It’s been a while since we’ve done a Behind The Wick, but now we’re back and chatting with the super sweet, Louise from Kiss Air Candles.
We’re big fans of Kiss Air Candles, Sarah introduced me to them and we just love their products and we’ve also been lucky to review some too, you can see those reviews HERE. So we’re both excited to find out what goes on behind the scenes at Kiss Air.
Tell us a little about yourself – what originally drew you to making candles and launching your own business?
My name is Louise and I’m the creator of Kiss Air Candles and with my sister, Laura we hand make soy wax candles infused with fabulous and unusual scents in our workshop in Cambridgeshire.
We had just bought a house and were spending loads of money on candles that didn’t smell when burning. So we decided to have a go at making our own. When we thought we had the perfect combination we gave some as presents at Christmas and things snowballed from there and we launched in March 2013 with a small range of nine scents.
Tell us about the process that goes into making your lovely candles? What wax/products do you use?
The process of making candles is quite simple – melt wax (we use a melter so it’s nice and quick), add fragrance, stir, pour and cool. But it’s the details such as the temperature at which the fragrance is added and the wax is poured, mixing so the fragrance and wax bind together and of course, making sure you have the right size wick (yes, there are different sizes) to ensure that the candles are able to reach a full melt pool that really ‘make’ the candle. It’s a lot of trial and error at the start to get everything working in harmony but when it does you get a quality scented candle that will burn evenly, have a great throw and a decent burn time.
We make our candles with natural soy wax because we like its green credentials – it’s said to give a cleaner, longer burn and premium fragrance oils.
What’s your inspiration for coming up with new scents?
Things we like – we’ve a book full of ideas! We created the Cocktail Hour collection because of our love of cocktails (same with the Ice Cream Parlour range) and it’s by far and away our bestselling range. We’ve just added a Gin & Tonic scented candle which isn’t my cup of tea but it was our most requested scent, so we listened to our customers and made it happen.
What is your favourite candle scent of all the candles you make?
My favourite changes all time, I have a thing about Toasted Marshmallow at the moment! Having said that one scent I adore is Peach Bellini from our Cocktail Hour collection…juicy peaches and Champagne. You can really smell the bubbles! It’s not a super strong scent so it’s a fragrance that is perfect for spring and summer.
Are there any scent combinations you’ve tried that have turned into a total disaster? What about happy accidents?
We did try and mix our own chocolate orange but we couldn’t get the balance right and it was awful. Luckily we found an expert who got it spot on and now we leave all the fragrance mixing to them!
Are there any other candle brands that you like and buy from? (What are your favourite scents from those brands?)
I really like Urban Apothecary – I love the way the candles are presented in the vintage style glassware and their Lemon Curd fragrance is gorgeous.
What five items would you take to a desert island? (One has to be something you sell…)
Ohhh, that’s a toughie! Sun cream, radio, camera, notepad and pen (it that one or two?!) and a cocktail candle.
Have you any new and exciting creations planned that you’d like to share with us?
We have some super exciting things coming up in the next few months. We’ve a new cocktail (and it’s amazing!), our first real masculine scent – Gentleman’s Club is launching next month and we’ve a fabulous trio of scents which make up our 2016 summer range plus we’re developing a totally new product for us.
Oh wow! We’re so excited about everything, especially Gentlemen’s Club, we LOVE mandles here at V&L!
Thanks to Louise from Kiss Air for chatting to us. Be sure to show them some love on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
If you’d like to be featured in our Behind The Wick series just drop us an email at 2girls@vanillaandlime.com.
