Shiquita Mann, founder of Blossom Candle Company, has always known that she wanted to use her entrepreneurial spirit and creativity to uplift women. “A candle is not just a candle,” she tells me, explaining how the simple act of igniting a wick can be self-care. Following the birth of her daughter, Shiquita started to become more aware of harmful ingredients in everyday items, particularly candles. As she learned more, her love for candle-making grew and grew into the intention-based candles we now know as Blossom Candle Company.
Shiquita firmly believes that a person’s attitude dictates their life and that a positive attitude is crucial for a positive life. Having seen how a positive attitude changed her own life, she set out to bring more positivity into the lives of others.
The intention behind Blossom is clear: to create products that allow people to bloom. Everything from the candle wax to the fragrance to the wick to the name of each scent to the type of music playing while the candles are being made is carefully and intentionally selected, based on her firm belief in energetics and the power of positive thinking. Whether making candles in her home studio alone or with help, Shiquita makes sure the vibe is just right, pumping as much positive energy into each candle as she can. She even has a specific candle-making playlist full of positive, uplifting songs, to boost everyone’s energy in the room. “If I can create something that’s so small, such as a candle, to set that intention,” she explains, “it’ll be some type of help,” whether the person lighting the candle is conscious of it or not.
Each Blossom candle is named for an intention, such as Gratitude, which smells like Baja cactus blossom, or Balance Over Hustle, a tiger lily and cantaloupe variety, or the lemon blossom scented Vibe Higher. Shiquita’s hope is that each candle sparks a moment of intention, both inside and outside of the home.
When naming the candles and setting intentions for each scent, Shiquita takes queues from her own journal entries throughout the years, picking out key phrases that fit with what the world seems to need at the time. The goal is to create a moment of intention when lighting the candle – stopping to find gratitude or groundedness – and then to inspire the same intentions outside the home as well. Scent is closely tied to memory, and Shiquita hopes that this link between the two can help create more mindfulness. Perhaps you slice a lemon and it reminds you of your Vibe Higher candle, or a sprinkle of saffron brings to mind visions of your Trust candle. In this moment, you can call back the original intention of the candle, take a moment to meditate on it, and carry it with you into your next task. Eventually, the scent may start to trigger the intention without you even thinking about it.
Right now, Shiquita is relying on her Gratitude and Bloom From Within candles to carry her through both the summer season and this season of life. She mentioned that blooming from within is a huge theme for her right now: doing the inner work to see the outer results, both in life and in business. As Blossom has grown, so has their product offering, including rotating scents, bath enhancements, home fragrance sprays, and more, with no plans to slow down.
The love Shiquita pours into every candle is evident. If, as Shiquita attests, a candle is more than a candle, then Blossom Candle Company is more than a candle company, and a Blossom candle is certainly more than just a candle.
