We all love a good origins story- well, here's mine! I have always been a smell-goods girl. I love making a space my own, whether it’s my home, workspace or car. I love being surrounded by fun, happy smells! My all-time favorite, I-feel-rich candles were from Yankee Candle. 😁
After each of my kiddos was born, I gradually got “crunchier”. It started with hours of researching vaccines (this is my own journey, so please, no negative comments! 😘), and then it was finding a cleaner laundry detergent after my son and I both had bouts of eczema. After daughter no.1 was born, I went through months of severe ppd, which eventually launched me into the world of gut health and supplementation. While I was pregnant with daughter no.2 most home fragrances were chopped. 😅
Christmas 2020 my sweet husband gifted me 2 big Yankee candles, but I was so worried about burning them around my itty-bitty baby that I didn’t use them for months, and when I did finally use them, I was so paranoid about how it was polluting my home. And of course, THAT completely took the joy out of burning those candles… 🥺
So, once we found our new routine with 3 littles, I found myself ready to reestablish my identity- not just as a mama of three, but also as a person. I love makeup but wasn’t feeling the draw to dive into that. I can crochet, but don’t have the patience for that unless I’m pregnant, lol. After a friend mentioned she had played around with making a beeswax candle, it hit me…
CANDLES!! I love candles!! Why not try my hand at making a good candle that I know is cleaner than Yankee candles, and then I won’t be paranoid to burn it around my kids! 😱😃 This would satisfy my urge to take up a hobby for myself, and fill a void I was feeling about my favorite candles, lol…
I spent hours looking for the purest waxes, and even more hours looking for nontoxic fragrance oils (also known as safe synthetics). Hundreds of hours… 😅 Finally I had everything lined up, I had a basic knowledge of how to make a candle, so I went for it… Lemme tell ya, the first 20-30 candles were verrrrry interesting… No, to be super transparent- they sucked... 🤣
But I stuck with it. I missed my home smelling like cookies or apples, and I was determined to learn this stuff... And soon enough I nailed it. My first candle that actually smelled good and burned correctly had me all giddy! And then The Lord opened the door and nudged me through it- I made the leap to make this more than a hobby… After years of working hard at a NM gig, I was super hesitant to do anything like this. I had tried for years to build a “business” and never got anywhere, but this felt different. Even if no one ever wanted these candles, it has been so fulfilling for me to make them for my little family… 🥰
But God has blessed this adventure and led me where I should go. I can’t take any credit for Crunchy Mama Candles, because if it weren’t for my heavenly Abba I would have just kept these candles to myself. 😉
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