Hey Lover Lover!

Hello friends,

It's been less than a month since Christmas, but Valentine's Day is also less than a month away!  We have three new candle scents to introduce for your V-day shopping!

(Some call me the) Gangsta of Love:  This is the perfect scented soy candle for that special man in your life!  This scent embodies the spirit of a sexy, successful, and confident man! It is more a manly/cologne type scent, with top notes of grapefruit, bergamot, and lemon; followed by middle notes of peppercorn, ginger, jasmine, aquatic marine notes, and a hint of peppermint; sitting on expensive base notes of natural patchouli, cedar, vetiver, and frankincense. If we ever meet the real "Gangsta of Love" we think this is what he should smell like!

Last First Kiss: This is an amazing blend of fresh picked berries, mixed with light coconut milk all on a bed of delicate rose petals.

Date Night: The classic and timeless rich scent of fresh cut roses!

Shop our Valentine's Day candles now!

Happy New Year 2016!

Happy 2016!!  I wish everyone a happy and successful year ahead surrounded by family and friends!

As we kick off the new year, I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce you to our current scent line up!  We are always adding new scents for holidays and seasons, so I'll be sure to let you know when those are coming out and give them a proper introduction when they are launched.

All scents are available in candles, wax melts and sachets in our Etsy Shop.

Our regular line up for January 2016:

Fruity Scents:

1. Apple Pecan Sage was originally launched as part of our fall collection, but is one of the scents that we decided deserved a permanent spot in our regular line up.  This scent is full of juicy ripe apples, but is more complex than just a regular apple scent, it also includes notes of spices and vanilla, all on a nutty background.
2. Blueberry Bonanza is one of my daughter's favorites.  It is not an overly sweet blueberry scent, but a delicious bakery scent - imagine blueberry muffins in the oven, blueberry pancakes sizzling on the griddle, or blueberry cobbler cooling on the counter.  Blueberry Bonanza has a great scent whether it is lit or not.
3. California Dreamin' is new to the line up and includes scents of pineapple, mango zest, acai berry, passion fruit, green apple, orchid leaves and a hint of musk.  It is a lovely tropical scent that is good for the summer or all year long!
4. Fredericksburg Peaches is just a pure peach scent.  Most people will pick up this candle and comment on how it smells like a fresh peach off a tree!
5. Fresh Picked Raspberries is a basket full of fresh raspberries sitting in the sun on the front porch.  If you can't tell yet, when it comes to fruity scents, I don't like fake fruity scents (like fruit candy scents), so this is a nice accurate raspberry scent. 
6. Front Porch Lemonade is one of MY favorite fruity scents.  The scent is just a perfect balance between lemonade and blackberries, with neither side overpowering the other.  I recently took almost a month long road trip, and Front Porch Lemonade is the scent I chose to take on the road with me.  It's such a unique scent that now when I sniff it, I think about that road trip.
7. Saturday Morning Cartoons is a bowl full of your favorite childhood fruity cereal.  Seriously, one time I was making a batch of these candles and I spilled some of the fragrance and my neighbor walked in and said "it smells like Fruit Loops in here!"
8. Schoolmarm is the classic Macintosh Apple scent.
9. Zombie Apocalypse is not a specific fruit scent, although it is fruity, but sweet.  If I had to try to put my finger on it, it mostly has a fake grape type smell.  And, as I already mentioned, I don't like fake fruity smells, but this one is the exception, I actually have a candle in this scent sitting in my foyer as I type this.

Eat and Drink:

1. Arbuckles is a refreshing cup of fresh brewed coffee.  While it is a strong coffee scent, it does have some hints of vanilla and a slight hint of chocolate to take the edge off.  This is a great candle for the kitchen or even your office.
2. Make a Wish is a classic yellow cake with fluffy frosting and rainbow sprinkles.  Not only is it a great scent, it's also makes for a perfect birthday gift (it even comes with sprinkles on top!)
3. On the Rocks has real lime essential oil in it which is blended with lemon on a background of leafy greens.  It is a wonderfully refreshing citrus scent.
4. Pina Colada is classic sweet pineapple with fresh coconut and mixed with a delicious Caribbean Rum.
5. Really Vanilly is the classic vanilla scent for those who like to stick to something more simple and neutral.
6. Time to Make the Cronuts is not only a best seller in this category, but it's one of our best sellers overall.  It is such a unique blend of flakey croissants and sugary donuts.  I am warning you though, that people who have ordered this scent, 9 times out of 10 they come back for more!

Floral:

1. Texas Bluebonnet is a refreshing and light floral scent.  As you can tell, I am not a huge fan of floral scents, as I personally, usually find them to be too strong, but this one is a nice blend of Honeysuckle, Jasmine & Lilac, and is not overpowering or perfume-y.

Man-Approved:

1. Comstock Lode is a very different and mature mixture of jasmine and ylang ylang on a earthy/mossy background.  This is honestly one of my personal favorites.
2. Doc Holliday is an exotic and mysterious blend of Asian oud wood, cedar, rosemary, jasmine, orchid, apple, black musk, and patchouli.  This scent has an edge to it, and the oud wood definitely overpowers the other scents.
3. Hop Juice is just regular beer, it is NOT a craft beer, it is just your average gas station beer!
4. I'm Your Huckleberry is my other favorite in this category.  It is a sophisticated blend of lavendar, cinnamon, nutmeg, tonka bean and musk.  While manly, this scent is really refreshing and not cologne-y.
5. Outlaw is our pure leather scent.  It is like walking into a Western Boot Shop, or even, some might say, a new car.
6. Save the 'Stache is a classic barber shop scent with heart notes of amber and rum and light top notes of musk and bay.  This reminds me of my grandpa, I like to say it is reminiscent of aftershave before companies starting adding "swagger" and what not to their products.
7. Wyatt Earp is a classic cologne type scent.  It is a mixture of mandarin, black pepper, clove, vetiver and leather, on a layer of frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood and musk.  This is one of the best sellers in the man-approved category.

The rest of our candles fall under the "Other" category, but I will try to break them down into smaller categories here that make sense:

Sweet:

1. Sugar Skull has been a great seller.  With blended scents that include cotton candy, lemon, caramel, raspberry and musk, this scent is reminiscent of Pink Sugar's Aquolina Pink Sugar perfume.
2. Wildflower Honey is a deliciously sweet scent with a mixture of toffee and orange, and although I've never smelled any Lush products, people have commented that it is similar to one of their scents.

Aromatherapy:

1. Playing Possum is similar to Johnson and Johnson's Bedtime Bath and it reminds me of when my teenagers were babies.  It is a soothing blend of mandarin, lavender and chamomile.  This is great in a bedroom or even a baby's room.  It works great in a wax melter to keep in your bedroom too!
2. Skedaddle is a relaxing mix of peppermint and vanilla.  It is perfect for when you want to relax and just need everyone to go away.  Peppermint also has proven benefits such as increased concentration and headache relief.

Other:

1. Backwoods Bonfire is another super star that found its way into our regular line up after being a fall best seller!  This scent is like sitting around a bonfire with all of your closest friends.  It has notes of dried leaves, charred pine and cedar, and smokey sandalwood on a backdrop of roasted marshmallows, brown sugar and vanilla.
2. Calamity Jane is a traditional sandalwood on a floral background.
3. Hippie Hippie Bang Bang is brand new and is one of my newest favorites, in fact i have it in my wax melters right now.  This is a complex blend of patchouli and amber.  I have never really liked patchouli, but actually really love this blended scent.
4. Morning Breeze is a classic that has been in our line from the beginning, it has a slightly floral/musky scent, but it is crisp and breezy as well.
5. Redneck Woman is our number one best seller, there is no one that picks up this scent that doesn't like it.  To me it reminds me of Bath and Body Works discontinued scent 'Sun Ripened Raspberries.'  It is a mix of raspberry, cantaloupe, watermelon, jasmine and violet and is just a divine scent!
6. Suds in the Bucket is a great 'laundry' scent.  It is like walking into a laundromat and smelling all the combined detergents wafting through the air.
7. There's No Place Like Home is an irresistible spice filled candle, including: vanilla, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg and sugar.  It is delicious and not only is it a great housewarming gift, it's also great for inviting guests into your own home.

I hope this list helps, and that you're able to find a scent that suits you perfectly.  On or before January 15, we will also be launching our Valentine's Day line for 2015!  We have some great scents lined up for the holiday and can't wait to introduce them to you!

If at any time you have any questions, feel free to contact us in the comments below, or through Etsy, we are always open to custom orders and/or new ideas!  

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to Western Wax!

Whether you're new to Western Wax products or have been a faithful customer, our new blog will introduce you to who we are, educate you on our products and give you a peek behind the scenes, we will also give you tips on creating your own successful soy products.

So, let's start at the beginning...  A lot of people here and there have asked me "How did you get into making candles?"  (disclaimer: to answer this question, it involves personal pieces of my life - everything is true, and I promise it is not any kind of sympathy ploy!)

All my life I have dabbled in one craft or another and I still do (these days it's mainly candles, quilting and woodworking).  Once upon a time, when I was still in high school, I dabbled in making candles and really enjoyed it.  My life path took me to the United States Air Force after high school, which also took me away from my family and home in Detroit, MI and deposited me in San Antonio, TX where I have been for almost the last 17 years.

I have built my own family here in Texas which includes my two teenagers.  Leaving the Air Force (after 10 years) and building a career in the civilian world while raising two children, made travelling home to visit family more difficult.  And then, my then 88 year old grandma was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2014.

I grew up around the block and a couple blocks away from Grammy so we were quite close and I adored her!  I went home for 2.5 weeks over Christmas of 2014 to spend time with her and to relieve some of the workload off the rest of my family that was helping to take care of her.  During this time, my step mom was showing me all of her soy candle making supplies (she had been making soy candles for a few years.)

With my sweet precious grandma facing the end of her life, I realized I had to find a way to get back up to Detroit more often (at that time, I still had my 93 year old grandpa).  I came home to Texas after that visit and immediately decided that I was going to get back into making and selling candles.  I got to work and opened my Etsy shop on March 13, 2015 (www.etsy.com/shop/WesternWax).

Western Wax has been very successful during it's first year (actually a little over 9 months at the time of writing this.)  I was able to take another trip back to Detroit over the summer with both of my kids.  We were able to spend some good quality time with Grandpa and even got him to go out to eat (he hadn't been out much since Grammy passed away in January.)

2015 has been a really horrible year for my family - after Grammy passed in January, Gramps only made it about ten months before he also passed away this past Thanksgiving.  I can honestly say that without Western Wax to think about, and the extra income it brought, I don't know how I would have made it through this year.

So, as sappy as the story is, this is truly the reason I started making candles and started Western Wax Co.  This is also one of the main reasons I believe in shopping local and buying from small businesses whenever and wherever possible.  Each small business owner will most likely have their own reasons for starting their business - but most of them are not trying to buy their third vacation home with a five car garage to store their newest sports cars, they are ensuring their kids have a merry Christmas, go to college, or like me, are able to generate a little extra income to do the things that are important to them.

So - that is my story, and I'm sticking to it!! I hope that if you don't already, you will consider finding more opportunities in your life to buy local or to support small business owners!