Shanique Bruce: Luxe. Lit. Limitless

IN the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic when curfews, quarantines, stay-at home and no movement orders reigned supreme, chemist Shanique Bruce, stuck at home with her newborn and looking for ways to pass time, was struck with the germ of an idea as to how to ‘move’ around, undetected.

When a friend, during a visit to her home, caught a whiff of that idea, she suggested that the new mom share her novel means of ‘transport’ with others. Intrigued by that suggestion and armed with videos she had consumed about the craft, the scientist latched on to the advice and Candledbyshan was born.

“We craft luxury candles that actually transport you from your living room or your comfort space without having to commute. A lot of people don’t necessarily have to indulge by eating, they can simply burn it,” Bruce said. “You can burn one of our Boba Tea (candles) for example, and you are transported to a bubble tea shop and fewer calories, no commute, and you still enjoy the benefits of going to an actual boba tea shop, and that for me is the thing because my clients get transported without all the hassle.”

Her love of scents, she said, has been a bonus.

“I’ve always loved the candles I would go to the store and smell. During COVID it gave me a sense of calmness that I didn’t know was there, especially with everything that was going on, and my love just developed.  I stumbled upon this, I didn’t know I had it in me,” she laughed.

Her natural leaning to the sciences is the utmost blessing and the greatest contributor to her competitive edge in what is a growing market, Bruce believes.

“Everything is just formulas and I’ve been working with formulas in my field,” she told All Woman. “I compound, at work I made creams and all those stuff, so it’s just to figure out the correct formula and at Candledbyshan we do rigorous testing. Not every wick can work in every jar. Every wick burns and melts a certain diameter of wax so we have to do a lot of testing just to make sure that any candle you take up, I am confident you are going to be like ‘this smells good’, or ‘this works in this space’,” she schooled.

She said further inspiration for the well-curated pieces, tastefully arranged in packaging inked with personal notes, care tips and inspirational scriptures, comes from her drive to create from real life objects “an experience” for her clients.

“I guess it’s just what it is in real life, they are named off the actual product, so this is our Taro Tea for example and that’s actually a tea at a real boba tea shop. I want to be different, I don’t want it to just be a candle that you burn, I want it to be an experience. I want you to take up a product of mine — and these are highly scented, I test all our waxes and we do a lot of wick testing — so for example, you can put this on your dining table and the scent will fill your space without you having to burn it so you get the best of both worlds,” Bruce said.

“You are not only getting a candle in a jar that you light, it’s multipurpose so I think that gives me the edge; it’s not the typical thing that you just go and pick up, it’s beyond just cleaning the air or scenting up a space, it’s an experience and the sense of smell is the only sense that’s directly connected to the part of the brain that evokes memories and emotions and I wanted to play on that. These products are not what you would find in typical stores,” she said further.

The Jamaican who hails from the food basket parish of St Elizabeth says the inspiration for her pieces also comes from food.

“A lot of our products are food-based, you know comfort food, because after a long week, you crave ice cream, you crave a bowl of cereal from when you were younger,” she said, noting that while on her own fitness journey she was unable to have certain foods and used her candles as another means to indulge.

“I couldn’t eat certain things so I was like why not burn this? Why not burn my calories, and so I have incorporated that into the business. So you have the therapeutic benefits, you have the aesthetics, it’s like a one-stop shop here at Candledbyshan,” she beamed.

For the busy wife, mother, author and scientist, the mushrooming business staffed by her and her husband currently has been a learning curve.

“Business is new for me, so having to learn everything, learn about branding, packaging, where to source what and also pricing, that has its highs and its lows. But going out there, meeting customers, seeing their reactions to the products it’s amazing,” she told All Woman.

With plans to launch into local stores and pharmacies in the next three to six months and also break into the overseas market, Bruce whose ‘store’ can now be viewed @candledbyshan1 on Instagram and TikTok is firm about covering all the bases to complete her client’s aromatic “experience”.

“We do favours and decor for weddings, baby showers and staff events. We have mosquito repellents, that is our best-selling product hands down, we have car fresheners which can be personalised, we have diffusers and we also have wax warmers and wax melts (for people who don’t want open flames) which are another treat by themselves,” she shared.

Her care for her candles is about as intense as her love for shaping and scenting them.

“We do have candle care kits, we do have snuffers so you don’t have to blow your candle to out it, we also have wick trimmers that you use in order to get the best of your candles, and we also have lighters so you don’t have to strike a match and get your hand burnt in order to light a candle,” she smiled.

Confessing that her passion has seen her burning the midnight lamp many times when her husband and daughter have retired to bed and on weekends, she tells All Woman, “I want Candledbyshan to be a household name. I want when you think luxury, when you think candles, when you think scent therapy, you think Candledbyshan”.

While acknowledging that her standard costs her, Bruce is adamant that there is no alternative.

“It’s expensive, I source my wax internationally because I need a certain type of wax and investing in quality cost more but it’s quality over quantity. It does cost more but it’s worth it. I am trying to create brand that has integrity,” she said.

At the end of the day, however, the budding entrepreneur says her candles are not just about business.

“I actually use my pieces to share the love and the knowledge of Christ with others because all our boxes carry this scripture, ‘Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life — John 8:12.’ I want others to know that Jesus is really the true light of the world,” she said soberly.

In honour of her now deceased friend who inspired her to make her candles a household favourite, Bruce, a giver by nature, has launched a scholarship in her memory.

“We also have a scholarship which opened in June and runs until August 1. It’s the Danielle Gail-Allen scholarship that renders assistance to people who are orphaned or people who have lost a parent. They have to provide proof of this; it was named off my friend Danielle who was so passionate about my candles, she passed and when she died her son was two years of age and I said I am going to make this an official thing that I do in honour of her,” Bruce shared.

In the meantime, with her chandlery well on the way, Bruce is penning her second book as part of her “go light your world” thrust.

“As I am lighting the world with my candles, I’m lighting the world with my books,” Bruce, who wrote her first book Anchored in the Past, Breaking the Chains that Anchor while she was launching her chandlery told All Woman.

“Hopefully within the next six months I will be publishing the devotional which is the follow-up book for Anchored in the Past and I will be publishing another one,” she said.