Every fragrance tells a story at Hillside Candle, a boutique candle brand owned and operated by local father-and-son duo, Paul and Tommy Hill. Each wax blend is made with love, igniting moments of serenity and warmth with each flicker.
Read on to learn more about the candlemakers behind the special brand as Paul’s son, Tommy, shares Hillside Candle’s humble beginnings, inspirations and hopes for the future.
What inspired you to start Hillside Candle?
Candle creation is a craft deeply rooted in our family. My father, Paul, worked on Yankee Candle’s executive team for nearly a decade and brought his knowledge home to us. Our love for candles, memories and family inspired us to start Hillside Candle. We are deeply passionate about creating meaning and value for others through fragrance, something many candle companies have lost touch with.
What is the significance of storytelling in your brand?
Fragrance is a key component of storytelling and has the power to bring back old memories, help create new experiences and evoke emotions. Our family has so many fond memories built around fragrances from long ago, and our mission is to bring the same to other families through Hillside Candle.
Can you share some memorable moments from your journey in creating and running Hillside Candle?
Some of our greatest memories have been traveling together and meeting the biggest and best fragrance houses in the world. Through our adventures, we learned about the fragrance-making process and the best practices to capture the pure essence of each scent. This led to a business trip like no other; after each day, we had dinner as a father-and-son duo while recapping our experiences.
What is the process of developing a new candle?
We put much thought into the creation process to ensure our candles are top quality. It truly is a dream to curate fragrances to be precisely what we want for our wonderful customers, and we don’t take that task lightly. We go through five to 12 revisions on a fragrance before launching them to ensure they are the best quality we can offer. We build up the different notes throughout three levels of fragrance to make sure their various nuances pop and each note releases into the air in the manner we want. Unlike most candle makers, we pour our wax and fragrance from separate spouts, which allows us to infuse more scent into each candle that lasts longer throughout the burning process.
What are your future goals and aspirations for Hillside Candle?
We plan to expand our offerings to include larger candles and offer products for those who don’t usually use candles in their day-to-day life. We are currently working on a two-wick version of our candles and plan to launch diffusers in the coming year to make our fragrances a part of your daily life.
What are your favorite scents?
Our two favorite scents, Apple Orchard and Havana, are inspired by fond memories we’ve made as a family. Apple Orchard reminds us of the crisp fall on the coast of Western Massachusetts before we moved to Arizona. Havana takes us back to our warm summer beach days during our family vacations in Florida.
Where can candle enthusiasts purchase one of your candles?
You can find us on hillsidecandle.com and Amazon.com.