Actually, it's not very exciting! Shortly after I started selling my pendants in early 2018, I looked around my house one day and realized I was low on candles. I went through them so fast and I just didn't feel like going to the store for yet another candle haul. And I wasn't crazy about the chemical & petroleum smells that I'd often get mixed in with the fragrance.
I was reminded of the most incredible candle I've ever smelled. It was 20 years ago, at a small shop in Stone Harbor, NJ, about 15 minutes away. These candles were handmade by a lady named Christine. Sadly Christine's Handmade Gifts (I believe that was the name) is not there anymore, but it had the absolutely best smelling handmade candles ever. This beautiful scented shop made such an impact that I easily contemplated the possibility of making my own. That of course had a snowball effect and I then got so excited and immediately did lots of research. I absolutely love to read so doing this research was a pleasure.
I dove right in, chose my wax, wick sizes, scents and jars. A bit later I started to play around with color, adding dye blocks and drops. Over time I had refined my process after realizing I made lots of mistakes.
One particularly embarrassing one was when I made a few candles for a fellow wire artist on Instagram and I used my recipe for "wax A" with "wax B" instead. I had pulled out the wrong wax (there are many kinds, all different!) and therefore I heated it to the wrong temperature, which threw off the scent adhesion. I poured it at the wrong temperature, which affected the scent even more.
I had no idea until she very nicely pointed out that the candles smelled great when opened up but when lit, they didn't throw the scent well at all. Not to mention that I packed them ALL WRONG and one broke. I was mortified but also so thankful she said something because it taught me not to be so careless. It also stressed the importance of consistency with waxes and the "formulas" for each.
I've refined my process even more since then and did more research on different waxes and how color dye affects the candle scent throw. I've also looked for even more natural ingredients, but that's for another blog post.
During this time, I had been making scented tea lights and including them in every order. Customers absolutely loved them and would often ask if I had larger sizes for sale. Customers also reached out to me on Instagram in response to the stories I would post of the most recent candles I just made, or of my pouring process, saying they would be interested in buying them. I politely declined at the time. I'm happy to say that very soon, I can now say YES! So thank you to those who reached out to me about my candles!
And thanks for reading my story so far!