It’s been a little while since we’ve done a Behind The Wick, but we’re back and chatting with the lovely Alex from The Wax House.
Tell us a little about yourself – what originally drew you to making wax melts and launching your own business?
I’m Alex, I am a mummy of two, Ruby – 3 and Charlie – 1.
I was OBSESSED with candles and would spend a fortune on them a month. I looked into making wax melts last year for myself and for family and friends, after many months of perfecting and just keeping them for family and friends unfortunately my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, it was then I decided to try and start selling them. I love my products and I hoped the general public would love them too (so far so good). I am a stay at home mum, and with that news I needed something to fill my days a bit more so I wasn’t finding myself sitting and reflecting all the time.
I didn’t want to just sell melts, I wanted to build myself a reputable brand that people would love – not just the products but the packaging too. I put a lot of personal touches into my packaging, I hand write thank you tags in all of my packages, it took me hours with a designer to get the right look for my company, down to the hand written font and the pastel colours.
Tell us about the process that goes into making your lovely melts? What wax/products do you use?
I use a double boiler to melt my wax down; my wax is a 50/50 blend of paraffin wax and soy wax.
Originally I wanted to do solely soy but after months of perfecting I found doing a blend worked a lot better and gave a much better scent throw.
I normally make my wax when my son has a nap, my daughter likes to come into the kitchen and have a nosy.
What’s your inspiration for coming up with new scents?
Seasons are a massive thing. I am also a massive Lush fan, so love making all the Lush dupes.
My Rhubarb & Custard scent is after my children, my daughter’s nickname is Rhubarb, and every sale of those goes straight into their bank accounts for later on in life!
I love autumn/winter and I like to make custom blends, I recently made a Pine & Pink Peppercorn scent and it’s amazing and really fitting with the colder season approaching, I haven’t seen any other vendor doing this scent.
I also love to ask what my customers want to see, so I get inspiration from that. I want my scents to be different.
What is your favourite scent of all the melts you make?
Hard question! I think it’s got to be my Pine & Pink Peppercorn as it’s my own custom blend and it took me hours to get the ratio just right. It is a woody and slightly spicy scent that’s really warming.
Are there any scent combinations you’ve tried that have turned into a total disaster? What about happy accidents?
I was making up my batch of wild berries, I thought I put in a mix of purple and pink scent dye, turned out I put orange dye in, something you would never associate with berries, but I have kept those ones for personal use.
I once tried to do a sweet shop pick n mix; I blended Parma Violets and Snow Fairy… that smelt awful, it was like someone puked up flowers mixed with too much sugar.
Are there any other home fragrance brands that you like and buy from? (What are your favourite scents from those brands?)
I love candles from a little shop in my town; the brand is called Lower Lodge. My favourite scent from that is Grapefruit. It’s gorgeous!
What five items would you take to a desert island? (One has to be something you sell…)
1. My children and partner (does that count as 1 or 3?)
2. My phone – to keep in contact with my mum, dad and sister.
3. A razor… I don’t like hair! Ha ha!
4. Deodorant.
5. Sun Cream – I would sell that, as how many people forget sun cream when they go away and end up paying ridiculous prices for some abroad?
Have you any new and exciting creations planned that you’d like to share with us?
I am getting some cancer ribbon moulds and will be making pink ribbons in my mum’s favourite scent as a charity melt and paying 50% of every sale to Cancer Research UK.
I have three Halloween scents coming, which will be shaped into monsters and ghosts. I haven’t seen any other vendor with these scents so hoping they will do well!
I am doing Christmas boxes with all my Christmas scents in along with mega Santa and Rudolph melts and mega Christmas tree melts.
I am also doing mermaid slabs. I have had many people comment how the colours and my brand reminds them of mermaids so thought I would start doing them, have already done a few practice ones but so far one mermaid has lost a boob and the other has lost an arm!
Thanks to Alex for chatting to us. Be sure to show The Wax House some love on Facebook and Instagram.
If you’d like to be featured in our Behind The Wick series just drop us an email at 2girls@vanillaandlime.com.
