What was your trigger as a creator?
I always had a creative mind. During my studies, I held small positions as a decorator and scenographer for cinema and theater. I was a window dresser for a brand in the United States and Canada. In a way, I’ve always made sure to have this creative loophole. Once in Berlin, my creative flair was expressed through the creation of the perfumes of my candles and that’s where Garden State Candles was born.
Could you tell us in a few words the beginnings of your brand?
Garden State Candles bloomed in April 2017 at home in my kitchen. Inspired by my travels and my fondest memories, I started developing recipes of perfumes that I offered as gifts to my friends, before selling them on the markets at weekends.
The reactions were so positive that they encouraged me to launch a crowd funding to offer me a suitable studio for candle making. After a few months, countless sleepless nights and with a bit of luck I opened my shop in Berlin. All our candles are made on site, and the space also allows us to offer workshops creative.
The essential values in the design of your brand / products?
At Garden State Candles, we are convinced that we can combine natural and olfactory quality. We create unique fragrances by mixing essential oils with botanical oils, no phthalates, parabens and no GMOs. We bring immense attention to craftsmanship. Each candle is carefully mixed and poured by hand into amber glass jars that can be recycled.
With the goal of making our homes more ethical and healthy: soy wax is biodegradable, has no black smoke, is non-polluting, and non-toxic. Finally, our raw materials come from renewable and pesticide-free soybean plantations.
Natural * Handmade * Vegan
Your green routine every day?
We try to be the most eco-friendly possible in our personal and professional lives. At home, we use green energy and we sort our waste, glass, paper very carefully and we try to avoid plastic as much as possible. In Germany, we have a system pfand, which encourages and facilitates daily recycling. My beauty and wellbeing routine begins with either a meditation session or a bit of running (because I am preparing mentally and physically for the Berlin Marathon this fall). My beauty ritual is very simple: a cleansing of the skin, a little anti-ring and two drops of nourishing oils. Like the brand I wanted to create, I strive to make my life minimalist by the day – a vision that is reflected in the DNA of Garden State Candles.
