Fragrances waiting to transport you to other times and places are wafting from a new candle shop on Molesworth Street.

Mel’s Melting Moments has opened next to Kid’s Nest, and shop owner Mel Connell has brought alchemy and passion to making scented soy-based, vegan friendly candles – making them more than ‘just’ candles.

The alchemy is not just in the chemistry of binding scent to the other ingredients – it’s in the magic, joy and emotion that Mel brings to others when they smell fragrances which transport them into memories of times gone by.

“One lady wrote to me saying your flower bomb candle reminds me of my step mother and I still imagine her being here,” Mel said.

“An 80 year old lady smelled the baby powder one and was taken back to when she was 20 and was changing her son’s diapers.

“A fragrance can bring a recollection and that’s why I love doing it.”

It’s known that scents bypass the thalamus and go straight to the brain's smell center, known as the olfactory bulb – and this is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus.

This explains why the smell of something can so immediately trigger a detailed memory or even intense emotion.

History

Mel moved to Lismore in 2001 and about ten years ago started learning how to make her own soy candles.

“I looked up how to make candles on the internet and started making them with a range of five fragrances, selling them at the Lismore Car Boot Market,” she said.

“I sat at the markets for a long time not making much money, until the Dusk shop in town closed and people wanted candles who realised the benefits of soy,” she said.

“I did all the regional markets, had a baby and decided to slow down and enjoy my baby – then did pop ups at the Lismore Square for six years, before deciding to open a shop on Molesworth Street too.”

Now, she makes all the candles in the shop and can have her 10 month old baby with her while she is there.

“I get to be a loving mum, having a go,” she said. “I have the support of the town and people who understand the loving behind handmade candles.”

Fragrances

From beginning with just five fragrances, Mel has expanded her scent range to include flavours of lime and mango, pink sugar, musk sticks, vanilla, black raspberry sugar and lychee.

There’s even a candle that really smells like a hot jam doughnut.

Secret chemistry

“I had about 100 fragrances, so had to narrow it down to what people liked best,” Mel said.

“But it’s a secret how the scents are made.

“It’s a delicate chemistry making candles. You are mixing two products together and it is a chemical reaction where the wax is binding to that fragrance oil.

“If you don’t mix it correctly or out the right things in, candle making can be quite dangerous. If you light a candle you’ve bought and it’s not right, it can burn down your house.”

Mel gives away candle care cards with every candle and said the soy-based candles can also be used as a moisturiser for your skin.

Vegan friendly

Mel is vegan and doesn’t eat animal products, so making candles out of soy-based products that are not tested on animals is important to her.

“The soy I use is a by-product of the soy industry,” she said. “It’s like the cream on milk and it hardens.

“You can use it on your hands and your body too and I add things like almond oil to it for moisturising.”

Crazy ideas

It’s not just the candle scents that bring a smile to people’s faces – it’s the unusual candles she makes too.

Mel said she gets ‘crazy ideas’ to make candles. There’s icecream sundaes, complete with strawberries.

One of her candles looks like a bowl of fruit loops, complete with spoon and milk. She made them from a lifesaver lolly mold.

There’s also a shelf full of crystals, soap made by other local mothers, bath bombs to help you relax and control stress, as well as products from other Australian companies.

There’s also electric melters that plug into a power socket on the wall and melt the fragrant wax, without a need for a naked flame.

To find out more about Mel and her candles, visit https://melsmmsoycandles.com.au/