Candwax has been making candles since 2019. Three kinds of wax, 35 colors, and around 1.5 million candles a year — mostly tapers, pillars and votives.
Ten people work on the brand. One of them, Valeria, reads every message a customer sends us.
Candles are meant to be burned
We started because we liked long dinners with friends and candles on the table. There was a running joke among us — that candles are meant to be burned, not kept in a drawer waiting for an occasion that never quite arrives. Tapers and pillars were the first things we made, because those are the candles people actually put on a table.
That is the whole origin. No workshop passed down through generations.
Our production
We don't buy candles from a catalog and put our name on the box. We run our own candle production across two countries, and both sites work to our shapes, our colors and Pantone references, our packaging and our quality control. The pour, the wicks and the wax formulation happen on the factory floor — we have been there and watched all of it.
A building finished in 1798
One of the two manufactures is the building completed in 1798. For most of its life it was a Catholic church. The postcard below was printed in 1916, when it was still in use as one.
Part of what the business earns goes into restoring it. New production inside old walls is slower and more expensive than a shed on an industrial estate, and we decided it was worth it.
35 colors, and how we keep them the same
Color is why most people choose us, and color is the hardest thing to hold steady across a production run.
We work to physical Pantone references agreed with production before a run starts. We check the color three times: during production, until the run is signed off; when the batch reaches the warehouse; and periodically while that batch is on sale.
One box is one batch. Twelve candles from a single box are the same shade. Two boxes bought six months apart may not be — which is why, if you need twelve, it is worth ordering twelve at once rather than four now and four later.
A new color joins the range once a year. We look at where color is heading twelve months ahead, decide what people will actually want on a table, and it takes about six months from that decision to a candle you can buy.
We burn them before you do
Burn testing happens at production, in dedicated test boxes. Then we do it again ourselves — every incoming batch is burned in our own office before it goes on sale.
That is where the burn times we publish come from. It is also how we catch a batch that behaves differently from the last one.
What customers have changed
Three things on this list exist because people told us they were wrong.
The dyes. Some colors were fading faster than they should have. We changed them.
The base of the candle. The old shape did not sit properly in standard holders. We changed it.
The box. Candles were arriving broken, so we redesigned the packaging: a cardboard divider between every candle, and a non-plastic insert that grips them at the top so nothing shifts in transit. The box recycles with cardboard.
None of that came out of a strategy session. It came out of the inbox.
When something goes wrong
Candles break in transit. Wax is brittle, boxes get dropped, and no amount of packaging makes that impossible. So the part that matters is what happens next.
Write to us and Valeria will answer, usually within 12 hours — up to 24 in the busy season. The same person stays with your case from the first message to the last. She hands it over only if she is away, or if the case needs to go to our manager.
Here is the actual procedure, so you know what you are getting into:
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Send your order number and a photo or video of what arrived.
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If half the candles or more are damaged, you choose: a replacement or a refund.
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If fewer than half are damaged, we refund the damaged ones.
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If you have ordered from us three or more times in a year, we send a replacement either way, whatever the count.
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Replacements ship at our cost, normally one to three days in transit. The carrier controls that part, not us. We send you the tracking and check back to make sure what arrived was intact.
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Refunds are issued as soon as the case is agreed. The money can take up to seven days to appear, depending on your bank and payment method — that part is out of our hands too.
One case, as an example
A customer who had ordered from us five times wrote to say her candles had arrived melted. Somewhere in the conversation it came out that an earlier order — from 2025 — had arrived the same way, and she had simply not written to us at the time.
We replaced both. The one she wrote about, and the one she didn't.
What we won't do
We will not sell a batch we know is bad. If we see poor material at production, or a run comes out wrong, we rework it or write it off. That is slower and more expensive than shipping it and dealing with the reviews afterwards, and it is the answer we take.
Write to us
info@candwax.com — Our customer service specialist Valeria will answer all of your questions.