Candles
by Bob Waite
Imagine a soft breeze coming from the sea, suntan lotion mingled with a hint of ocean and sand. Where are you? Are you sun bathing, or perhaps you are on the boardwalk, strolling, watching the bathers climb up the wooden stairs from the beach to get fries or salt water taffy? But as you look around you see no beach, no boardwalk. Instead you find yourself cozy by the hearth enjoying the warm light and beachy scents coming from a candle that is part of Greenmarket Purveying Co’s Sand & Surf Collection, called High Tide.
My wife Tanya and I, hopeless romantics that we are, love everything about candles—the soft light, the pleasing scents and how they connect us to special times we have together. That’s why when we found out about a small Company in Levittown that makes handmade, hand poured scented candles, we had to visit Greenmarket Purveying Co.’s studio in Levittown.
On our first trip to Greenmarket, we meet the core team: Lindsay Trzaska, Allison Lannutti and Christina (Chris) Baker. Not knowing what to expect, we are pleasantly surprised by their youth and friendliness. We are shown around, given the opportunity to sniff some of the delectable scents and learn some facts about their candles.
I learn that candles are not their only products. Lindsay explains, “We specialize in candles, then we extend our love of fragrance to other things— diffusers, decorative matchboxes, also personal care. We have a line of body lotion, hand wash and botanical bath tea.”
The candles themselves are made of soy wax. This especially interests me, so I ask, “Why soy wax?” Well is so happens that soy wax has many qualities that paraffin doesn’t. For example, the soy wax they use is vegetable grade, although Chris recommends that we do not eat them. Soy wax is biodegradable and it burns cleaner than paraffin. A Greenmarket candle is liquid at the top while it is burning, so when the flame is extinguished it hardens flat and no wax is wasted. No more of those tunnels down the middle of the candle—all the wax burns and that means they burn longer.
Greenmarket Purveying candles are fragrant and creating the right fragrances for each of their lines is something that is almost an obsession. It is personal. Allison says, “We want to see what we would want to put in our own homes, and we have a lot of fun. We are always texting each other with new ideas.”
Creating scents is an art that requires patience and discernment. It begins with an idea for a collection or a scent for a new candle that will go with an already existing collection. The actual fragrances are made by a perfumer who is willing to work with the team to develop the scents they want to make. They will let the perfumer know what they want, including all the subtle notes they wish to have as highlights to the general scent. This is often a process that goes back and forth until the fragrance is what they want in a candle or other product. Sometimes the perfumer sends ideas and they work from those ideas.
Explaining the scent selection process, Lindsay says, “We try out different fragrance notes—things that we really like or things that are trending. We may tell them that we want, a little something extra. For example, they may curate a special kind of lavender and will send it to us and we will burn it and see how we like it. Then we will come up with our own ideas and send it back to them.”
Allison says, “We pride ourselves on our fragrances being multi-leveled, because none of our fragrances are very straightforward. Our flagship called the Archivist, which is the first established candle fragrance collection that we offered, is made up of eight multi-leveled, very interesting scents.” The Archivist collection has been around for seven years. And there is one scent that has been around for these seven years that is still very popular—lemon and cucumber.
Having a good nose is essential to the art of making scented candles. I wonder out loud about how they can continually smell the scents they create, the finished candles and their other products without getting mixed up. I think of wine tasting at Bucks County wineries. You taste one and it has a distinct bouquet with hints of fruit and other flavors. But as you go on to the second and third the wines begin to taste alike. Wouldn’t it be the same with candles? How can you, I ask, continually sniff these scents and be able to pick up all that there is to notice? Do you take breaks to go outside and get fresh air?
Allison says, “We use coffee beans.” Lindsay points to a small jar filled with coffee beans. Chris explains, “Coffee beans are strong, by smelling them we reset our palates.” I try it and sure enough I am ready to smell another candle without any lingering scent of the candle I sniffed before refreshing my palate.
Greenmarket candles are all white, but they come in decorative tumblers. The Tumblers are made of glass, pewter tin and hand crafted porcelain. They come in different colors with different lids. Some are in handsomely designed boxes and some need no boxes.
The candle collections all have interesting names, like The Archivist, Palm & Petal, Balsam & Feather, Awakening, Sand & Surf. For the Christmas season there are the wintery scents of the Splendor collection. New collections are always in the making and new scents are always being added to the collections.
Other products include reed diffusers that can be placed in a bottle with scented fragrances. The reeds absorb the liquid and diffuse fragrance. Matchboxes come in three different sizes and designs. There are also accessories such as wick trimmers and wick dippers.
Chris, Allison and Lindsay all have art backgrounds as do the other employees. As Lindsay says, “Coming from an art background is something very important to us. Whether it is fine art, graphic design or photography, art is part of who we are.”
Lindsay is in charge of sales and marketing. She also designs social media graphics, takes photographs for the catalogs and is always in touch with the sales force, wholesale customers and people in the industry. She says, “I love all of people we have met. I’m so excited when I hear how we sold out at a particular location or when people tell me how much they love our products. I like the network connections we have and hearing feedback from them. I like to meet other people in the industry. I may be on the phone with someone from California or Portland. Our customers are so varied and include shops, card stores, restaurants, salons and even museums.”
Allison heads up product development and is concerned with the look of the product, including the tumblers and labels, which she designs. Allison speaking of her job in product development says, “We are all involved with scent but I also design packages, and determine what are the right colors, the kind of boxes, the labels and how to create a different look for each line.” Allison likes the way her job interacts with her life in a seamless way with aspects of her job becoming part of her life and experiences from life giving her ideas for her job.
Chris is the production coordinator who makes things happen from the actual blending of the fragrance with the wax to fulfilling orders and the supervision of the other production employees who hand pour the wax. Chris says, “I am a hands on, make-everything-myself kind of person. When production opened up to me I got excited, because I am hands on, and I like to get dirty. I like to make things. I like to make the product, fill the orders, and I enjoy getting little love notes about their orders.”
All three of them are involved in every aspect of the process, from design to finished product. Allison says, “We work as a team, so we all wear many hats. It is ongoing and we are always developing the next thing.”
For information about Greenmarket Purveying Co. products, visit www.greenmarketpurveying.com.
Bob Waite is the editor of Bucks County Magazine.