L+L Candles: Fall 2022 Fernweh Collection Launch l FERNWEH l New York l The Story Behind the Candle
Our FERNWEH candle made in Brooklyn, New York, carries an elegant fragrance with scent notes of pine, oak moss and rose. The velvety sweetness and sensuous blend of rose blooms when paired with the crisp and energizing aroma of forest pine and the earthy musk of oak moss. With this candle lit, you are surrounded by majestic trees, walking along a creek or over the damp roots of oak bark, enchanted by the delicate surprises that nature gifts us, often when we need it most.
The idea of L+L Candles was born one cold February night, when Lukas and I found ourselves tucked into Tribeca’s historic and rustic Tiny’s, a townhouse at 135 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013, built 1810 with real working fireplaces next to the dimly lit tables. It was also the night that Lukas asked me if I was open to the idea of marriage. We didn’t know it then, or maybe intuitively we did, but so many things in our lives were about to be quickly braided together, almost impossible to exist without the other: love, art, aspirations, each other. We knew we wanted to have a candle collection that explores some of the dualities of humanity: masculine and feminine, form and flow, darkness and light. And we wanted the scent profiles of our candles to mirror the intertwined elements of nature: the fragrant air of rose lifting from the ground the earthy smell of moss and the hearty wood of pine.
The symbolism of the fragrance oils used in the candles is intentional. This candle, after all, is the olfactory dance of our own scents: Lukas favoring a pine needle and musk cologne and me, a rose perfume. The pine tree symbolizes rebirth and a hopeful future. Oak moss is grounding and attuned to the voice of nature. And rose is most associated with love, beauty and courage. This candle was what we became when we were together. And it would become the signature candle to our Fernweh Collection.
Over the next couple of months, in our small Brooklyn apartment in Park Slope, we began to hash out all the details: testing waxes, fragrance oils, wicks and vessels. During that time, I was often reminded of an impassioned letter author Anais Nin wrote to her lover and fellow writer Henry Miller, “In you alone I have found the same swelling of enthusiasm, the same quick rising of the blood, the fullness… Before, I almost used to think there was something wrong. Everybody else seemed to have the brakes on… I never feel the brakes. I overflow. And when I feel your excitement about life flaring, next to mine, then it makes me dizzy.”
Our FERNWEH candle collection is inspired by the wonderful, untranslatable German word fernweh that describes the feeling of homesickness for a distant land, a place you've never been, and yet it is already of you. It is the ache so strong to escape and discover new places, it bears the weight of an almost sadness. And the search for it, is in distant lands and far within yourself.
As Salman Rushdie says, “The foreign can seem fantastic, exalted… its possibilities are infinite…Among the great struggles of [humanity]: good/evil, reason/unreason, etc. - there is also this mighty conflict between…the dream of roots and the mirage of the journey.”
For us, the FERNWEH Collection represents the places we journey to, and those we arrive at in each other. With each candle, we invite you on our personal olfactory travelogue through life and love.
All candles are hand-poured with love in our Brooklyn kitchen with our two daughters by our side. The FERNWEH candle is made from a soy blend wax with a cotton, lead-free wick, and phthalate-free fragrance oils. This candle is eco-friendly, non-toxic, vegan, and cruelty-free. It comes in three sizes of matte black: 10oz, 8oz, and 7oz.