Our Story
In late summer of 2019, my younger sister (and namesake of Bossy Pants) inspired me to try out making my own candles after she shared with me her experience doing the same! I was a candle-holic, so the idea of having the ability to make my own was a no brainer. But because I also love small business, I decided to try selling my finished products to see what would happen. What came next was the perfect storm- COVID hit in spring 2020, and all of a sudden, everyone was staying home, burning more candles, AND were sending gifts to loved ones all across the country.
Bossy Pants exploded in 2020. What began as a side project in my kitchen quickly moved into a lab in our basement, and a few months later, we were bursting at the seams and signed a lease on our first commercial space to use as a workshop. By the end of 2020, we needed even more space, so we expanded into the unit next door. My husband, mom, brother and I were joined by anywhere from 2-8 other seasonal employees, depending on the time of year.
2020-2023 was a time of intense highs and lows- seasons of joy and goal-crushing, and other seasons of uncertainty and feelings of failure. Many lessons were learned and I’m so grateful for them.
In 2023, I became pregnant with my son and all of a sudden, my priorities shifted drastically! We went back and forth many times about what to do with the business, as I knew that I wanted to be able to devote myself to my family, and running a business was taking almost all of my time and energy. We got very close to selling the business, but ultimately ended up downsizing back into our small basement workshop where I had begun 4 years before to make things more manageable. And now, I’m so glad we didn’t sell!
Let’s rewind a bit back to when I got pregnant. All of a sudden, I was analyzing every single thing I used in and around my body as I was now growing a whole new little human inside of me! I began making small changes here and there- things like cutting down on ultra processed foods, looking for more natural remedies for minor illnesses, and switching out personal care products for ones without heavy fragrance or known harmful ingredients.
Now fast forward to after my son was born, and I was a new mom working from home on my business while also caring for a newborn. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but I felt uncomfortable bringing my infant into the candle workshop that was full to the brim with fragrance oils.
One day, it hit me- duh! I had been learning about all of the potential dangers of too much artificial fragrance, and here I was with a business that depended on it. I started to do a deep dive into my fragrance oil suppliers and the ingredients they used, and what I found shocked me. I had always assumed that my candles were fine, health wise, because I used soy instead of paraffin wax. I had been assured from previous research that the small amount of fragrance oil used in the candles was nothing to worry about. But as it turned out, listed right there on the manufacturer’s safety data sheets, many of my suppliers KNOWINGLY sold fragrance oils for use in candles and body care products with known carcinogens and toxins! The most disturbing example was an SDS that stated “reproductive toxin- harm to the unborn child” as a risk of one of the oils we had used for YEARS. And I had continued to use this oil in my product all while carrying my son!
That was it- I knew something had to change. And thus, Bossy Pants Candle: Clean Candles for Low-Tox Living was born. I knew it was possible to make a better candle, so I committed myself to that goal and began formulating 2 collections: a beeswax + essential oil collection and an ACTUALLY CLEAN soy fragrance collection.
My standards for this new brand are sky high - not only because I want to deliver the best product to you, my customers, but maybe even MORE because my family are the ones working with these ingredients day in and day out. I need to know that the materials they’re working with are safe to handle in large quantities, and have ingredients that I’d feel okay letting my own children handle someday when they’re old enough to help out in the business.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I’m eternally grateful to my amazing customers for the support over the last 6 years, and I really hope you’ll stick around as we prioritize our health and well being together.
XOXO
Lauren
