Why our scents makes sense.

Like many things in business, our scents originate from ideas and suggestions, sometimes they’re ours and sometimes an employee’s, friend’s, relative’s or customer’s (such as you). Because scents are subjective, we need to be crystal clear what it is we’re wanting. As an example, when we introduced Tomato a few years back, we didn’t want a spaghetti sauce smell, we were aiming for an earthy tomato vine when-rubbed-between-your-fingers smell. Once we’ve defined which characteristics we want a scent to have, we’ll contact fragrance suppliers requesting samples. Within 3-4 weeks our desks are brimming with little glass vials, all different interpretations of the same scent. While it’s easy to identify rejects, the winning contender is often hundreds of sniffs away. Not to boast, but our collective schnozes can be astonishingly accurate. When everyone at Aunt Sadie’s holds their thumbs up in the air, we’re ready to begin test pours and burns, our many monthed labor has almost bred us a brand new candle.

While this explains the process, what really differentiates our scenting from some other candle makers is the caliber of our fragrance, we pay a premium for our scents. We made a decision 27 years ago if we were going to use fragrances, they would have to smell authentic (not synthetic). Every so often a company will solicit Aunt Sadie’s trying to lure us into the dark world of cheap spin-off scents, promising we’ll cut [some very big] corners from our raw material costs. Sorry, but Aunt Sadie never skimped on anything while baking or cooking and neither will we.

One last thing, you’ll notice part of Aunt Sadie’s signature authentic scenting is it might seem more subtle. Think of it this way: if a candle fragrance is overpowering, it’s like too much cologne, it feels like you’re just trying to cover up another smell that doesn’t belong there. And we’ve all been at that family gathering when second cousin so-and-so came in for a hug and you carried the scent of their perfume or cologne with you for the rest of the day. We like to think that a candle’s scent shouldn’t knock you over when you enter a room. . . it should get your attention, just enough to be ever-so-pleasing and memorable.