How I Leveled Up Life Through My Love of Candles

It seems crazy when people ask me "Why candles?" and my answer spans an actual decade and gets deep in the feels of life. Most of the time I share the simplified version and say "I really love candles and I got sick of the waste created when I burned them" and I leave out all the dark stuff.

It never was really just about candles. It was about the feeling candles gave me.

Rewind...

Just over ten years ago I found myself thrown into a completely new stage of life. Newly divorced with shared custody of my three kids. I went from a stay at home mom with negative hours of alone time, to an eternity every week spent listening to the suffocating silence of my depressing child free home.

The loneliness of those days was literal hell. I had spent years giving everything to my kids and family so just chillin' by myself every other weekend was like spending the weekend in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language or know a soul. I had no idea who I was outside of being a wife and a mom. So I did what so many of us do in those situations, I just ignored it, masked it and avoided allll the things. I filled every minute of my day with anything that would keep me busy. I never allowed myself to rest, I had no boundaries, I said yes to everyone and everything and I led myself straight into a very unhealthy lifestyle of a poor diet, lack of sleep and massively increased anxiety and depression.

I never had an Aha moment...I just knew at some point the sh*t show needed to cease and I needed to rediscover who the f*ck I really was. I needed to find some joy, and fast af.

So I took myself down to my fave little candle store, with my 1/2 off coupon in hand, because ..single mom life, and I bought myself a crap ton of candles. That week I lit a candle each night after work, put on my jazz music, poured a glass of wine and cooked myself a meal.

That little kitchen vibe led to a cozy fall day on the couch, candle lit, my fave jammies, and a spooky book.

From there, the self discovery and healing began and the candles kept burning. It was f'n awesome.

Until it wasn't.

I got sick of spending my reading and wine drinking time trying to pry wax out of jars, the literal worst, and peel those satanical labels off just so I could recycle the jars. It was seriously annoying. It took me almost ten years to find a way to fix the problem.

I had a whole epiphany and knew there had to be a way to create a refill, and because I have ADHD, I hyper-focused on finding a way to make it happen. Literally, never made a candle before in my life.

After researching candle production, industry standards, supplies and materials, my vision grew and a desire to build a brand with purpose became my focus. Armed with a new awareness of the toxins found in many mass produced store bought candles, along with the lack of sustainability practices within the industry, it seemed like a problem I could totally handle!

Those discoveries ultimately shaped every practice within the company, and the product I deliver.
Choosing the highest quality materials including a luxurious, coconut wax, free of toxins, parabens, and phthalates, and phthalate free fragrances, I perfected the candles and the refills and started an entire company.

I can be a little extra so, I didn't stop there.

Determined to deliver an elevated vessel, (fancy candle talk for a candle jar) I begged my husband, Jon, to become a master of concrete art. He's a gem, so he did so without hesitation, and he created a vessel aligned with my vision of craftsmanship and minimalistic beauty.

The candle line is my passion project, perfected in-house, and is the cornerstone of my company. I'm so proud of the Noura Blanc brand. A brand that is beautiful in design and purposeful in philosophy. A brand that has led me on an entire new path of life, sharing so much more than just candles with all of you!

LISTEN TO MY STORY ON THE PODCAST (COMING SEPT 19)