Rosy Rings

Shannon Cumberland wasn't trying to build a candle empire. She was trying to survive. Burned out from years of waitressing and bike messengering in Denver, she started selling dried floral arrangements at craft fairs as a way to use her hands and her creativity. The market was saturated. She knew she needed to differentiate. Almost on a whim, she started adding candles -- hand-poured in her tiny duplex kitchen with a crockpot, a few dented molds, chunks of beeswax, vials of fragrance, and an assortment of dried flowers and fruit she gathered from her garden. The Spicy Apple Botanical Candle was the one that changed everything. She knew immediately she was onto something. She maxed out her credit card and applied to two gift shows -- and was shocked to be accepted at both. That first year, she sold $257,000 worth of candles. She moved production to her basement, surrounded by five cats and the sound of the washing machine. Then to a 30,000-square-foot facility in Denver's Clayton neighborhood, where she now employs a full team and pours over 100,000 candles a year. Every single one is still made by hand. The botanical candles -- beeswax, soy, and paraffin blended with essential oils, then embedded with dried blooms, seeds, leaves, berries, and fruit -- each take up to three days to perfect. Every botanical element is placed individually by a candle artisan. The process has never been automated because, as Shannon puts it, her employees are always faster and better than any machine. Carried in over 2,000 retailers worldwide, shipped to Japan, and now available in her own Cherry Creek boutique. On a registry, a Rosy Rings candle is the kind of thing someone unwraps and immediately lights -- and that makes a home smell like a garden in full bloom.