Ah, the inaugural blog post for Grumpy Candle Co! This will surely be a ramble as there's a lot I'd like to cover.

First, I've finally assembled an About page. I'm not very good at talking about myself so, as simple as it may be, it took quite some time to write it.

Next, I'd like to tackle some holiday post-mortem, just in case any of you find it particularly interesting.

Fall Post-Mortem

Fall and Christmas are both big seasons for candles, and this was my first year navigating both of them. I've learned some things from both, but I can't say I've mastered either of them yet. Right now, my reach is still small enough that I can't make too many judgment calls on what worked or what didn't. It'd be easy to jump to conclusions, but I'm stopping myself from doing so. Notes are being taken, but I don't want to make any hard decisions quite yet.

Fall's lineup was quite thin, with only two seasonal additions: Pumpkin Crunch and Apple Cider Donut. To me, pumpkin is the definitive fall flavor; it's something I truly love. Any and all pumpkin baked goods are right up my alley and I look forward to them year after year—but Pumpkin Crunch really didn't make much of a splash, which I find terribly unfortunate.

I can't help but wonder if the rise of "pumpkin spice" has sullied pumpkin's good name, driving people away from pumpkin in general. Pumpkin Crunch has notes of spice, certainly, but it's much more of a baked good fragrance, closer to a spiced cake rather than the spiced coffee drink that so many find off-putting these days. I really do think more people would enjoy it if they gave it a chance, but reality is what it is, so this fragrance may not see a return in Fall 2024.

It might also be the case that double-dipping into baked goods for the Fall season set Pumpkin Crunch up to fail. Apple Cider Donut fared better in comparison, and it might be that customers who were only going to choose one picked Apple Cider Donut.

But again, Grumpy was only just getting off the ground during this season, so it isn't as if I have a large sample size to work from here.

Whatever the case may be, I do have some stock left of each of these. It isn't Fall anymore, but if you're the sort to enjoy baked good scented candles, both of these are on clearance right now.

Christmas Post-Mortem

The company-launch scramble was still in full swing for Christmas, but I was getting my feet underneath me and I feel the season had much better results. (Albeit not with product photos; I hadn't received my new lightbox yet so the best I could do was MSPaint Masterpieces.) The Christmas seasonal lineup was split right down the middle between traditional and experimental fragrances:

• Fraser Fir
• Holiday Fig
• Reindeer Snacks
• Elf Farts

Three out of four saw pretty balanced sales. Fraser Fir, Holiday Fig, and Elf Farts all did well. I'm particularly glad Elf Farts saw sales, as its branding alone was a gamble; would such a silly name pique peoples' curiosity, or would they find it gross and off-putting? Luckily, it seems like everyone was in good humor about it. And I'm glad, because it really is a fun holiday fragrance.

If I had to choose a personal favorite from the Christmas lineup, it would be Holiday Fig; even though I have no prior associations with figs, there was a festive essence to this one that made the air seem magical. And a fair few people agreed; I heard quite often that this was the favorite of the bunch.

For Holiday 2024, it's very likely that Reindeer Snacks won't make a return. Its spiced potpourri vibes were nice, but I'm not sure it really grabbed anyone; and it's entirely possible that the festive vibes it brought to the table were simply done better by Holiday Fig. By eliminating Reindeer Snacks from the roster, I can try tackling an aspect of Christmas I may have overlooked in 2023. In the meantime, I have most of a year to contemplate requests, suggestions, and ideas of my own.

If you want to get your hands on Reindeer Snacks while you still can, the stock I have left is still available on clearance. There's even a couple of Elf Farts still kicking around.

Valentine's Day Post-Mortem

This holiday technically isn't over yet at the time of writing, but it's close enough to the holiday that I cannot possibly ship anything that will arrive by February 14. As such, we can still viably call this a post-mortem.

Valentine's Day was an interesting one, because there were a few factors at play here. I won't go as far as to say sales were poor, because they weren't. Sales were just strange and spread thin.

Sales were spread thin because I, ultimately, released too many fragrances at one time. I knew I was going overboard, but I failed to restrain myself. Not only did I release all of my Valentine's day seasonals, but I also launched a few others in addition to those: the long-awaited coffee fragrance and another fruit fragrance in Juicy Peach, the Jelly Beans candle for Easter, and Mint Milkshake to align with a certain shamrocky dairy beverage that comes out this time of year. Not to mention finally releasing Grumpy wax melts. It was a lot. I should have spaced these out much better.

The other issue with my Valentine's Day lineup is, I feel, an issue of branding and in-person sales vs. online sales. This is a lesson learned, and one I appreciate.

My in-person sales saw a lot of success with Him and Her. They performed quite well right out of the gate. But once I had them available online, they really didn't sell well at all. In fact, through online sales, I only sold two of each of those.

On the flipside, Goth GF (which is my favorite of the bunch) sold well both in-person and online. In-person, people could smell it, and they purchased it based off of the fragrance. Online, all people have to go on is product name and description. I suspect Goth GF did well online where the others didn't for the same reason Elf Farts did so well for me at Christmas: their names have meme power. Their silliness is attention-grabbing. They both genuinely smell fantastic, but you cannot smell them online. Their branding is much more important.

This fills me with some regret, because I second-guessed myself and renamed Him and Her in the minutes just before printing my labels for them. Those weren't their names the entire time they were in development. The plan all along had been to go into Valentine's Day with my tongue in my cheek, treat it a little silly, a little over-the-top. While in development, these candles were called:

• Tall, Dark, and Handsome
• Tall, Blonde, and Buxom

I changed them because I feared those names would be a little off-putting... and also, a little more awkward to present in-person. But in hindsight, I feel like that branding would have performed much better online. If nothing else, it would've maintained consistency with my thematic intent of being silly.

Ultimately, I'm going to give Valentine's Day seasonals another shot next year with the lessons I've learned from this year. If Valentine's Day still underperforms, then I may cull the holiday from my future plans altogether. Again, I'm taking notes, but I'm not jumping to conclusions yet.

All of these fragrances are still available, including the discounted Valentine's Day bundle. This is also the first holiday where all of the seasonal scents are available in wax melts.

Spring Mystery

In addition to the excessive number of fragrances I released for the first part of this year, I was also developing a number of Springtime scents. At this point, though, I cannot realistically add these to my lineup; my next realistic chance to add to the lineup will be Summertime. As such, even though I have some great Spring fragrances, I can't really do anything with them.

Or can I?

While supplies last, I'll be making small batches of these candles to add to my Mystery Candle roulette. Mystery Candles are always priced at a discounted $13/each—but if you go to checkout with anything else in your cart, you'll receive a prompt to add a Mystery Candle (or however many you'd like) to your cart at an even better discount of $10/each.

So go and get yourself in a Springtime mood—add something to your cart, maybe the appropriately seasonal Jelly Beans for Easter, and add some Mystery to your life on the way to check out. You won't regret it! Promise.