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SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | APRIL 10, 2022
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Candle Chemistry thrives through creativity BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer
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rother-sister twins Ron Jones and Laurie Guidi had only been in business at Scottsdale Quarter for a few months in March 2020 when they were forced to shut their doors. The two had quit their day jobs to open Candle Chemistry – a build-your-candles shop – and were thinking of asking their former employers for their jobs back because “COVID-19 threw us for a wrench,” Guidi said. “COVID-19 took away the senses we utilize the most since it takes away sense of smell and people touch everything,” Instead, however, Guidi began thinking of ways to keep the business going. “We were a brand-new business and nobody knew who we were and we had to close for a couple of months which forced us to think outside the box in terms of how we were going to promote our business when we re-opened.” “We came into the space every day and we sat here thinking of what we could do,” Jones said. Ironically, it was inside a box where the business moved to. Lots and lots of boxes. “We had to �igure out how to do it since we have all these machines in our shop,” Jones said. “We then realized that people could use items like a hair dryer to melt the top of the candle and toenail clippers to clip the top of the wick.” Guidi and Jones produced the idea of selling at-home candle creation kits online. For local customers, they offered free personal delivery. The kits became a hit with some orders as large as 150 boxes heading out the door. Then came hand-sanitizer mania, which Candle Chemistry saw as an opportune time to create a new product. The only problem was that hand sanitizer was a tough product to market.
Ron Jones and Laurie Guidi own Candle Chemistry in the Scottsdale Quarter. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer)
Candle Chemistry has an extensive line of candles of all sizes and scents. (David Minton/ Progress Staff Photographer)
“We couldn’t advertise that we were selling hand sanitizer because it was labeled as ‘taking advantage of the pandemic,’” Guidi said. “A lot of businesses were trying to pro�it off it or were price-gouging hand sanitizer at the time.” Candle Chemistry offered a free bottle with online orders, but even that was taken down. “As soon as Facebook and Instagram
sensed the words ‘hand sanitizer’ in an ad or a website, the ad would be taken down,” Jones said. “We had a lot of good ideas but we couldn’t advertise them.” After months of delivering orders and packing shipments, Candle Chemistry received the OK to re-open its doors for the �irst time in nearly six months. “The timing worked out, though,” Jones said. “Everyone always says it takes a year
to build up a reputation and build your business and by the time we re-opened, people were �inally able to and ready to go back outside.” Guidi and Jones were elated to reopen so people could create memories as they made sensationally scented candles. “Luckily, our candles are very strong to where you can smell them even with a mask,” Laurie said with a laugh. After re-opening, the twins saw a large boom in their online presence with its Instagram following growing �ivefold and becoming a top search result in Google for custom candles. The growth could also be seen outside the store, especially on Valentine’s Day. “Valentine’s weekend is like our Christmas,” Guidi said. “It’s huge for us because candles are romantic.” Although social distancing measures may have made the line look longer on Valentine’s Day 2021, the line to enter Candle Chemistry still snaked around the block to the Pandora jewelry store eight doors down. Since then, the business has expanded as the siblings signed a lease for a space in Gilbert that will open sometime this summer and opened an additional location in Peoria in December of 2021. The shop has also expanded its inventory. “Since we’ve opened, we’ve added a line of body products like lotion, soap, sugar scrub and bath salts,” Jones said. After surviving six tumultuous months of being closed and over a year of having the space at half capacity, Jones and Guidi have almost had to pinch themselves with how far their business has come since opening its doors over two years ago. “If someone would have told us when the pandemic started that we would have three stores in two years, we wouldn’t have believed it,” Guidi said. Info: candlechemistry.com
