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.

I created the company, I make the whole candle line, and my amazing husband Steve gets all the stuff like shipping, lugging heavy boxes...you know, man things!

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.

As an equally right/left brained person, my creativity was completely starved.

I decided to start making actual physical things for fun.

I took to candlemaking very quickly. The balance of art and science totally lit me up (get it? heh) and I was hooked.

I've also been a word nerd my entire life, as a voracious reader and writer. It was only natural my candles would reflect playful and fun naming, and the smiles they bring are absolutely the best perk.

What we believe

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

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

We believe in good, old fashioned hard work and stellar customer service. (Because those automated phone systems suck, so we feel the need to offset it like it's some kind of carbon footprint.)

What we use

We source a 100% soy, high melt-point 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 or coconut wax, which can have pretty sketchy sourcing from countries destroying their forests to make it, or questionable working conditions. 

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