About Us
THE QUEENS BEHIND THE SCENTS
Just two husbands looking out for everyone by offering luxury scented candles at an affordable price with our 100% LGBTQ owned and operated candle company. High quality yet completely affordable. We offer handmade all-natural wax candles in various sizes within various vessels. We do not believe in all the retail mark-ups, expensive and wasteful packaging, so that the cost savings...go to you! Let us help you find your fragrance at a fraction of the cost,
because we truly believe in luxury for less.
We have been married for 9 years and currently live in the Albany Park Neighborhood of Chicago with our 5 dogs. Curtis Bumgarner is originally from North Carolina and Andrew Cookson is originally from Liverpool, England. They met in Chicago, IL back in 2013 when Andrew Cookson was in Chicago for a work conference, they spent the first 6 months of their relationship by dating on Skype and Whatsapp.
We started making candles back in 2019 as a hobby and something to do with friends and family and when the Pandemic hit it evolved into something more and it spilled over to our neighbors and then coworkers and their families and friends and then we made it a business. We secured the lease to our very first brick and mortar location in July 2022 at 3728 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL 60618 and had our official grand opening in September 2022. In February 2023 we secured the commercial space next door and made it our Yoga & Fitness Studio called IT'S LIT STUDIO and had our official grand opening for our 2nd business in March 2023.
Products Free of Cruelty, Parabens & Phthalates
That's right, we chose essential & fragrance oils that are not tested on animals. And trust when we say they are free of those nasty a** parabens, phthalates, carcinogens, toxins, and other hazardous chemicals commonly found in other (and cheap) fragrance oils. So all of our candle lines and collections are non-toxic.
What is a fragrance oil you ask? Well, because essential oils are not available for every scent that we (or any other candlemaker or even soap makers) like to use, synthetic fragrance chemicals are available to us that come in either powder or liquid form. And we use these safe, concentrated compounds when no essential oil is available to create the scent of, let's say, chocolate or apples.
Our container candles are made from 100% All Natural Soy and Coconut Wax. Our pillar and our unique molded/shaped candles are made from 100% Soy Wax. Our taper candles are made the traditional way of using 100% Natural Beeswax (and are labeled as such for those that believe the use of Beeswax is non-vegan) so they burn a previse way when using them for dinner table settings. And we can assure you the process of which the Beeswax is procured, no harm is done to any bees.
Also, all of our wicks are 100% all-natural ring-spun cotton and do not contain zinc, lead or any other metals. They also have a natural wax coating, comprised of vegetable wax to make the wicks easy to light and so they produce no harmful smoke.
We want to give you some peace of mind by letting you know we only work with the safest supplies available. We will always be committed to using the safest, highest quality, most thoroughly tested fragrance and essential oil lines in the industry. Scented Candles that are sustainable, clean and 100% LGBTQ!