It was a cold wet winter, and I had the fantastic idea of renovating our bathroom. It was a long and expensive process but the bathroom got finished and it was time for a nice luxurious bath!

It was beautiful, champagne, rose petals, music and candlelight from a pretty candle that was purchased from the local shop. It was wonderful, just perfect.

In the morning I walked into my new bathroom, sunlight shining through the window and low and behold my heart stopped. That lovely candle had left black soot all over my pristine white tiles in my new bathroom!!

I was furious to say the least. There I was, scrubbing the black soot off my new pristine white tiles like a mad woman. During my frantic scrubbing all I could think of was how could this happen? Why do candles have to look so beautiful but leave ugly black soot long after they are blown out?

My right royal dummy spit became a mission. I was determined to find something that was good for my white tiles and family. I couldn’t have black soot get into my families lungs or on my white tiles.

The internet and Google became my best friend. There I ran into articles about Soy Wax, and the benefits of it.

Immediately I hunted down someone who sold the soy candles and my obsession began!!! I drove my family crazy! Soy candle scents here, soy candle colours there. I couldn’t get enough of them, the fragrances and colours were intoxicating and then the big bathroom test.

Yes, you guessed it another bath. This time it wasn’t so relaxing, it was stressful!

Imagine, lighting the candle and waiting for it to ruin your tiles!!

One and a half hours later the candle was blown out ... and presto! NO MORE BLACK SOOT!

I was ecstatic! And my obsession and love affair began with soy candles. I now needed to make these beautiful, environmentally friendly gorgeous candles.

And that is how Candles by Mascia came into being.

I hope you all enjoy my passion for these wonderful candles as much as I have.

Love and candle light.

Mascia


Husband's version

As the webmaster for Candles by Mascia and not to mention husband to the chief candle maker, Mascia I get to set the record straight about the events that really brought Candles by Mascia into being.

If you’ve read this far you’d know that Mascia had christened our brand spanking new bathroom by having a bath by candlelight.

Ok so that’s not too out of the ordinary. Until we factor in the blood curdling scream that shook me from my weekend sleep in.

When you get woken like that you only think the worst.  Maybe Mascia had hurt herself; maybe the cat had brought in a live mouse; or worse still maybe there was something morbidly wrong with one of the kids.  So its no real surprise that I legged it out of bed looking around to see what was wrong.

Kids were fine watching TV, cat was eating cat food and no mouse in sight. At this point I'm thinking that Mascia must have hurt herself.  I could hear Mascia muttering in the bathroom but there was no blood.  Thank God!

I walked past what at the time was our brand new pristinely white bathroom.  Well it was supposed to be pristinely white but was now taking on shades of grey.

Now I’m still half asleep and thinking about going back to bed since everyone was (seemed) to be ok until I realised Mascia had come up to me muttering ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry’ with a look that could only be described as hysterical.

Time to investigate.

By now you know that Mascia had forgotten to blow out the candle the previous night before coming to bed and during the night the candle had gone out leaving a trail of soot up our pristinely white tiled bathroom wall.

I’ve got to the bathroom to see what the fuss was all about.  Ok so I’m a bloke.  Not a slob mind you.  I do the dishes and help with the laundry.  I even leave the toilet seat down but here I was trying to work out what the drama was all about.  So there was a bit of a mess on the wall but isn’t that what spray and wipe is for?  I vaguely recollect my remark going along the lines of...

‘So what’s wrong?’

Suffice it to say that I retreated to the kitchen to make breakfast for the kids and hid in the under the covers in bad until the cussing and muttering died down.

That’s my version of the beginning but it’s the next three days that really shaped Candles by Mascia.

I didn’t see much of my computer for the next couple of days.  Mascia had taken it over, frantically but thankfully quietly browsing the internet.  Whenever I got near she’d hide the page asking me what I wanted.  OK I got the idea and just retreated back to the TV.  It was safer there.  By day two I gave up wondering what she was doing.  I just know it involved Google.

On day three Mascia seemed normal.  Well she was talking to me again...not that I’d done anything wrong.  At dinner she dropped a whole stack of printed web pages on the dining room table and start out by saying...

‘I’m going to make soy candles!’

I'm like to think of myself as a smart guy. I definitely know when to say 'Yes dear' and sound like I meant it.  Suffice to say this was one of those times and as you’re reading this you know that Mascia got her way.

Cheers,

Dave