About Us

Even in my early twenties, I had been called a grumpy old man—and now that age is catching up with me, the title is, admittedly, more appropriate than ever. But buried deep down inside every stubborn, grumpy old man remains a sense of wonder and curiosity, even if they don't let the world see it.

The Grumpy Candle Company is the result of that exact combination of stubborn and curious. See, for years, I refused to throw away the dregs of old, store brand candles. You've probably had this happen; you get down to the last quarter-or-so of the candle and something happens to it. Either you've tunneled you way down to the bottom but left inch-thick wax all around the jar, or the wick has curled over and drowned itself in wax, never letting you reach the bottom of the candle at all.

Throwing all of this away felt wasteful. So I saved them. And saved them. And saved them. Until one day I melted them all down and recycled them into a brand new candle of about a hundred different layers of fragrances.

As it turned out, this was pretty fun, so I figured why not try making my own?

Curiosity led me down the rabbit hole, and this rabbit hole runs deep. The sheer variety of wicks, waxes, fragrances, and so on—not to mention the complexity of testing these combinations to find which wick works best with which wax (say that ten times fast) in all of those possible variables and varieties.

This process also taught me all of my candle woes over the years were perfectly avoidable if I'd taken proper care of my candles to begin with. All of the tunneling and drowned wicks that brought me to this point never had to happen in the first place. Who knew?

My candles might not look like much—this grumpy old man doesn't have much of an artistic flair—but that means quality is the focus above all. You won't be disappointed.