We were lucky to catch up with Kimber Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kimber thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

After getting married in 2000 & graduating with an ART degree in 2001, I dabbled in many art forms: oil painting, watercolor, collage, & mosaic, as well as a couple of years of teaching art. A few years later when we started a family, I began to take on calligraphy jobs, an art medium that was conducive to life with babies and nap schedules! But as our family continued to grow, two things became clear to me:

1. I knew that it was essential (for my sanity and the well being of my family) that I continue to nurture a creative outlet!
2. I realized the need to narrow the field and choose ONE creative venture to focus on & develop.

And so the idea for The Outer Banks Candle Company was born, and with it, the long journey of learning and experimenting with candle making. This often meant working LATE into the night after the kids were in bed. I started the learning process with a “How to Make Candles” DVD (back when DVDs were a thing) and few hundred dollars in candle-making supplies (which felt like a big investment at the time!)

I started The Outer Banks Candle Company in 2008 with three very young children, 4, 2 & newborn… that was crazy! It all began with a passion to create unique & beautiful candles that are inspired by the beauty & peacefulness of life at the beach. And maybe in retrospect, those early days in the weeds of parenting young children left me trying to recapture some peace and simplicity for myself!

I had known that I needed a creative outlet in order to thrive and this career journey has provided that in so many ways. I love the artistry involved in our candle-making process… mixing colors, choosing vessels, creating new designs, & developing unique custom fragrances.

Being a candle maker and small business owner has also given me the flexibility to prioritize our family. All of our five children have have grown up in and around the candle studio, learning the craft. They have assembled candle wicks, trimmed labels, set up and sold candles with me at craft shows, and gained invaluable life and career experiences in the process!

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

I’m Kimber Smith, CANDLE ARTIST & owner of The Outer Banks Candle Company in Kitty Hawk, NC. I’m a mother of 5, married to a pastor & I have a degree from UNC-Wilmington in FINE ART.

I started this candle business with three very young children, out of a deep-seated desire in my heart to CREATE. The Outer Banks is a string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, where I live and work. I am inspired by the colors of the coast, the ocean’s treasures (sea glass, shells, driftwood), the changing of the tides & the seasons, and the emotions and memories that are stirred by simple times spent at the beach. I create candles out of this inspiration, believing that the right candle can evoke the same peace and simplicity that inspired it.

I love the artistry involved in the candle-making process… mixing colors, choosing unique vessels (like ANTIQUE glassware!), creating new designs, & maybe most of all: developing creative and unique custom fragrances. Have you ever wished you could capture a special moment, a place in time, a picture in your memory, or the scent of something lovely and bottle it up so you don’t have to let it go?

This idea is precisely what inspired me to start creating my own candle fragrances. I am often inspired by a special experience or memory, or by something beautiful or peaceful at the beach that I would like to capture into a candle.

PINEAPPLE MINT is one of my favorite signature candle fragrances and a great example of how my ideas are born. I was inspired to create this candle during a HOT, sunny, summer day on the beach. With my water bottle in hand, I was wishing for something a little more tropical and a lot more refreshing! I started to imagine the perfect drink to match this lovely day at the beach… Something cool, fresh, sweet like summer, topped with a sprig of earthy goodness (like MINT!) I started to experiment with the oils of sweet fruits and fresh herbs… and eventually, Pineapple Mint was born!

PINEAPPLE MINT: Sweet & tropical, juicy PINEAPPLE… followed by soft notes of fresh green MINT! Some other favorite coastal-inspired custom candle fragrances are Citrus Ocean, Lavender Seas and Driftwood Vanilla.

I’m proud of the years of hard work and slow growth that laid the foundation for this creative business. It has taken years of trial and error, attention to detail, layers of experimentation, patience… and SO MANY candle fails! But through that, I know that the candles I create are born out of beauty, inspiration, and good old fashioned hard work. And I always pray that wherever these candles may travel, they carry with them the beauty, simplicity & peacefulness of the beaches that inspired them.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of being a creative is the unfolding process of watching my ideas and visions come to life. As a mom of five, motherhood rarely affords the gratification of a “finished product” (most of parenting and family life, though rewarding, is an ongoing process with no true finish line.) This is part of why I love the gratification that comes with creating candles… from inspiration to experimentation to finished product, the result is a tangible finished product! And that, as my kids would say, is “SO SATISFYING!”

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have the largest social media following out there. But I have learned the value of slow growth and nurturing the following I have. And one of the biggest things I’ve learned in this particular journey has been the importance of telling the authentic story behind the business. No one is interested in following the story of a product or an endless series of commercials. And most of us no longer even want to see a perfectly curated series of photos. I find that what people are actually interested in is following the STORY behind the business… the person, the family, the inspiration, how it came to be, the behind the scenes of how it works, and the authentic imperfections and failures that happen along the way!

So, with this in mind, I try to share stories of who I am, how this creative business came to be, the family behind the business, what inspires me and my candles, outtakes and fails, and the beautiful Outer Banks where it all takes place!

I think this approach makes people feel like they have been invited into the story. And in a world where people are intrinsically longing for connection, people are much more apt to support an artist or a business that they feel invested in and connected to. After all, it’s called “SOCIAL media” for a reason!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theouterbankscandlecompany.com
• Instagram: @outerbankscandleco
• Facebook: The Outer Banks Candle Company

Image Credits
Photo credits: Julie Dreelin and Amanda Hedgepeth