Denise Serino has a nose for good scents. She puts tha talent to work with her homemade soy wax candles with unique scents at Smell This AK.
“The whole reason I called it ‘Smell This’ is because I wanted it to be focused on the scent,” Serino said.
Serino said that she wanted to make soy wax candles with scents that her customers couldn’t find anywhere else.
“The idea came from when you’re standing with a friend in the candle aisle, the first thing you do is pick it up and say ‘Smell this’,” she said.
Serino was working as an administrative assistant at the Alaska Department of Labor in Fairbanks when she started looking for a craft that she could make and give as gifts to family members and friends.
“I’ve always enjoyed being creative,” Serino said. “I just felt like I was missing that creative piece that I used to have.”
She remembered thinking, “What’s something that everybody likes?” that could be customizable and good for both men and women.
“I stumbled upon candles,” she said.
Serino started reading articles and watching videos on how to make candles before ordering her supplies.
“I got right to it and I fell in love with it.” she said.
She started making seven to eight candles at a time on her stovetop, “which took forever,” she said.
She gave candles to family members and friends starting to test out the scents in 2022. Her first scents were pink lemonade and tobacco and bay leaf. Soon after, friends and coworkers of her family members and friends were asking how they could get of their own.
She also wanted to create a candle that smelled like a bakery.
“The first thing that popped into my head was the lemon lavender bundt cake at Little Owl Cafe,” she said.
Owner owner Sarah Posma gave her approval for Serino to put “inspired by Little Owl Cafe” on the candle label in July 2022. Posma also asked if she could purchase some of the candles, but Serino hadn’t officially started the business yet.
“That would be such a bigger step forward,” she said.
Serino’s boss encouraged her to get a business license, and Serino started considering quitting her job to pursue candle making full time.
“I was trying to think of a reason not to and I just couldn’t think of a reason not to,” she said.
She left her job later that year and obtained a business license in December 2022.
Her family converted a small bedroom in her home into her dedicated “candle room.” Now she can pour about 16 pounds of soy wax at a time into about 20-30 candles.
“I was kind of a science nerd in high school and it’s very sciency,” Serino said. “It’s very technical and very precise. That is one thing that I absolutely love about it.”
She chose soy wax because it’s natural and water soluble.
Serino picked wood wicks because she likes the crackling sound.
“I felt like that was a great add to the experience of having candle lit,” she said.
Since her first bakery scented candle, Serino has collaborated with more than ten local businesses, including breweries, bakeries, restaurants and hair salons.
“Since I moved to Fairbanks I think I really just fell in love with the small business community that we have here,” she said.
She worked with Marlo’s Bakery owner Cathy Skrivanek to find the perfect mix of fragrance oils to capture the orange, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla and butter in the orange cardamon croissant. She experimented with Toast owner Katrina Hamilton to match a scent to the toast “Gone Bananas,” and ended up finding a combination of nectarine, toast, honey and basil for the toast “Sweet Heat.”
Serino also started creating wax melts and linen sprays to provide options for people who don’t like candles. The linen sprays are a mix of alcohol, witch hazel, distilled water and fragrance oils. Her favorite linen spray for the car is called “Summer Nights.”
Serino is working on creating hockey wax with her own unique scent.
Her husband, Stephen is plays hockey and is “very, very picky about his stick wax.”
Serino said that most hockey waxes have scents like strawberry and grape, and she’s designing a wax with her unique “tobacco & bay leaf” scent.
“I would love to have Smell This hockey wax on the benches in Fairbanks,” Serino said.
Serino also hosted her first candle making class with 15 participants at the Northern Lights Winter Market in March.
