About Us

Well, hello there. 👋 Glad you decided to stop by and see the people behind the curtain!

I'm Susan Wenograd, the founder and head of stuff (that's a technical term) here at Can'tdles.

We're a family run business based in the quirky and beautiful city of Richmond, Virginia.

How we started

After a pretty emotionally trying year in 2021, I needed a creative outlet. As a 20+ year marketing executive, a lot of time was spent in spreadsheets and screens. 

Having been a voracious reader since I could hold a book, I was realizing my creativity was completely starved.

I wanted to recreate the fictional characters and settings I'd experienced through the pages of books all my life. Unlike existing book candles, I didn't want them to be overly prescriptive - rather, I wanted them to evoke what meant something to the reader.

It's been amazing to see what book, movie or character people immediately name when they smell our creations. It's my biggest honor to help bring those things to life for them.

 

What we believe

We can make a great product without cheap shortcuts that hurt the environment and aren't necessary.

Scents are a source joy and comfort, and every one of them has their own personality we love cultivating.

What we use

We source a 100% coconut soy wax that burns slow so our candles last longer. It's all sourced and produced in the USA.

We don't use gimmicks you see in a lot of "soy" candles:

• Many soy candles still contain paraffin, which is a non-renewable resource. (It comes from crude oil.)
• Many soy candles contain palm wax, which can have pretty sketchy sourcing from countries destroying their forests to make it, or questionable working conditions. 
• We do not use wicks with metal wick cores - they are all cotton and paper filament.

All our soap bases are gentle, filled with nourishing ingredients to give a helping hand to dry skin.

We only high-grade, toxin and phthalate-free fragrances sourced from US-based manufacturers that have stringent quality control.