Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack & Karen Cunningham
Hi Jack & Karen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
We are Manhattan’s only candle shop where you can create your own custom scent to put in a candle or one of our other available products. Karen found the concept in St Louis while on a trip with our oldest son. We both went back later and tried it out. We loved the concept and spoke with the owner, finding out it was not a franchise. We spent time researching and decided that Manhattan would love it and on June 1st of 2021 we open our doors in the Manhattan Town Center Mall. While it was going well, we knew we wanted to be in the Downtown area and after 2 1/2 years, we were able to move onto Poyntz Ave in Downtown Manhattan. We have come a long way, expanding both our create your own products and our Signature Scents.
We hand craft all of our products in house in small batches. We use 100% soy wax in all of our wax products and cotton paper wicks in our candles for a clean burn.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Since we are not a franchise, we have had to research and learn how to do everything ourselves. The create your own candle concept is not well know, so getting our name out there in a way that people can understand what we do has been tough.
We have also had to figure out all the procedures on how to run a create your own candle shop. Setting up the layout, the methods, and even how and where to put the candles to set has been an ongoing process for us.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What sets us apart from other candle stores is our Signature scents and that we use 100% soy wax. Our most popular candles are all part of our Kansas Collection, which features Kansas and Oz themed candles, such as Kansas Cowboy, Kansas Cowgirl, The Sunflower State, Enchanted, and Emerald City to name a few. We have created those fragrances ourselves, so you can only find them through us. We have quite a few other signature scents as well, such as Duck Farts, His & Her Dirty Little Secret and others.
When we started, our initial research showed that some waxes can be harmful to pets, so we wanted to avoid those at all costs. We decided to use 100% soy wax and cotton/paper wicks. Soy wax is a renewable wax that is safe to burn around pets. We have 6 dogs in the house and we wanted to make sure anything we used was safe to use around them. One of the drawbacks to 100% soy wax is that it is difficult to work with and doesn’t always look good when it finishes setting. But we were determined and over time we figured out how to create amazing candles that look amazing too.
We are most proud of our fundraising efforts. We starting offering fundraising right away and over the years we have been able to help quite a few local clubs, schools, and organizations raise over $12,000 to date selling candles and car fresheners.
We can also go mobile and bring candle making to you. We have had several events where we traveled to other locations so groups could make candles. These events are becoming more and more popular.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up we weren’t much different than we are now. Jack is into numbers and the science behind things and Karen is the creative mind and customer service orientated one. This is why we work so well together in the store, our skills and talents mesh well.
Pricing:
- Custom Candles range from $16 to $54
- Other Custom Products from $6 to $25
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fragrantblendscandlebar.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fragrantblendscandlebar/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FragrantBlendsCandleBar
