ARLINGTON, Wash. — Whether you’re from Oso or Poulsbo, Birch Bay or Lake Stevens, a small Snohomish County business is helping shine light on your hometown.
“It’s a way to represent where you come from, and have a great smelling candle," said Tina Richardson, owner of Hometown Candle Co. & Gifts.
She launched a line of Pacific Northwest candles that honors cities and towns by name – and, in some cases, by scent.
"Snoqualmie is Farmhouse Cider. Marysville is Strawberries and Cream because they have a strawberry festival that they're known for,” she said. "We have a Leavenworth candle, that's our Fraser Fir. We tried to go a little more tropical with the coastal towns like Ocean Shores."
Not all the fragrances are site-specific.
"For instance, Arlington - otherwise it would probably smell like a cow pasture,” she said, laughing. “So we chose lime, basil and mandarin."
Richardson knows the pride associated with living in a smaller town. She grew up in Blaine and her husband hails from Maple Valley. They now happily call Arlington home.
"We just tend to carry that pride with us as we get older, and we have found that we are not alone,” she said.
Whatever the hometown or fragrance combination, Richardson pours each and every candle by hand inside her shop, previously named Reclaimed Heart, now named Hometown Candle Co. & Gifts.
"I find it therapeutic,” she said. “This is sort of where my Zen is."
Her quiet labor of love suddenly found itself in the spotlight when event organizers asked her to make special edition candles for the 2019 GRAMMYs. They were given to all the presenters.
"That was pretty special and it's definitely getting us a little more known out there,” she said.
Richardson is expanding her Hometown Candle Co. to include places outside the Northwest. Any of her candles can be customized with labels from locations far and wide.
But all operations will stay in Arlington, because she knows better than most that there's no place like home.
Hometown Candle Co. & Gifts | 119 N. Olympic Ave. Arlington, WA 98223 | Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 AM - 5:30 PM.
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