We recently connected with Kelsey Leitz and have shared our conversation below.

Kelsey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The story of how I came up with MI Candle Company is overall an uninteresting one; a simplistic pun and way to incorporate the love of my state, Michigan, into MY love for candles. MI/MY.

I was riding in the car with my mom, feeling a little defeated at my crossroads in life, as she was giving me a pep-talk about the faith she had in my small business and I and how I could rebrand myself with a new name and a fresh start. We went back-and-fourth bouncing ideas off of each other and eventually through the brainstorm trickle I landed on MI Candle Company. I remember saying out loud that if the LLC was available, it would be my sign to continue on with my small business — and it was!

Although the name as a whole isn’t necessarily overly-witty, I will always cherish it as it was a moment of clarity, my mom’s love and desire for me to follow my dream, and the beginning of where I am now three years later.

Kelsey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Kelsey Leitz and I am a native Michigan candle-maker. I got into my industry at the height of Covid in 2020 when I moved into a new city in the midst of a particularly gloomy and bitterly cold winter and needed a way to calm my mind from the chaos around us. I focused my attention and kept my hands busy on a new hobby – candle-making. I spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and countless hours trying different waxes, wicks, vessels and oils trying to formulate a candle that would satisfy my goals all the while trying to keep it as natural and eco-friendly as possible.

I am most proud of how far my brand, and I, have come. There was a time in which I was a single mother working out of a small 12×12 shed in the middle of winter with a hot plate, an extension cord, a small lamp and a dream pouring wholesale orders. Now I have a comfortable studio space in my basement where I have multiple 10-gallon wax melters and am able to keep stock of materials and have inventory of products, all while expanding my dream. I feel very privileged for the village around me that gave me mental clarity in the moments that I felt exhausted and I’m proud of myself for pushing through in the moments of overwhelming tears.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my, now, husband Jason in 2021 when I was a single mother to my son and had just freshly moved back to my hometown in pursuit of a calmer life and made the nerve wrecking decision to dedicate my full attention to candle-making. I was gaining clientele in the area for retail and I had missed my family, friends and being close to Lake Michigan so I decided to make the move back to focus on happiness and see how my business could expand. He seamlessly became the missing puzzle piece I desperately needed in terms of wick testing, note-taking, oil blending and most importantly being my confidante and has continued to do so since the day we met. I completely lucked into my business partner and the universe served me wonderfully!

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

After selling candles for a full year and seeing traction in sales with manufactured glass jars and vessels, we started to hand-mix, pour, and seal our own cement vessels in July of 2022. We researched the best eco-friendly pigments, non-VOC sealants and through trial-and-error I can confidently say our vessels have really given us an upper-hand in the small business candle community.

There is always a downside to the upside, so I would say that by hand producing our own vessels we have a new set of challenges that we’ve faced with time constraints, supply costs and dealing with the stigma of factory-poured perfection. We are two imperfect people who simply cannot perfectly make each and every vessel, sometimes that can be off-putting to those who are used to machine perfected glassware, ceramics, pottery, etc. Other times people are so impressed that they are handmade that they value them more. There’s something so wonderful about knowing that your energy and soul went into creating a product by hand completely that it gives you more gratitude to receive compliments and know that you are apart of homes across the United States and the world!

Contact Info:

• Website: shopmicandlecompany.com
• Instagram: micandlecompany_
• Facebook: facebook.com/micandlecompanyllc
• Other: https://faire.com/direct/micandlecompany email: [email protected] [email protected]

Image Credits
Marissa Kay Photography marissakayphotography.com @marissakayphotography