About nine months ago I ventured into candle making as a fun hobby, urged on by my wife, who suffered from headaches when burning most of the store-bought candles we had in the house. My goal at the time was simply to learn how to make natural candles using ingredients I felt better about burning around our family.

After a couple months of testing different waxes, fragrance oils, wicks, and vessels, I started getting pretty confident in my craft.

Being a nerd who loves medieval history, I decided to take it up a notch and started formulating medieval-themed candles just for fun. Known to those close to me, for the last few years I’ve actually been writing a historical fiction novel in my downtime. Combining the two hobbies, I picked a few locations from scenes in my book and got to work trying to recreate those places through scent.

It wasn’t long after I started just thinking about making medieval candles that Facebook apparently read my mind, because suddenly I was getting targeted ads for fantasy candles all over social media. After browsing through a bunch of them, I immediately realized a few things.

First, there’s actually a pretty decent-sized market for this.

Second, a lot of these candles have really cool fantasy labels… but surprisingly basic or random scent profiles. (Seriously, why does everything have vanilla in it?)

And third, what I was making was different.

Rather than fantasy-inspired scents, I wanted to focus on historical realism, candles designed to smell like actual places you might have encountered centuries ago. A manor house. A village bakery. An ale house. A blacksmith’s forge. A stable.

I wasn’t trying to outdo the fantasy candle companies. I realized I could carve out a niche of my own.

So, with the nod of approval from my wife and endless mocking from my closest friends, The Manor Candle Shop was born.

Now, after months of formulating, reformulating, burn testing, starting over, and investing way more time and resources into this than I ever imagined when I made that first candle, I’m finally launching my own collection of handcrafted medieval atmosphere candles.

Each candle is handcrafted by me in small batches using natural, paraffin-free coconut-apricot wax, premium fragrance oils formulated without phthalates or parabens, lead-free cotton wicks, and 100% recycled glass vessels.

The Manor Candle Shop is opening with seven locations from around the manor, along with an eighth limited-edition Halloween candle. Two more seasonal candles will follow for the holidays.

And this is only the beginning.

I already have more than 25 different medieval atmospheres planned for release over the next 2–3 years, with locations ranging from different rooms around the manor to shops and locations throughout the medieval village. I’m genuinely excited to finally share this with everyone and see where this little venture goes.

Welcome to The Manor Candle Shop