We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diana Orr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diana below.

Diana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

We’ve partnered with One Tree Planted, a non-profit 501(c)3 environmental non-profit tree planting charity that plant trees in countries around the world, a % of our sales helps fund reforestation efforts in our home state of California. Unfortunately, years of drought and large-scale bark beetle infestation have seriously damaged California’s once-thriving forests. Not to mention, 2017’s record-breaking wildfire season burned more than 1.3 million acres –(an area the size of Delaware.) 2020’s fire season consumed close to 3 million acres, resulting in hundreds of millions of trees that must be restored. Together, we are helping to restore California’s forests so that we can continue to enjoy their natural beauty & biodiversity for many years to come!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We handcraft natural, plant-based, eco-friendly, clean, candles, soaps, bath bombs & more….We are not an importer, We manufacture our proprietary artisan products in our own dedicated workshop. Most of our raw ingredients, packaging, & materials are Recyclable, Biodegradable & Made in the USA! We hope that our locally-based manufacturing structure will help create much-needed jobs in our rural village with a small population of just under 3000. We are an equal opportunity employer & currently employ women, single moms, individuals who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, senior citizens, & retired disabled military personnel.

We serve ingredient-conscious consumers who are trying to avoid bringing harmful chemicals into their homes. Many of our customers are cancer survivors, parents or have sensitivities to chemicals commonly found in mass-produced home fragrance & bath products. Our Wax is all NATURAL 100% plant-based and biodegradable.
manufactured here in california meeting FDA standards. Our products are made with clean simple ingredients, NO petroleum or paraffin, NO pesticides or herbicides, NO toxic materials & NO Genetically Modified Materials. Our products are NEVER tested on animals.

We also believe in giving back to mother nature which is why Wax Apothecary has partnered with One Tree Planted a non-profit 501(c)3 to help fund reforestation in California. We donate a % of our wholesale profits & also plant 1 tree for every retail candle sold.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We have been consistent with our values and quality since day 1 we have focused on using the best ingredients, clean, plant based, eco-friendly, recyclable, biodegradable. We have always manufactured our candles in our own dedicated facility, we’ve never outsourced or imported our candles. Being in harmony with earth & the well-being of our customers has always been our primary focus.

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

I grew up in a small farming village in Ohio, both of my parents grew up on family-farms, my family survived by growing crops & tending cattle… This fostered my love of nature, plants and helped me build a strong connection with the Earth. As an adult I noticed that most aromatherapy products were primarily synthetic chemicals & didn’t contain any actual plant-based ingredients. I wanted to create REAL aromatherapy products, I was inspired by old-world plant medicine, like an apothecary that would craft tinctures from natural ingredients, I decided to formulate candles in the same spirit … This led me to create Wax Apothecary… I started making the candles 1st at home in my kitchen, it took a long time to find the right ingredients & refine the process, allot of trial and error, our 1st scent was the pure rose, I initially started making it as gifts, and got really positive feedback so I eventually started formulating with other essential oils, lavender, eucalyptus, lemon & more,… We now have 12 everyday scents + 2 seasonal scents. Our 1st retailer was an amazing little gourmet grocery called Artisan’s Palate in Temecula CA, they still stock our candles today! We’ve grown to ship nationwide to over 800 independent retailers, & we even have a few international customers that carry our products in Canada, Europe, & Australia. We have our own workshop & employ a few independent contractors to help with pre-production, production, finishing, packaging, and shipping. We have refined our process over the years and now we can produce hundreds of candles in a day! We hope to be able to acquire new equipment that will increase our efficiency and production capacity soon.

Contact Info:

• Website: WaxApothecary.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/WaxApothecary
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaxApothecary
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/waxapothecary/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WaxApothecary
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr3UO6wVXMR4abLdhFW6tAA
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wax-apothecary-idyllwild