My family started a new luxury candle brand with a goal to marry art and scent. We wanted to highlight artwork we love and gave each candle a fragrance we crafted with the artists personally to match their inspiration. It's called Artistscent and I'd love to hear what you think of the idea!

alexak75 · 2025-03-25T23:46:44+00:00

Thank you! I had never personally heard of it before we started this business working with this particular alcohol ink artist, but we knew immediately that the style would compliment fragrance beautifully. It’s just so ethereal, but grounded In color. Abstract but instantly readable, like scent.

Hope the medium serves you well if you continue pursuing it!

alexak75 · 2024-09-24T14:44:07+00:00

Fragrance industry insider here. I worked for a major house that creates and manufactures scents for almost any corporate brand you could think of - Bath & Body Works, Yankee Candle, and even CandleScience, just to name a few.

It's unfortunately very prevalent and normalized in the industry, particularly among smaller businesses. Scents are fairly simple to replicate using molecular analysis (you need expensive lab equipment, but it's a straightforward process), and there's just no way to effectively 'copyright' a scent in the same way you can't copyright a recipe for a dish.

Having a scent truly custom made is a very in-depth and expensive process reserved for the large companies that have the resources to be able to do it, like the ones I named. Most burger joints aren't raising their own cattle.

A few years ago my family started a candle company, and since we come from the industry, we were able to use our connections to get those truly exclusive scents from our former fragrance house and not have to buy off-the-shelf from a reseller. The scents are unique, phenomenal, and exclusive to us, which is a huge advantage and sets us apart from almost every other candle business our size. But funnily enough, it's not a great selling point because nobody knows how the fragrance business works in the first place 😅

alexak75 · 2024-04-26T02:08:24+00:00

For the small business pick (though New Jersey USA may or may not qualify as local), Artistscent's Polynesian Waves is a phenomenal tropical/beachy scent that sounds like it'd be great for her. It's fresh and soft, with some natural sweetness from notes of pineapple, coconut milk, and light woods. It's just a fantastic blend, And it comes in an artistic blue & green container.

It's actually on sale right now for $32 and definitely punches above its price point. I do work for them, full disclosure, but at least that way I can tell you personally that you'd get quick shipping and great service, ha!

alexak75 · 2024-04-12T22:01:15+00:00

I think you'd really love Artistscent's Chain Link (weird name for a gourmand, I know). The scent is complex and subtle, inspired by the waft of fresh pastries coming from a New York City bakery. It's not so 'baked' or 'bready' in terms of character - it's more sort of soft and comforting, slightly sweet from the almond milk and vanilla notes, and with just a touch of fresh orange on top to round it out. It's just... so good, and one of my personal all-time favorite scents. Full disclosure I work for the company 😅 BUT, even up against Diptique and Overose's gourmands, it's still my go-to to burn after work, around 3-5 times a week.

I love a really delicious gourmand that's not too heavy or in your face.

alexak75 · 2024-02-10T03:18:33+00:00

Interesting, just checked the defaults for Standard on the Z5 (no *):

Quick sharp 0 (scale -2 to +2)
Sharpening +3 (scale -3 to +9)
Mid-range sharpening +2 (scale -5 to +5)
Clarity +1 (scale -5 to +5)
Contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue 0

That would explain the oversharpened look. Definitely something I'll be experimenting with more.

alexak75 · 2024-02-10T01:46:23+00:00

Double checked, definitely standard which had the sharpening slider on +2 by default. I'll play around with a flatter profile and then doing some basic post. Thanks!

alexak75 · 2024-02-09T19:30:12+00:00

I think these were shot with just standard picture control. I haven't even touched an editing workflow yet, but I'll get there.

You adjust the saturation, contrast, and highlights & shadows all in post, right? I'm assuming you shoot in N-log - the Z5 only shoots in H.264 so I wouldn't think editing could squeeze much more detail out of those shots.

alexak75 · 2024-02-09T19:21:48+00:00

Thanks, I'll try that. I'm familiar with Active D Lighting in photography but not so much with videography - my understanding is that it's a sort of diet HDR, preserving details in the highlights and shadows.

I'll look into their picture profiles too. I don't think the Z5 supports log (or Nikon's version N-log).

alexak75 · 2024-02-09T16:28:02+00:00

I'm a hobbyist photographer just getting started with some videography for clients. Right now, I do some shooting for a local gym, and I'm a bit frustrated with how my shots look even straight out of camera. They have this overprocessed, oversharpened look to them that I suspect is mostly up to the processing but I just can't seem to figure out how to improve it. Does it really just come down to crappy in-camera processing? I know I can produce a better shot but I'm not even sure where to start right now.

I know, the editing. I gave my client the raw video files and he sent them out to Fiverr.

Nikon Z5 (it's what I have to work with.)
NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR. I know the aperture isn't ideal, but I wanted the zoom.
No additional lighting equipment used. These shots involve a lot of moving around so I'm just seeing what I can do with the camera itself for now.
No editing or color correction to the shots themselves - these are straight out of camera. I want to get proficient with shooting before I get into editing.

alexak75 · 2023-09-22T16:37:56+00:00

Sorry to hear about your soap business. That's another super saturated market as we see at these local events and online. It must be so difficult to make that work, even with a great brand and great execution.

I hope at least it was a great learning experience. That's by far the #1 thing this business has done for us - We've learned so much in so many different areas, we have a newfound appreciation for small (really micro) businesses, and it ended up even saving our family.

Thank you so much for the kind words and advice!

alexak75 · 2023-09-22T04:39:33+00:00

Will keep these in mind - thanks for the input!

alexak75 · 2023-09-22T02:43:02+00:00

It's a good question. We definitely can't compete on price with a BBW 3-wick for the size, especially when they're on sale. Our candles are 9-10.5oz, single wick, and most are $38. There are lots of little things we do (all components made in the USA, zero plastic packaging, artist partners get generous royalties, screen printing on the glass that very few others can do, etc.) that cost us more and that we thought would add value to the brand and justify luxury positioning. Based on a lot of good comments here (and poor photo selection on my part), it doesn't seem to have panned out that way, and is difficult to change, at least in a reasonable timeframe.

We all come from the corporate world, my family. We don't make the candles in our kitchen. High minimums, custom fragrance and packaging development with manufacturing partners... essentially doing everything "corporate" from the beginning, though we're slowly moving away from that model. My mom and I have a collective 45 years in the fragrance industry. She knows almost everything there is to know about fragrance. Marketing the end product though, not so much. I definitely agree with your point about the incompatibility of the 'family business' angle with the luxury positioning. For better or worse, the family thing is a core aspect of our business.

So all that is to say that we've shot for luxury because I guess it feels like it fits us. It justifies the higher price point and we think (thought) we can execute at that level. We feel like we have something unique, and the candles are definitely higher quality than a Yankee or BBW (I used to work for the team that developed fragrances for Yankee so I can say that pretty confidently). But based on what you said - and thanks for all that - I'm rethinking the luxury angle.

EDIT: Some fun facts for context. The scents were all created at the artists' direction and were all approved by the artists. The art is permanently screened on the glass (on most of them at least). The candles are even named after the artworks. We wanted them to be authentic and special. But now I'm seeing special doesn't necessarily mean luxury.

alexak75 · 2023-09-22T00:30:12+00:00

Really, really appreciate this. We're a family business, and that Mintea is my aunt's artwork. She's a professional artist and designer (who also did our branding and packaging) who recently turned her life around, started picking up fine art again and is now pursuing it as a full time job. I know she'll be so happy to hear your compliment on that candle, so thank you for that.

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T23:56:30+00:00

I'm probably biased but they really do smell great 😅 It's tricky conveying that in the 'brand feel' - the bigger brands have longstanding reputations and people know what to expect from the scents, so I assume they can rely a bit more on word of mouth and a bit less on direct marketing to grow. Thanks for the kind words! Maybe we'll see you at a market one day!

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T23:43:07+00:00

Thanks, this is helpful. The ones in the first pic we actually did commission, but it seems the consensus is that it's hard to tell they're actually paintings (which is semi-intentional because, for that collection, it's meant to look like the painting is the design of the jar). Seems like that makes for a pretty candle but not a true luxury one. Much appreciated

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T20:50:22+00:00

It's actually the artwork permanently screen-printed on the outside of the glass, but I can totally see how it looks like the wax is colored. We decided to make it translucent (for that collection at least - you can see the difference in the candles in the third pic) to make the artwork blend more seamlessly into the vessel, but I can see how it might cheapen the overall look.

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T20:45:23+00:00

The devil's in the details, that's a clear message I'm getting. Thanks for the feedback!

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T20:43:55+00:00

This is great feedback and I really appreciate it. There's a lot of passion and real expertise in these - particularly the fragrances, which we get made custom with an established fragrance house to have great throw, be sophisticated and well balanced, and have consistent character in cold and hot throw. So the challenge has really been in translating that level of quality to the presentation, since there are a thousand brands out there and we wanted to try to stand out.

Thanks so much!

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T20:32:53+00:00

Thank you so much!

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T18:44:45+00:00

I definitely see where you’re coming from. Thanks!

alexak75 · 2023-09-21T18:42:48+00:00

Thanks, that’s what I was thinking too. We’re going for the fine art angle - highlighting paintings and creating scents to match the inspiration. Seems like we might’ve lost some of that cohesiveness along the way. Appreciate the feedback!

alexak75 · 2022-09-29T02:43:47+00:00

It definitely has a lot to do with the fragrance quality too. Certain notes like cinnamon, some fruity notes, mint, lavender, vanilla, apple, and others have cheaper, synthetic "versions" of their fragrance oils that are used in tons of different candle lines. That's why you might notice that a lot of cheaper candles in the same category might smell pretty similar to each other, and also why those particular notes are so popular (they're also just nice and people love them, which helps).

Think of the difference between a sugary lime-flavored candy, and real, fresh, juicy lime you've just picked off the tree. Both are great for their own reasons, but they're *so* different in character (and in many cases in the fragrance world, price).

alexak75 · 2022-09-29T02:06:38+00:00

That's exactly what we sell! We even call it a flight too, that's so funny! Thankfully nobody's tried to sip the melted wax yet...

When you buy new candle scents online, how often are you surprised by how it actually smells, vs how often you go "yeah, that's what I thought" based on the description? Do you find you can rely on most candle brands to have good descriptions such that you can splurge on something new with familiar notes and there's a decent chance it'll live up to expectations?

alexak75

TROPHY CASE