Lunahrin Candles
- Lunahrin Candles
- Medicine Hat, AB
- @lunahrin
- lunahrincandles.com
Learn more about Lunahrin Candles
Lunahrin is a small candle and home fragrance business based in Medicine Hat, Alberta. I design the scents myself and make everything in small batches.
Most of what I know about candle making and fragrance comes from independent learning. I read, watch classes, and spend a lot of time experimenting and adjusting things until they work the way I want them to.
Sometimes I start with a moment I want to recreate. One scent called Sunday Supper came from memories of my nana’s house. Every Sunday she would have the whole extended family over, cousins everywhere, and she would often invite people she knew who might otherwise be spending the weekend alone. There was always supper together and always dessert, usually pie. Looking back now, it must have been a lot of work for her.
Her motto was “what you sees is what you gets.” An open book.
In a strange way that’s also how I try to run the business.
Other times the process happens in reverse. I’ll come across a scent while testing materials and it reminds me of a place or a moment, and then I build the fragrance around that feeling.
I try not to chase trendy ingredients or marketing claims. What matters to me is that the materials work well, burn properly, and are safe to use in a normal home with people and pets.
In many ways the candles themselves aren’t meant to be unique or precious objects. A lot of brands treat candles like something to save for special occasions. I tend to see it the opposite way. They’re meant to be used as part of daily life.
Before Lunahrin, I ran a photography studio in downtown Medicine Hat. I spent many years photographing families, milestones, and everyday moments people wanted to remember.
When the pandemic arrived, the rhythm of that work changed. People were navigating different priorities, and over time I realized I wasn’t as connected to the work as I once had been.
Around that time, while I was spending more time at home, I signed up for an online perfume class because it sounded interesting. I ended up loving the process of blending scent and the strange way fragrance can bring back a place or a feeling you thought you had forgotten.
While I continued running the photography studio for several more years, I started experimenting with fragrance and candles at home and bringing them to local markets to see how people responded.
Not long after, the owner of a local pharmacy approached me and asked if she could carry my candles. That first shop, along with the encouragement of friends and family who supported those early experiments, helped give Lunahrin its start.
Since then things have grown slowly and steadily. Today Lunahrin candles can be found in independent shops here in Medicine Hat, and a couple outside Alberta.
At some point along the way, what started as curiosity turned into a business.
Lunahrin is built around the idea that scent can hold a memory. A place, a season, a moment you recognize the instant you smell it.
In the end, I think I’m still doing the same kind of work I always did. I’m just telling the stories with scent instead of photographs.
Candles of course, next up room sprays.
From a practical standpoint, I keep the products simple and reliable. I choose materials that burn cleanly, carry scent well, and are safe to use around people and pets. Everything is made in small batches so I can keep an eye on consistency and how the scents behave.
Beyond that, I honestly think the reason people respond to them has less to do with the materials and more to do with what scent does for people. We’ve become strangely focused on micromanaging labels and ingredients, but that’s rarely what someone remembers about a scent.
What people respond to is the feeling it creates in a space.
Right now a lot of people feel disconnected from the kinds of everyday gatherings and traditions that used to happen more naturally. Scent has a way of bringing those feelings back very quickly. A smell can take someone straight back to a kitchen, a garden, a family table, or a place they haven’t thought about in years.
I think that’s why the candles resonate. They create an atmosphere people recognize immediately, and sometimes that’s enough to remind someone of a moment that mattered to them.
My personal favourite product is actually the room sprays.
They’re a quick way to change the feeling of a space. A couple sprays and the whole atmosphere shifts.
They’re also incredibly practical. They work well for cars, gym bags, bathrooms, or any room that needs a quick reset. And in a house with two dogs, that comes in handy more often than I’d like to admit.
I’ve always liked simple things that actually get used. The room sprays are exactly that.
One of my favourite local businesses is a place called Rubble Rousers. It’s a large thrift store that mostly deals in estate items, with a room of tools, music, clothing, and all kinds of trinkets and things people once kept and cared about. My husband and I sometimes make a date of it. We grab fancy coffees and wander through to see if we can find a little treasure. The selection is always changing, and the pricing is refreshingly normal. Not everything is priced as though it’s a vintage collectible. It’s probably a bit of an unusual choice. You won’t find them with an online catalogue. You just have to go and see what’s there.
August 2020
