Candle Kitchen in Grand Junction

We were walking down the sidewalk on Main Street in downtown Grand Junction when we saw a wood board with an arrow pointing to “Candle Kitchen GJ”. I had heard about it but had never been inside so we turned onto 5^th Street to check it out. It was amazing!

At Candle Kitchen GJ you can buy soy candles on the spot. They have other related products as well, like car fresheners and wax cubes. A great place to shop for a gift for someone or yourself! They opened in 2018 and offer over 160 scents! Here’s their website. https://www.candlekitchengj.com

Here’s how they describe it.

“Our candles are all Soy Wax with Cotton wick and our fragrances are either a high quality, skin safe fragrance oil or essential oils! Even our 8 oz candles burn for over 60 hours, and the scent is evenly blended through top to bottom!”

We sniffed a lot of scents that day and decided I would come back to create some custom scented candles of my own. I have a family event coming up and I thought it would be fun to make small candles for everyone. They sell pretty glass containers at the store, or you can bring in our own glass or ceramic containers for your custom candles.

 

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Candle Making Preparation

I wanted to make small candles, so I went to Goodwill and bought a variety of small drink glasses for about $1.12 or $1.59 each. We also had some small fruit mason jars on hand. I took all 13 to Candle Kitchen GJ on a Saturday morning and made candles for my mom, sisters, nieces and nephews, my kids, and of course, a couple for myself. It was a blast!

I brought in my box of jars. They cleaned them and measured how much wax would go into each one. When you bring your own jar, you pay for wax by the ounce. You don’t make a reservation. It’s first come, first served. They do have a private room if you have a group who want to make candles.

I made a list of about a dozen scents I wanted to use, and they brought over the bottles of essential oils plus little sniffing tins so I could experience what it might smell like if I combined scents.

Making Custom Candles

I started with the Margarita scent because it seemed like a great candle scent. From there I made candles with mountain smells like juniper, fir, spruce, pine, and sage. I made some with Palisade peach, pear, mango, eucalyptus, goji berry, jasmine, lavender, and lavender fields (slightly different). I used some unique scents like green tea too.

A woman near me mentioned tobacco and I thought, hmm, tobacco? I paired that with brandy and it made one of my favorite candles! For most of them I just blended two scents, like lavender and sage, others I added three or four. I added coconut to one that needed a hint of sweet. They have floral, fruits, spices, summer scents, the great outdoors, and spirits. So many unique ones, like desert, earth, and morning dew! And many more masculine scents too. Candles are great for all people! They list all the scents on their website.

Nikki and Teagan were working that day and both were absolutely terrific. Helping me determine what might make a good blend. Nikki instructed me on the process, how I measure out my essential oils, checking the smell as I went along, then adding it to the hot wax in my jar and stirring it for a minute to make sure it blends with the wax.

It was busy that morning with several small groups coming in while I was there, but I never felt like I was waiting on them. They were masters at keeping everyone moving through the creative process.

Pickup Later

I came back two and a half hours later to pick up my hardened candles. They had cleaned the edges to make them look nice, straighten the wicks, and put a final glaze on the top to finish them off. Nikki applied the handwritten labels I had made to the bottom of each candle.

I am so excited to take these to my family event in Michigan and let everyone smell them and pick their favorite! And, when my candles are done, I can bring my jars back and refill them!

Make your own candles at Candle Kitchen GJ!

I would highly recommend doing this with a small group of friends or just yourself. I had a great time just me. Whether you live in Grand Junction or are just visiting, I would add this to your list. You can purchase pre-done candles too in some very cool scents that you probably won’t find elsewhere. What a great memento of your experience in Grand Junction.

Guest post written by Michelle Aspelin

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