Locally Made Candles Bring Scents of Popular Idaho Locations to Homes
By Veronica LeMaster
Photos By Kimberlee Miller
There’s nothing like a fragrance that brings back doting memories, and that’s exactly what two Idaho locals intended to do.
Eryn Mayer and Deseree Garcia met 16 years ago while doing hair at Graeber & Company. Mayer left to open her own salon, Bristle & Crown located on the bench.
Feeling inspired, and looking for more retail to sell at her salon, Mayer turned to her kitchen and online tutorials to teach herself the art of making candles. She began selling her own line of candles under the same name.
Garcia, who also left Graeber & Company to open her own salon, Collective Concept, was marketing a separate brand of candles when she saw Mayer’s homemade candles flying off shelves.
“I would get them at Collective Concepts, and they would be gone that day,” Garcia said.
She decided to partner up with Mayer and had the idea of starting their own candle company, creating Idaho Candle Company.
After the fragrance is tested and left for a period of time, the wax process begins. The candles are made from 100% soy wax that is hand poured. At first, they would the melt wax on stove tops which would take two days to make a small batch. Nowadays, they can produce over 100 candles in a day by using wax melters. This has allowed them to sell to retailers around Idaho such as Independent Goods in Ketchum, Flying M in Caldwell, and The Brass Monkey in Twin Falls.
Each candle comes bottled in a glass jar that features a stamp of the location and a special story. In their Signature Series you can find 1939 Ketchum, 1984 Grove Street, 1952 Harrison Blvd, 1980 Warm Springs Ave, 1944 Eden and 1863 Owyhee, each with a story of an event that happened in the year.
“It’s our love affair of Idaho,” Mayer explained.
Fragrances range from woody and smoky to flowery and sweet, as if you were traveling through Idaho all in a day. Go from Harrison Blvd. that has garden rose, amber, vetiver and sandalwood to 1976 McCall with Ponderosa pine, burning copal, and sweet wood smoke.
Their signature staples will always be on shelves with six seasonal fragrances rolling out every season. Their next Spring collection will roll out March 1.
Only about nine months old, Idaho Candle Company has people nationwide falling in love with the unique scents. As for the future, they plan on representing more locations in Idaho with the help of community members. Plan on seeing more Idaho Candle Company candles on shelves also, and possibly even a retail store.
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