Four Illinois Candle Makers We Love at The Shop
There is something pretty special about buying something made close to home.
We have always carried Illinois-made candles for a variety of reasons. One, we can save on shipping costs when sourcing heavy items, but that is more of an added bonus to carrying these 4 fantastic lines. I feel like I would love these candles even if I wasn't from around here.
At The Shop at Yellow & Co., we're big fans of products with a story, imbued with local flavor, and our candle selection is no exception.
We carry four Illinois candle makers, and each one has its own personality, its own take on fragrance, and its own reason we love having it in the shop.
So if you're a candle person (and who isn't?), here's a little introduction to the Illinois makers you'll find here at Yellow & Co.
LH Candle Co.: Modern, Elevated & Made for Home
Based right here in Champaign County, LH Candle Co. creates hand-poured home fragrance with a distinctly modern feel.
Named for founder and maker Lucas Hill, their mission is to create luxury, hand-poured candles that bring a luxury hotel feeling into every space, in an elevated vessel that is beautiful decor.
With seasonal releases and everyday favorites in straight-sided pots with bamboo lids, these candles blend into any type of decor. They have a high scent throw and are made of a soy blend, with interesting scent combinations. Urban Luxe and Indigo Citrus will take you back to that trip to that fancy hotel you stayed at for that unforgettable weekend. Autumn Breeze and Maple Chai are our current best sellers for fall. We look forward to seeing Lucas' new creations each season.
We carry their candles and wax melts, but one of the things we especially love about LH is that the fragrance doesn't have to stop at the candle.
Their scented multi-surface cleaners and concentrated mop soaps let you bring those good smells into the everyday parts of your home, too. Because apparently cleaning is more fun when the kitchen smells amazing. I personally swear by the mop soap; it makes my entire house smell amazing!!! We love the concept of layered fragrance that we get with the whole LH Candle Company line.
LH is a great choice if your style leans clean, modern, and elevated, but you still want your home to feel warm and inviting.
Black Crow Candle Company: A Little Bit of Nostalgia
If LH feels modern and polished, Black Crow Candle Company takes us in a completely different direction.
Black Crow has a nostalgic, old-fashioned feel, with collections inspired by primitive, vintage, and farmhouse aesthetics. These candles are made in Canton, IL, in the same look and feel they've had for the last 30+ years. Their fragrance line extends well beyond traditional candles, too, with wax tarts, room sprays, and other ways to fill your home with your favorite scents. While most of their scents are bakery-inspired, some of the best sellers, like Grey and Pink, offer more of a floral fragrance experience.
But our #1 best-selling candle is the Black Crow Maple Butter candle, which is what our customers call "that Yellow & Co. scent." We've been burning this candle here in the shop for 8 years.
One distinctive thing about the look and feel of this candle line is that the jars are coated in cinnamon and wrapped in cheesecloth, tied with a piece of string. The name of the candle is written on brown kraft paper in a handwritten font. So if rustic, farmhouse, or vintage styles are your thing, this candle will fit right in.
This line is also made of soy wax, which burns cleaner, at a lower temperature, and longer than traditional jar candles (which are oftentimes paraffin wax, a petroleum product. Yuck!).
There's something about those cinnamon-covered jars that feels like they wandered out of an old country store in the best possible way. In fact, we started carrying them because an antique store across the street from us was closing, and the owner told me I HAD to carry them for her customers. Being a newbie shop owner, I just took her word for it, and am I ever glad I did. These candles sell like hotcakes year-round.
They're the kind of thing that makes you think of pumpkin patches, small-town coffee shops, zucchini bread in Grandma's kitchen, and, of course, a big stack of syrupy pancakes.
If you love cozy, nostalgic, old-fashioned fragrance, Black Crow is probably going to be your candle soulmate.
Corn Crib Candles: Pure Midwest Comfort
And then there's Corn Crib Candles, a family-owned company rooted right here in the Midwest in nearby Gibson City.
Their story and their products have that unmistakable feeling of home. The company describes itself as a family-owned candle business where tradition meets craftsmanship in every hand-poured creation. Owner/maker Sarah focuses on clean products and no additives. One of the most impressive things about this line is that when your candle is "done," the jar will be completely empty. That's how cleanly and completely these candles burn.
Their fragrance selection is wonderfully broad, too. You'll find everything from Farm Fresh Lemon, Snickerdoodle, Midwest Meadow, Almond Biscotti (my personal favorite), and other seasonal scents.
Corn Crib also makes two custom candles for us. Our ever-popular Dolly candle (which smells like what we think Dolly Parton would smell like: a mix of strawberry pretzel pie, gardenia, and subtle amber. It's an unmistakable scent that just works and smells like heaven) and our Whiskey/Smoke "Speakeasy" candle that celebrates the hidden gem that is our teal-drenched Event Space.
Corn Crib has taken that love of clean fragrance beyond candles. We also carry their all-natural countertop spray and carpet refresh, so you can bring those familiar scents into more areas of your home.
Corn Crib is the one to reach for when you want that warm, welcoming, unmistakably Midwestern feeling in a low-tox presentation. Their jars are simple with black-and-white labels.
A side note: I love picking up my candles at the Corn Crib farmstead because it oftentimes means I get to pet a baby goat!
Fire Doll Studio: A Little Champaign Candle Magic
We couldn't talk about Illinois-made candles without mentioning Fire Doll Studio, a wonderful woman-owned business right in downtown Champaign.
What started as a hobby at the kitchen table has turned into a full-blown chandlery with a DIY candle-making studio and event space, where you can catch more than just candles. They also host listening rooms and other live performances.
We carry just one Fire Doll scent at The Shop, but it's a pretty perfect one: Punkin' Spice. It's basically fall in a candle, and when it starts making its appearance on our shelves, you know we're officially ready for pumpkin season.
We get these beauties in every fall! With a beautiful wax pumpkin perched on top of the wax and a sprinkle of natural flower petals, we frequently hear, "These are too pretty to burn!" But we like to think that a candle can be both amazing-smelling AND gorgeous. You deserve pretty things, go ahead and light it up! They'll make more.
The pumpkin will melt into an orange pool of wax that will burn cleanly (as it is soy wax). However, I have noticed that if you use this candle in a small powder bath, you can simply remove the lid, and it does throw scent without being burned.
We love being able to support another Illinois woman-owned business, especially one with such a fun story and such a strong connection to our local community.
So yes, technically this is the smallest candle collection we carry from an Illinois maker, but it makes a huge impact and deserves to be highlighted.
Four Makers, Four Different Takes on Home Fragrance
That's one of the things we love about carrying local makers: we get four different points of view, all with the connection of being made close by.
LH Candle Co. gives us modern luxury.
Black Crow gives us the nostalgia.
Corn Crib brings the clean.
And Fire Doll gives us creativity.
Whether you're looking for a candle for your own kitchen, a room spray to freshen things up, a wax tart for the warmer, a cleaning product that doesn't smell like a cleaning product—or a gift for someone who is notoriously difficult to shop for—we'd love to help you find a new favorite.
They're all made in Illinois. Soy candles in the heart of the soy belt.
Come smell them for yourself! It's a fun way to spend some time in our delightful gift shop.
And fall candles mark the official start of everyone's favorite Midwestern season.
See you soon,
Elizabeth