Russell Santos - Creator & Founder of Santos Candles

A career shift from being furloughed due to Covid-19 and a drive to build something creatively brought Russell Santos to found Santos Candles. As the fonder and creator behind Los Angeles based Santos Candles, Russell makes small batch candles out of his home studio, overseeing the entire production process from scents to branding. Russell’s favorite Santos Candles scent is White tea, and he is drawn to herbal, citrus, woody, and floral scents. The candle scents range from Apple Harvest to Sea Salt & Orchid to Grapefruit & Mangosteen, and beyond. “I try my best to put scents in my shop that is my definition of clean and fresh smelling.” Since launching during quarantine, Santos Candles have been purchased by individuals for themselves and as gifts for loved ones because the candles freshen up their spaces. Santos Candles also creates sustainable and mindful product using all natural wax, clean burning cotton wicks, natural fragrance oils, and glass and aluminum candle packaging. The choice of his last name as the brand’s name was a way to connect to his family, “My hope with Santos Candles is to bring my family’s story to life and have its legacy live on. To me, this is my version of venturing into new endeavors with hopes of making my family proud.” Santos Candles continues to build and create fresh and comforting scents, including new scents for the holiday season.

santoscandles.com
@santoscandles

What is the inspiration behind Santos Candles?
I always wanted to start my own e-commerce business as an outlet to be creative outside of my regular 9-5 corporate job. I always knew that I wanted my business to have genuine love and passion as the backbone, and I wanted to start something on my own from the ground up. Then, I came across the idea of candles as I have always been a candle enthusiast for many years. I started experimenting with making candles in the beginning of March. Then, I got furloughed from my 9-5 towards the end of March. Being jobless due to the pandemic really urged me to keep pushing and start my own candle business as a way for me to start fresh and for people to enjoy their own spaces as we went into quarantine. I eventually figured out how to make the perfect candle and realized how much fun I was having in the process. Those late nights of candle making really made me realize how therapeutic the process was and made me forget about my recent shortcomings. Those moments of wanting to seek a creative outlet and losing my job really is the story and inspiration of how my business started. I would say that I am most proud that my business was built off of genuine love for candles and pure curiosity.

How significant is it to have your name as part of the brand?
When I was trying to figure out the name I was having a hard time connecting to one. I really just kept it simple and thought about what made me start my business. This essentially was my own way of starting fresh and venturing into the unknown which reminded me of my family's immigration story. My family immigrated to the U.S. from Manila, Philippines in 1979 to seek a better life and of course, the American Dream. Hearing their stories of struggles and sacrifice has always pushed me to do my best growing up. Whether at school or at work, I wanted to prove to them that their sacrifices were all worth it at the end. My hope with Santos Candles is to bring my family’s story to life and have its legacy live on. To me, this is my version of venturing into new endeavors with hopes of making my family proud.

Santos Candles recently launched, what goes into building a brand?
I have been in business for a little over 5 months now and so far it's a lot more work that I thought it would be! There are so many aspects that go into creating your own brand. I am forever grateful to say that I got a lot of support these past few months and seeing people's feedback is really what keeps me going. It is definitely humbling and a learning process for me. I was able to learn how to make candles on my own, test out different variations and scents, learn online marketing (Instagram and Facebook), understand legality aspects, dive into influencer marketing, ship and fulfill effectively, and the list goes on! There are a lot of other items that I am currently trying to quickly learn or improve, but nonetheless I am always eager to learn and improve. Everyday is definitely different.

How has launching a brand during quarantine affected how you work?
I would say launching a candle business during quarantine specifically was beneficial because there was a demand for e-commerce and candles in general. There were a lot of people who had to adjust to working from home and really wanted their own space to have the right productive and fresh vibe with candles. In addition to people buying for themselves, I also saw a lot of orders where people were sending these candles as quarantine gifts to their friends and family. To me, this is really what made me happy and feel like I did something awesome. I love that people really trust Santos Candles in delivering that sense of comfort with these gifts. Everything is always hand-poured by me and seeing people tag my candles in their own spaces still makes me speechless sometimes because a lot of thought and care are put into each and every candle. I'm happy that people are enjoying these creations and this really keeps me motivated to keep pushing.

What is your favorite part about the process of creating a candle?
I would say my most favorite part about creating a candle is the pouring. Candle making is all about the temperature and timing, and it can get very tedious at times. You want to ensure that you melt the wax up to the right temperature, add the fragrance oil at the right temperature, let the hot mixture cool at a specific temperature, and eventually pour. Currently, I do everything by hand on top of a stove top which is very time consuming as the batches are a bit small. So naturally, I would say pouring the wax mixture into the candle jars is my absolute favorite part about creating a candle, haha! It's like a breath of fresh air seeing the wax fill up the jars.

What are some of your favorite scents? And how do you choose scents that work well together?
I would say my all time favorite scent would be White Tea in our shop. It is such a clean and effortless scent that really makes your space feel so bright and airy with notes of mandarin, jasmine, white tea and chrysanthemum. I am naturally drawn to scents that have herbal, citrus, woody, and floral notes. I am not too big on decadent sweet scents, but currently I have been testing out some holiday scents and I might have to change my mind! When it comes to choosing scents, I do my research on what is selling in the market and then I fine tune it to my liking. I try my best to put scents in my shop that is my definition of clean and fresh smelling. My initial 7 scents in our Everyday Collection were selected to be effortless and year round scents for any space.

How important is sustainability in creating candles?
Creating a sustainable candle line is very important to me. I wanted to create clean-burning candles that not only set the vibe for any space, but was non-toxic and good for our homes. I make sure to choose the best materials to ensure sustainability. The candle wax is an all-natural, vegan, biodegradable, and paraffin-free soy wax made from soybeans grown in the USA. The lead and zinc-free wicks are flat-braided cotton wicks with paper threads woven into the cotton. Also, our fragrance oils used are 100% phthalate-free. Knowing that we use glass and aluminum for packaging is perfect for those that want to up-cycle their used containers makes me super happy!

Do you have any upcoming launches for the holidays?
Yes! We are launching a few new scents for our holiday season! Make sure to give our social media a follow for new updates on upcoming launches and sales for the season.

Photos courtesy of Russell Santos