For Strange Women Collaboration
This month For Strange Women has released our collaboration tapers! The FSW Botanical tapers have been hand-dipped 20 times into vats of filtered beeswax perfumed with roasted seashell and myrrh, then lightly gilded with 24k gold and carefully embedded with preserved calamint botanicals.
©2022 Moth and Candle LLC
For Strange Women is an all-female indie perfume house in the Midwest. They source plant-derived aromatics from around the world and value sustainable practices. As I am chemically-sensitive, FSW has been the only perfume I can wear for many years. (While many companies claim to be “all-natural” or “allergy friendly” they often still contain the phthalates and propellants which trigger my immune system. FSW does not use these toxic chemicals and they extensively research all of their ingredients.) So when FSW approached me about a scented taper collaboration I jumped at the chance!
We sat down to discuss the logistics. Typically beeswax does not hold onto fragrances like many other waxes, so this scent would need to be thicker to begin with. FSW chose to try their roasted seashell and myrrh scent. I would need to monitor my double boiler very carefully to keep the temperature as low as possible while still keeping the wax melted during the dipping process so as not to evaporate the perfume before it was sealed into the layers of the tapers.
Then came the next challenge… my mother had given me a limited supply of the calamintha nepeta from her garden, which I pressed and dried in my studio. But as these particular dried flowers are so delicate… when it came time to embed them into the candles they would crumble and fall apart! The flowers needed to be slightly rehydrated just moments prior to being added to the candles.
This dipping session was a carefully timed and monitored process of maintaining the proper wax temperature, adding the fragrance as close to dipping time as possible, rehydrating the flowers for a few minutes just before embedding them into the candles. Rinse, repeat.
I am so happy with the way these tapers turned out. The roasted seashell and myrrh fragrance just lightly permeates the air as they burn. The gold flake shimmers gently off the details of the embedded flowers as the flame makes its way down the taper. One of the reasons I love making candles is for the experience that happens during the burning of the candle. The atmosphere it will create. These tapers definitely emanate an atmosphere of luxury and magic.
The FSW Botanical tapers are available exclusively through their website: forstrangewomen.com
©2022 Moth and Candle LLC