Sometimes you really need a gift that says: “I love you, but not really very much”. Like: “Thank you for coming to my wedding; did you have to bring your kids?” or “You were a great colleague, but don’t come and visit too often.”

These are sentiments you can’t express to people’s faces, nor do they make many greeting cards with these kinds of messages. Instead, you have to get creative, which is exactly where this trick candle comes in.

First, you take it out of the box (it’s actually marked as having a prank candle inside, so this is an important step). You’ll find that it looks just like something you’ll find in a high-end gift store: an obviously pricey rose pink candle encased in glass, complete with a screw-on lid to preserve its supposedly delectable fragrance (other options are available too, like their apple pie candle, something any of us will associate with home, childhood, and happy times).

Your “friend” will no doubt be delighted to receive such a thoughtful gift. Now, you just need to wait for them to have a special, scented-candle-worthy event. This might take the form of a relaxing bath, a romantic dinner, or their mother-in-law coming to visit. They light the candle, the room fills with the aroma of freshly baked pastry, and all seems well in the world.

Until, that is, the flame melts through the first layer of wax, which should take between one and two hours. At this point, the smell instantly turns from a pleasantly fragrant one to something coming from Satan’s rear end after the Prince of Darkness has consumed a questionable burrito. As you can imagine, this quickly leads to exclamations like “It definitely wasn’t me!”, blaming the dog, and searching for sewer leaks before the actual culprit is finally identified.

Without options to neutralize the odor, this is recommended for use in relatively well-ventilated areas only. You probably only want to annoy your friend, not make their living room uninhabitable for days.