What’S So Special About Yankee Candles?

A Brief History of Yankee Candle

Yankee Candle is an iconic American brand known around the world for its distinctive, long-lasting scented candles. Founded in 1969 by Michael Kittredge, Yankee Candle started out small, with Kittredge melting crayons on his family’s stovetop to create the first scented candles he sold to neighbors. However, word spread quickly about the quality and unique scents of Yankee Candles, and the company grew rapidly. By the late 1970s, Yankee Candle had become a nationwide success and today is the leading manufacturer of scented candles in the United States.

Yankee Candle offers over 150 scents across more than 400 products, from traditional candles to wax melts, room sprays, and more. Their candles are beloved for their strong scent throw that fills any space with fragrance. Beyond candles, Yankee Candle is also known for its brick-and-mortar retail stores that create an immersive, sensory experience for customers. Now with over 600 retail locations worldwide, Yankee Candle has become a globally recognized brand that evokes nostalgia, comfort, and home.

Unique Scent Technology

Yankee Candle is known for its innovative scent technology which allows it to produce exceptionally high-quality candles. The scent is the most important element of any candle, and Yankee Candle uses a proprietary method to create distinctive, long-lasting fragrances that can’t be found anywhere else.

The process starts with selecting the finest fragrance oils from leading global suppliers. Yankee Candle’s expert perfumers meticulously blend these oils in different combinations and concentrations, often with over 40 individual fragrance components in a single candle. This allows them to craft truly unique scents that evoke specific memories and emotions for customers.

Certain signature fragrances have become synonymous with the Yankee Candle brand. Scents like Lilac Blossoms, Pink Sands, and Clean Cotton evoke the essence of New England, where the company was founded. Seasonal scents like Home for the Holidays and Summer Scoop capture the warmth and nostalgia of favorite times of year. Exotic scents like Mango Peach Salsa and Brazilian Ginger transport you to faraway places.

Yankee Candle continues to innovate with new fragrance technologies and scent trends. But the focus remains on producing distinctive, high-quality fragrances that create an authentically enjoyable candle experience for customers. This commitment to fragrance excellence is what makes Yankee’s scents so special.

Range of Products

One of the most notable things about Yankee Candles is the vast range of candle products they offer. They have candles that come in all different shapes, sizes, and scents to fit any decor or personal preference.

The classic Yankee Jar Candle comes in a variety of sizes, from small to extra-large, so you can choose the perfect burn time for your needs. The large 22oz jar candles burn for 110-150 hours! The candles come in over 500 different fragrances, ranging from fruity and floral, to spicy and earthy. Popular scents include Clean Cotton, Lavender Vanilla, Lemon Lavender, and MidSummer’s Night.

For special occasions or as beautiful gifts, Yankee offers uniquely shaped candles such as pillars, tapers, votives, and tea lights. Designer candles feature intricate shapes like coral, seashells, and starfish. The Housewarmer line has candles designed as household items like lanterns and vases.

Yankee also offers wax melts and Electric Home Fragrancers as an alternative candle option. Just place a wax melt cube in your wax warmer and enjoy the scented oil as it melts. The electric fragrancers work similarly, slowly releasing room-filling fragrance from a scented cube or stick.

To scent your car, closet, bathroom or other small spaces, Yankee has a line of small Car Jars in fan-favorite fragrances. Yankee also makes gentle reed diffusers and room sprays to freshen up any room in your house.

With their diverse range of candle products, Yankee Candle has an option for every preference when it comes to home fragrance. There is truly a Yankee Candle for every person and purpose!

The Candle-Making Process

Yankee Candle carefully controls every step of the candle-making process to produce their superior candles. They use a proprietary wax blend that allows the fragrance to burn steadily over a long period. The wax is a combination of paraffin, food-grade oils, and proprietary polymer additives. This provides excellent fragrance throw without producing excessive soot.

Yankee Candle makes their own wicks in-house to carefully control the width, braiding, and wax coating. This gives them complete quality control over the burn rate and wax pooling. Each wick undergoes testing to ensure it is trimmed to the optimal height for the specific candle size and shape.

The liquid wax and fragrance oils are blended in large vats, keeping the formulas top secret. The artisan candle makers carefully hand pour each candle, adding fragrance and color by hand in a time-intensive process. The candles cure for at least 48 hours before undergoing extensive burn testing to ensure flawless performance and fragrance throw.

While Yankee Candle produces millions of candles per year, each one goes through this meticulous handmade process with care and quality control at every step. This allows them to deliver signature scents and exceptional burn time across their product lines.

Quality and Safety

Yankee Candle has always placed a strong emphasis on quality and safety in their candle making process. Their candles are rigorously tested to ensure clean burning with no messy residue, no smoking, and no waste. They use advanced testing methods to guarantee every candle burns evenly from the edges to the center, all the way down to the bottom of the jar or tumbler.

Great care is taken to use only lead-free, 100% cotton wicks in their candles. These wicks are carefully braided by hand to provide the optimal flame size and ensure clean burning. Yankee Candle adheres to the highest safety standards, including those set by the ASTM International and National Candle Association.

Every fragrance and candle finish is evaluated by safety experts to make sure they meet requirements. Their testing protocols assess factors like flame height, retention of scent during burning, pool depth, and jar temperature. These stringent safety assessments result in candles that provide beautiful ambiance and fragrance in a responsible manner.

Mass Production with Handmade Care

Yankee Candle started off small in 1969, handcrafting candles in founder Michael Kittredge’s family home in Massachusetts. Over 50 years later, the company has grown to be a global brand, producing over 200 million candles per year. But despite having massive factory operations to meet large-scale production demands, Yankee Candle still approaches candle-making in a thoughtful, handcrafted way.

Each candle goes through a meticulous 32-step process from start to finish. This includes hand-pouring the wax into each vessel and having workers hand-place the wicks. Fragrances are added by hand as well in a careful process to achieve the signature scents Yankee Candles are known for. At the end of production, workers do final inspections and test burns on the candles before approving them for shipment.

While machines now assist with some steps like wax melting and vessel preparation, the handmade ethos remains intact throughout. Yankee Candle is able to produce candles on a global commercial scale while still retaining that homemade feel associated with a small batch workshop. This balance of mass producing while preserving the essence of handcrafting is key to Yankee’s brand identity and product quality.

Branding and Marketing

Yankee Candle has become known for its distinctive branding and marketing that promotes not just a product, but an enjoyable and nostalgic experience. Much of their branding centers around the idea of home, comfort, and sentimental memories. Their logo features a classic American colonial house, evoking warmth and tradition.

The candle scents themselves are branded to connect with consumers on an emotional level, with names like “Christmas Cookie,” “Beach Walk,” and others that spark nostalgic memories. Yankee Candle doesn’t just sell candles, they sell the feeling of being transported back in time to a cozy holiday gathering or seaside vacation.

The company utilizes catalogs, social media, and retail store displays to market the candles as part of a mood or lifestyle, often showing them burning alongside complementary home decor. Their marketing connects the product to specific experiences and memories, building strong brand recognition and loyalty among customers who then come to associate Yankee Candle with cherished moments.

The in-store experience itself, often referred to as “sensory branding,” is designed to immerse customers in the Yankee Candle world. Between the prominent candle burning, homey store decor, and nostalgic branding, they sell not just a scented candle but an atmospheric experience tied closely to the Yankee brand image.

Retail Stores

Yankee Candle takes great pride in its flagship stores, aiming to provide customers with an immersive, multi-sensory experience. Upon entering one of their signature retail stores, customers are immediately surrounded by the signature scents and aesthetic that Yankee Candle is known for.

The stores are designed to engage all five senses. Soft background music plays while customers browse the vast selection of products. Beautiful, seasonal displays showcase candles and other home fragrance items. Stores encourage customers to remove lids and sniff different candle scents, evoking memories and emotions tied to smell. Touching and feeling the soft textures of wick trimmer, candle holders, and other accessories is also part of the sensory journey.

Yankee Candle’s retail stores offer more than just shopping. Customers can customize their own candles at the Wax Works area and watch candle makers produce candles on old-fashioned dipping lines. Kids can enjoy the Crayon Club where they color their own candle jars. Various events and workshops are also held in stores for customers to partake in the Yankee Candle experience.

The flagship stores fully immerse customers in the Yankee Candle brand, letting them see, touch, hear, and smell what makes these candles so special. They exemplify the company’s commitment to providing quality products while preserving its rich heritage and handmade approach to candle-making.

Community Involvement

Yankee Candle is deeply invested in giving back to communities across the United States. The company partners with a number of charitable foundations and organizations to make a positive impact.

Some of their biggest community initiatives include:

• Partnering with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation – Yankee Candle sells special pink jar candles and donates a portion of the proceeds to breast cancer research.
• Supporting the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress – Yankee Candle helps raise awareness and funds through special events and product sales.
• Working with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation – Selling a special candle with proceeds going to support the families of firefighters who have died in the line of duty.
• Sponsoring the Autism Speaks organization – Raising money through partnership products and promotions for autism research and advocacy.

Yankee Candle also has a program called “Hometown Heroes” where they recognize ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their local communities. The company highlights and rewards these individuals for their community service and charitable acts.

It’s clear that giving back and making a positive social impact are core values for Yankee Candle. The company uses its success and reach to partner with and support numerous charities and foundations year-round.

Conclusion

Yankee Candle has achieved remarkable success and longevity in the candle industry due to its unique qualities and practices. Founded in 1969, Yankee Candle started with a single scented candle made in founder Mike Kittredge’s kitchen. Today, the company offers over 600 candle fragrances across a wide array of home fragrance products. What sets Yankee Candle apart is its proprietary fragrance technology that allows for true-to-life scent replication, its diverse product line that has something for every consumer, and its dedication to quality and safety through hand-crafting techniques even as a mass producer. Yankee Candle also succeeds through creative branding and marketing, establishing itself as an iconic American company, as well as giving back to local communities. With these differentiators sustaining its growth for over 50 years, Yankee Candle continues to burn bright as an innovative industry leader and purveyor of delightful scented candle experiences for all.