Today we’d like to introduce you to Chasen Lykins.

Hi Chasen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

My story is honestly one of my favorite parts of Bad Apple. I started candle making as a hobby just for something to do during lockdown. I was working at my local hospital at the time as a Patient Care Tech in 2020 and at the time, we had a very large handful of Covid-19 patients. When I had accepted the job, it was just a normal floor but in the time it took me to finish out my two week notice at my last job, we were in full swing lock down- and I was going right into the fire with no hospital experience. It was a major adjustment in itself, let alone adding a pandemic on top of it. So considering that I was still working during lockdown, and the environment I was in I started researching candle making as a hobby just to have something to come home and do to let my mind focus on something else, because I was also in school at the time doing my prerequisite classes for Mortuary school. Candle making allowed my brain to just completely shut off from everything going on in the world at the time, leading to us starting to actually sell candles in early 2021. In late 2021, I discovered that I was pregnant with my daughter, and that it would be a high risk pregnancy, resulting in my departure from the hospital and focusing on Bad Apple full time as its what I could do a little more “at my leisure” while also staying within the restrictions my doctor had placed me under. Since then, Bad Apple has allowed me to continue to stay home with my daughter and meet an incredible amount of people over the years through various conventions, craft shows, and other events. To this day four years later, the nurses I worked with in 2020-2021 are some of my biggest supporters in my adventure in owning a small business.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

It has been by no means a smooth road, but every bump in the road I encountered had taught me an incredible lesson in one way or another. Candle making is actually a considerable amount of math, chemistry, and hours and hours of testing. For example, on the surface, making a candle looks like you just put the wick in a glass jar, pour the wax and you’re good to go. That is the farthest thing from the truth, as not all wicks work the same with all fragrance oils. Some ‘thicker’ oils need a bigger wick to provide a quality burn, even if its in the same jar as a fragrance that needs a smaller wick. Some wicks will carry a fragrance farther throughout your house than others, the wax you use for wax melts is a completely different formula than the formula for candles. There is a TON of testing involved to actually provide a quality candle for a realistic price point, and that part often times gets looked over when someone decides to start a candle company. Even with the struggle of finding out what works and what doesn’t, I can confidently say that even on the worst days I wouldn’t trade what I do for anything,

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

Bad Apple Candle Company is a small candle company, with our main focus being our hand poured soy candles and wax melts. Our most popular scent is our Apple Maple Bourbon, which is what I would think we’re known for as I can never keep it in stock. As soon as it hits my table at a craft fair it’s gone. I have been steadily increasing how much of it we carry every time we restock and it still sells out, every time. The love shown to that scent (and my candles in general) is insane and we cannot thank our supporters enough for it. I am personally most proud of the fact that all of our supplies are actually purchased from other small businesses. So while you are supporting my small business, you are helping me support FIVE other small businesses and farms right here in the United States between our jars, wax, wicks, labels and components in our soap.

How do you think about luck?

I think that luck has played a factor in our company as there have been a few times where being “in the right place at the right time” has worked out very well for us. An example of this was being set up at a local convention called Horror Realm, where I had a conversation with another candle maker that is still a very important part of my business. The man was set up a few tables down from me and his work made my work look pitiful. And truth be told, I was early in my career, I had alot of things that needed to be better. He came up and looked at my table and he didn’t say much, and in the back of my mind I was like “man this dude is gonna rip me to shreds” and he picks up one of my candles, compliments it and then asks me my method of doing things so I tell him, He then proceeds to tell me how long he’s been in business, his accomplishments with his company, and then goes on to (politely) tell me that if this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life, that I need to change x, y, and z and tells me how to do it in a better way. That sounds really harsh of him, and maybe it was. But without him God only knows what mistakes I would have continued to make and I don’t know that I would even still have Bad Apple. That was three years ago and I still think of the things he told me that day and apply it to my career now. But If I hadn’t been accepted into that convention. I wouldn’t have met him and wouldn’t know the things I do now.

Pricing:

• Candles- $15.00
• Wax melts- $4.00
• Soap- priced by weight $4.00-$8.00

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BadAppleCandleCo?ref=shop_sugg_market
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554165161955
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bad.apple.candles