I’ve been making candles and home fragrance for years now, and one of the things I enjoy most is everything that happens before a candle reaches someone’s home.
At the moment, I’m working on something new — a new range of hand-poured soy wax candles in amber jars. They’ve been in the making behind the scenes for a while, and they should be ready within the next week.
It starts with the fragrance
Choosing the fragrances is one of my favourite parts. For the initial collection of amber jar candles, I’ve chosen four scents: Donegal Fireside, Autumn Bakery, Pumpkin Spiced Latte and Tollymore Pine.
They’re all quite different, which I like. Donegal Fireside is warm and smoky, Autumn Bakery is sweet and comforting, Pumpkin Spiced Latte has those familiar coffee and spice notes, while Tollymore Pine brings something fresher and more outdoorsy.
These are just the first four, with more fragrances to follow.
The wick makes a difference
The wick can make a huge difference to how a candle burns, so I’ve been testing different wicks with these jars and watching how they perform. There has been quite a bit of burning, watching and making notes behind the scenes — not particularly glamorous, but an important part of making a candle properly.
Testing, testing and more testing
The wax, fragrance, wick and jar all need to work together, so I burn test them and pay attention to the melt pool, flame, wick and fragrance as the candle burns. Sometimes something looks perfect on paper but doesn't work quite the way you expected, which is why testing takes time.
And then there are the labels
Once I was happy with the candles themselves, there was still one more part to finish — the labels. I’ve now designed them, and seeing the jar, wax, fragrance and label come together makes it all feel very real.
Why I still love making candles
I think this is the bit I sometimes forget to talk about when I’m sharing online. There is a lot that goes into running a small business, but I still really enjoy the making side of it — choosing fragrances, testing them and seeing an idea turn into something real that I’d genuinely use at home myself.
What's coming next
So, for now, I’m working towards the launch of the new amber jar candles: Donegal Fireside, Autumn Bakery, Pumpkin Spiced Latte and Tollymore Pine.
The labels are designed, the fragrances have been chosen and the jars are here. There’s just a little more testing to do, and I’m hoping they’ll be ready within the next week.
I’ll share more when they’re ready. 🤎