A Scent-sational Time

Craft your own candle at Southern Gent Candle Company.

Caitlin Campbell, owner of Southern Gent Candle Company, launched the brand after realizing there was a gap in the candle market for complex, masculine-scented candles. She set out to master blending scents and then curated her own original line of candles.

The making of Southern Gent scents

When Caitlin started formulating her candles, she began with the candles’ names before she ever began mixing scents. The first candle was named Gingham. “Gingham is a print, right?” Caitlin says. “So I’m thinking of a cotton button-up shirt in the summertime. What does that smell like? There’s cotton and clothesline, but we also include scents that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to put your finger on, like rosemary and sage. Together, they come together to create this experience.” Blending multiple notes, Caitlin worked to create a familiar, cozy cotton scent. Her finalized formula for Gingham includes notes of cotton, cedar, bergamot, rosemary, and sage.

The majority of Southern Gent candles have four to five layered scents that create an experience. The mix of scents makes each whiff of wax reminiscent of a particular ambience or memory. Caitlin hand pours each of her soy wax candles in her shop in Rocheport, carefully portioning out ingredients so that shoppers can consistently travel back to their favorite scents.

The build your own candle bar

After creating the Southern Gent Candle Company, Caitlin wanted to share the excitement of candle making with others. “I thought, ‘It’d be cool to have more for people to do while they’re in town at bedand-breakfasts and for girls’ trips, et cetera,’ ” Caitlin explains. While you can buy her candles at Southern Provisions (Caitlin’s other shop nearby that sells home goods, textiles, and more), Southern Gent Candle Co. & Candle Bar is where visitors can make their own candles. Walk-in classes are offered summer through early winter. Scheduled classes are offered year-round.

The group classes begin with time to mingle and gather with friends. Caitlin encourages attendees to bring along their favorite snacks and drinks to the candle-making classes. Once her guests are settled in, Caitlin introduces them to scent theory. “I don’t know if you remember the color wheel from high school art. Well, we have a scent wheel,” Caitlin says. After exploring scent theory, visitors get to try using their new knowledge with a game of Guess the Scent and Candle Trivia. Caitlin says it’s important to her that her guests have fun and that they leave with more knowledge about the craft of candle making than when they walked in.

“We get their minds thinking, ‘What might work well together?’ ” she says.

After selecting their scents, guests choose a vessel to be home to their new creation. Caitlin offers jars, ceramic tumblers, and thrifted options, such as colored glass dishes, rustic cups, or teacups. The class duration is around 45 minutes, but candles must be allowed to properly set for one hour post-creation. Caitlin encourages visitors to walk around and enjoy Rocheport.

An eco-friendly choice

Southern Gent Candle Company offers an eco-friendly alternative to paraffin wax candles. “We use a soy and coconut wax blend for several reasons,” Caitlin says. “First, they’re nontoxic. They don’t release chemicals and are also shown to be less likely to trigger allergies. Soy is also a renewable resource and is biodegradable, contains no petroleum or paraffin, has a longer burn time, and has less smoke and soot.”

Southern Gent Candle Company also offers refills. Customers can take home a card recording their scents or write it on the candle vessel. If a customer burns the last of a candle and misses the signature scent, he or she can buy a refill. Some customers refill their vessels with new scents. Either way, Caitlin will mix and pour the candle and have it set while customers walk on the Katy Trail or explore other shops in Rocheport.

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For more information, visit RocheportBoutique.com and SouthernGentCandles.com.

This article was originally published in the January/February edition of Missouri Life.

All photos by Sydney Jones.