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MARIN INDEPENDANT JOURNAL
Fine Living: Candles light the way to help others
PJ Bremier
Article Launched: 03/10/2007 09:52:36 AM PST
What do you get when a former chef whips together a deep love for his son, a mission to shed light on children and young adults with epilepsy or autism and a passion to engage others in supporting their own favorite causes?
If you're Michael Salit, you get candles and a recipe for success right from the beginning in a business called Mill Valley Candleworks.
Salit remembers discovering the perfect vehicle for his passion when he visited a former garage in Mill Valley where a candlemaker had set up shop. "I walked through the door, and it hit home," he says. "I was going to create light through this process."
The light was more than just candlelight, though. It would be Salit's vehicle to light up the world by helping people with autism and epilepsy, the conditions that affect his 21-year old son, Alex. He bought the business, or rather the equipment, because there was no business, he says. Armed with absolutely no experience and only two weeks of tutelage from the previous owner, Salit began making candles. He knew he could make it work because "quality always wins," he says.
"I set out to make a product that was high quality, and if you make a beautiful product, people will buy it." That beauty extends to the packaging: Each candle is gift-wrapped in clear cellophane and tied with a ribbon. In the past four years, he says, the clientele has more than doubled.
His recipes for colors and fragrances are refined in his 2,000-square-foot studio, using only food-grade paraffin, beeswax or, for containers, a blended wax. The wax is heated in specialized chambers, and the colors, natural essences and fragrances are blended in small batches. Only linen wicks from Germany are used to ensure a safe, clean, long-lasting burn.
He sells them at his shops in Strawberry Village and San Francisco's Ferry Building, online and through retail stores in Marin, Napa, Carmel, Nevada and Washington. So far, he's created 40 fragrances that aren't overwhelming and are true to their inspiration ("The chocolate caramel coffee really does smell like chocolate caramel coffee and the lemon really does smell like lemon"). The candles are offered in 75 to 80 custom-blended colors. "I'm proud to say there isn't one yet that hasn't sold."
The fragrances and the colors are inspired by the seasons - rich, deep colors and scents for fall and winter such as evergreen, sage, cinnamon-cranberry, amber pear, pomegranate and lily of the valley. Spring and summer call for lighter-noted scents, such as citrus, ginger-lemongrass, watermelon, Ocean, Island and A'Malia. Ocean pairs the scents of seagrass and salt; Island is a combination of plumeria, pikake, tuberose and gardenia and A'Malia is a blend of Hawaiian ginger, gardenia and Ocean.
Salit molds them into 23 shapes and sizes ranging from votives, a small heart and a double heart to round and fluted pillars and a large spa candle. They can be customized and monogrammed for party and wedding favors, created under a private label or given as corporate or thank-you gifts. All are crafted for a sense of dimension and to impart a translucent glow.
"It's all about the light," Salit says. "The color has life; it's not opaque."
He determined that with every heart-shaped candle sold, a portion would go to direct services for children and young adults like Alex. Three years ago, Salit introduced his first red heart-shaped candle that would define Project Light A Heart, a nonprofit organization he and his wife, Marni, created to help other nonprofits fund themselves. To date, he says, hundreds of groups have taken advantage of the offer.
Each of the project's heart candles sells for $15. Of that, $6.50 goes to the group that sells it, $1 is contributed to support children and young adults with autism and epilepsy and $7.50 goes toward making two new candles and an ornament.
A second fundraiser, the Ornament Project, was also created for nonprofits. Flat waxen shapes, used as scented ornaments or sachets, are strung with ribbon and presented in an organza bag. Each costs $5 with half given to the nonprofit.
Salit is thrilled that sales from Project Light A Heart and the Ornament Project have provided funds for, among others, four shelters and other services in tsunami-stricken Sri Lanka, children with cancer, survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and solar lanterns for women in Rwanda and Afghanistan.
"There's a lot of passion in providing light," he says, reflecting upon the good his candles are doing, but he also points out that the candles help anyone who lights one for themselves.
"When people go home and light a candle, the environment changes," he says. "I have a saying, 'You can't be angry when you light a candle.'"
So, everyone wins. Well, there is one drawback. Salit says he makes his candles so well that they last a long time. "That's my only problem," he says with a laugh.
Mill Valley Candleworks is next to Safeway in Strawberry Village in Mill Valley. For more information, call 381-8081 or visit www.mvcandleworks.com.
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