/ the workshop
I'm Amir.
I make candles for
guys like me.
Guys who didn't think they cared about candles. Turns out we do. We just wanted better ones.
Here's how this started. My girlfriend moved in and filled the apartment with candles. They all smelled like “a florist threw up in a spa.” I hated them. I said so. She told me to find one I liked. I couldn't.
Every “masculine” candle on the market was either a $90 luxury joke in a black jar, or a gas-station novelty called something like BACON FISTFIGHT. Nothing in between. Nothing that smelled like an actual place I'd want to be.
So I started messing around. I read about fragrance chemistry on the internet. I bought base oils. I burned through probably 200 test pours in my garage before the first one smelled like anything real. The first one that worked was Workshop — and I remember lighting it and thinking “oh. this is what I wanted the whole time.”
Then I made Campfire 3 AM because I missed a specific trip. Then Old Fashioned because I was trying to impress a date. Then Barbershop because my grandfather used to take me to one. Then Range Day because a friend asked. That's the whole lineup. That's it.
Kiln is for the guy who doesn't own a candle. The guy whose girlfriend keeps lighting things he doesn't like. The guy who'd actually care if someone made one that smelled like somewhere he wanted to be. If that's you: welcome. Pull up a chair.
— Amir, founder
/ how it's built
Four steps.
No shortcuts.
01 / the place
Every scent starts with a real place I know. Not a concept. Not a mood board. An actual location I can describe in detail from memory.
02 / the blend
I build the fragrance in layers with a perfumer — the first-hit note, the middle, and the base. Eight rounds minimum. Usually twelve.
03 / the pour
Coconut-soy wax, cotton wick, 10% fragrance load (the legal max). Hand-poured in small batches in a Denver workshop that actually smells like Workshop.
04 / the test
Five guys get samples. If three of them say “this smells like [specific place I didn’t tell them],” we ship it. If not, back to the bench.
Start with one.
See what happens.
Workshop is the one most guys pick first. If you hate it, email me personally and I'll refund you. Nobody's ever asked.
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