell, and a candle plays a real part in clearing it, as long as the candle comes second.

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Vent the room and wipe the grease film first, because that film is where most of the smell is hiding. Then light a pure beeswax candle in a sharp herbal or citrus scent, since bright top notes cut through a savory room while sweet ones sit on top of it. That is why our pure beeswax candles, hand poured in New York City, suit the hour after a shrimp paste dinner so well. They burn clean, with no paraffin soot and no toxic fragrance, so the room ends up smelling fresh rather than covered up.

Why the smell is still here two hours after dinner

Shrimp paste is shrimp and salt, packed down and left to ferment for weeks. Fermentation breaks the shrimp's proteins into smaller compounds, including amines and sulfur compounds. Those give you the sharp, fishy note you catch the moment you open the jar.

In the jar, most of those compounds stay put. Heat changes that. When you toast a block of belacan or fry it into a chili paste, the heat drives them into the air, carried on tiny drops of oil that spit up from the pan.

Those oily drops have to land somewhere. They settle on the stovetop and the backsplash, and they soak into soft things like dish towels. Each surface then gives the smell back slowly, which is why the kitchen still smells strong long after the pan is washed.

So the smell has moved. It left the pan and spread across the room. Any real fix starts by getting the air moving, and that is the first step.

Step one: move the air out before you do anything else

Turn on your range hood the moment the paste hits the pan, and keep it running for a while after you finish. A hood that vents outdoors pulls the oily air straight out of the house. A recirculating hood only catches grease in its filter, so open a window as well.

If you can, open a second window or door on the far side of the room. Two openings set up a cross-breeze, and moving air carries the smell out faster than one window can. A box fan set in a window and pointed outward speeds this up.

Fresh air matters for more than smell. Cooking releases particles and gases that build up indoors, and the EPA's guide to indoor air quality in your home lists better ventilation as one of the main ways to bring those levels down.

While the fan runs, simmer a few lemon halves or citrus peels in a pot of water for about 10 minutes. The citrus steam gives the air a bright note while you deal with the part of the smell you can feel with your fingers.

Step two: wipe the film where the smell is living

Run a finger along the backsplash behind the stove. If it feels a little tacky, that is the oily film from the pan. It is holding most of the smell that is left in the room.

Mix equal parts white vinegar and warm water, or use warm water with a good squeeze of lemon. Wipe the stovetop first, then the backsplash and the outside of the hood. Work outward to the cabinet fronts nearest the stove, since they catch the most spatter.

Next come the soft things. Dish towels and oven mitts trap the smell and release it for days, so put them in the wash tonight. If a curtain hangs near the stove, wash that too.

Silicone tools and lids that touched the paste can hold the smell even after a wash. Baking them in a toaster oven at 250°F for 30 minutes helps release it, and a second round handles stubborn pieces. Check that each item is oven-safe first, then wash it in hot, soapy water.

Last, store the paste so the smell stays with it. Wrap the block tightly, seal it in a glass jar with a good lid, and keep it in the fridge. With the air moving and the surfaces clean, the room is ready for a candle, and the scent you pick decides whether the kitchen ends up fresh or strange.

Why a vanilla candle makes a shrimp paste kitchen smell worse

Most people reach for the sweetest candle in the house. Vanilla or a bakery scent feels like it should smother anything. In a kitchen that still holds a trace of fish, it does the opposite.

Here is why that happens. Sweet, heavy notes are slow to lift and hang low in a room, the same way the last of the shrimp paste smell does. Your nose picks up both at once, and the mix reads like a bakery set up next to a fish market.

Bright notes behave differently. The scent in citrus peel and crushed herbs is light and quick to rise. It reaches your nose first, and your brain reads it as clean, the smell of a counter that was just wiped down.

You have likely seen this at the table already. Tear a handful of mint over a bowl of rich, savory noodles and the whole bowl changes. The cold green smell jumps up and cuts through the heavy broth before you take a bite.

Our Slice of Life pure beeswax candle is built on that same moment. Its notes are Spearmint, Eucalyptus, Tomato Leaf, Anise, Mint. The blend smells cold and green, like a fresh bunch of herbs and a snapped tomato stem.

We made it as our kitchen scent. The mint and eucalyptus open the room up quickly, and the tomato leaf adds a garden edge that sits easily beside cooking smells. After a sambal night, it gives you back a kitchen that smells like the herbs you cooked with instead of the paste.

The wax matters too, because you just cleaned that air

A good scent poured into the wrong wax undoes some of the work you just did. To see why, follow where most candle wax comes from.

Crude oil goes to a refinery, where it is split into fuels like gasoline and diesel. A thick, waxy sludge is left over at the end. That leftover is de-oiled and bleached, and the result is paraffin, the wax in most candles on store shelves.

So paraffin is petroleum waste, cleaned up enough to pour into a jar. Research has shown that burning paraffin candles releases benzene, toluene, and formaldehyde, and it also throws off black soot.

In a kitchen, that soot has somewhere to go. It drifts onto the backsplash you just wiped and mixes into whatever grease film is left. A paraffin candle after a shrimp paste dinner gives you one more layer to clean.

Soy wax burns cleaner than paraffin, but many soy candles are blended with paraffin to help them hold scent. Many also use toxic fragrances made with phthalates, which are chemicals added to make a scent cling and last.

Beeswax starts somewhere else entirely. Bees make it to build their comb, and beekeepers melt and filter it after the honey harvest. There is no refining and no bleach, so the wax is one natural ingredient. It also has the highest melting point of any candle wax, so it burns slowly and evenly.

What you are checking	Paraffin	Soy	MBur beeswax
Where the wax comes from	Leftover from crude oil refining	Soybeans, often blended with paraffin	Made by bees, collected after the honey harvest
Processing	De-oiled and bleached	Hydrogenated to turn oil into a solid	Melted and filtered only
Burn behavior	Low melting point, burns down fast	Soft wax, burns faster than beeswax	Highest melting point, 80+ hours on the 12 oz size
Soot	Black soot that lands on nearby surfaces	Less than paraffin, more if blended	Clean burn with minimal soot
Fragrance	Often toxic fragrance with phthalates	Often toxic fragrance with phthalates	Phthalate-free fragrance
Dye	Often chemical dye	Often chemical dye	No chemical dye
Wick	Varies by brand	Varies by brand	Wooden wick, two on the 12 oz size
Where it is made	Usually mass produced	Varies by brand	Hand poured in New York City

The wax sets the floor for everything else. The rest of the label tells you whether a candle belongs in the room you just cleaned.

The label check for a kitchen candle that keeps the room fresh

Look for these on any candle you plan to burn after cooking:

100% beeswax, a single-ingredient wax with no paraffin blended in.
Phthalate-free fragrance, so the scent adds nothing toxic to the air you just cleared.
No chemical dye. The color should come from the wax itself.
A wooden wick or a plain wick with no metal core.
A scent built on sharp top notes like citrus or green herbs.

Every MBur candle checks the first four boxes. Each one is 100% beeswax, hand poured in New York City, with phthalate-free fragrance, no chemical dye, and a wooden wick that crackles softly as it burns. The fifth box is where you choose your scent.

If your family squeezes lime over everything, you already know the citrus route. A lime wedge over grilled fish lifts the whole plate. Our Adi citrus beeswax candle does that for the room, with notes of Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit, Mandarin, Tangerine, Lime, Peach, Agave.

The grapefruit gives Adi a cool, slightly bitter edge, and the lime keeps it sharp. Those bright peel notes are what reach your nose first in a room that held a savory smell an hour earlier.

“Everything from this company is amazing so this candle matching that energy is no surprise. Will definitely be buying again.”

Eboni Ellis, on the Adi candle

Slice of Life leans green and herbal, and Adi leans bright and citrus. Both cut through a savory kitchen, so the choice comes down to how you want the room to smell when you walk back in.

How to burn it so the kitchen stays fresh all evening

Light the candle once the fan has done its job and the counters are wiped. Lighting it while the paste is still in the pan only adds scent to a smell that has nowhere to go yet.

Set it on a counter a few feet from the stove and out of the hood's pull. A strong draft drags the scent out of the room and makes the flame flicker. Keep it clear of curtains and paper towels.

On the first burn, let the melted wax reach the edge of the jar before you blow it out. Beeswax holds the shape of its first melt pool. A short first burn leaves a ring of hard wax that the flame will tunnel around for the rest of the candle's life.

Trim the wooden wick to about 1/8 inch before each burn and brush off any charred bits. Burn for no more than four hours at a time, and never leave the flame alone in the room. With those habits set, the last question is which size fits your kitchen.

Matching the candle to the kitchen you actually cook in

But my kitchen opens into the living room

Open-plan spaces spread a cooking smell farther, so you want a candle that covers more air. Go with the 12 oz size. Its two wooden wicks melt a wider pool and send more scent into the room, and it burns 80+ hours.

But I cook with shrimp paste every week

If sambal or belacan fried rice is a weekly dinner, the candle becomes part of that routine. The 12 oz size fits here too, because it is the one you will light after every one of those nights.

But my kitchen is a narrow galley

A small, closed kitchen fills with scent quickly. The 5 oz size, with one wooden wick and 40 hours of burn time, is the right fit for that room at $32. One wick is plenty for a space you can cross in three steps.

But I already burn a vanilla candle in here

Move it out of the kitchen. Sweet scents work best in rooms where nothing savory competes with them, like a bedroom. The kitchen gets a green or citrus beeswax candle that clears the air without adding soot.

Questions people ask about shrimp paste smell and candles

Why does shrimp paste smell stay in my kitchen for so long?

Fermentation turns the shrimp's proteins into strong sulfur compounds and amines. Heat from the pan carries them into the air on tiny drops of oil, and those drops settle on counters and fabric. The smell lingers until you wipe the surfaces and wash the towels.

Will a candle get rid of the shrimp paste smell on its own?

A candle works best as the last step. Vent the room and wipe the grease film first, since that removes the source. Then a clean-burning beeswax candle with a sharp scent keeps the kitchen smelling fresh for the rest of the evening.

Why does my vanilla candle make the fishy smell worse?

Sweet, heavy notes linger low in the room at the same level as the leftover savory smell. Your nose reads them together, and the blend comes across as sweet and fishy at once. Bright citrus and herbal notes rise first, so they read as clean.

Which MBur scent works best for a kitchen after cooking shrimp paste?

Pick the Slice of Life beeswax candle if you want a cold, green herb smell, the closest match to fresh mint torn over a meal. Pick Adi if you want bright citrus peel. Both are 100% beeswax with phthalate-free fragrance.

Can I burn a candle while I am still cooking?

It is better to wait until the pan is off the heat and the fan has cleared the air. A flame near a hot stove is a fire risk, and the hood pulls the scent away before you can smell it. Light it once the counters are clean.

The candle for the hour after a shrimp paste dinner

Shrimp paste smell lasts because it rides on oil and settles on every surface. Clear the air and wipe the film first, then light a pure beeswax candle with a sharp scent to keep the kitchen fresh. Sweet candles and paraffin both work against you in that room.

For a kitchen where you cook with shrimp paste, the pick is the 12 oz Slice of Life candle, at $65. You get to enjoy the cooking you love and still walk back into a kitchen that smells like mint and fresh herbs. The notes are Spearmint, Eucalyptus, Tomato Leaf, Anise, Mint, poured in 100% beeswax with two wooden wicks and 80+ hours of burn time.