Small Business Candle Making: Behind the Scenes at MBur's Queens Workshop
Small Business Candle Making: Behind the Scenes at MBur's Queens Workshop
Most candle brands will tell you their products are handmade. What they usually mean is that a machine did the hard part and a person put on the lid. At MBur Candle Co., handmade means something different. Every pour happens in a small workshop in Queens, NY. Every wick is placed by hand. Every batch is small enough to actually control.
This is what small business candle making looks like when the person making the candle also loses sleep over the quality of it. Here is a look inside the process, the decisions that go into every jar, and why any of it matters to you.
It Starts With the Wax. Full Stop.
The first decision in candle making is the one most brands get wrong. Paraffin is cheap, consistent, and a petroleum byproduct. It releases benzene and toluene when burned. That is not a natural candle. That is a scented industrial product sitting on your nightstand.
Soy is better, but the honest version of that story is complicated. Most soy candles are blended with paraffin, and most use toxic fragrance loads that cancel out whatever clean burn benefit the soy wax was supposed to provide.
MBur uses 100% pure beeswax. Single ingredient. No blends, no filler, no shortcuts. Beeswax has the highest melting point of any candle wax, which is exactly why the Room Service beeswax candle burns for up to 80 hours in the 12oz size. The wax itself does the work.
Beeswax is also a byproduct of honey production. Using it supports the beekeeping operations that produce it. And for what it is worth, humans have been burning beeswax candles since roughly 3,000 BCE. It has had a while to prove itself.
The Wooden Wick Decision
Cotton wicks are the industry default. They work fine. But wooden wicks do something cotton wicks cannot: they crackle.
That sound is not a gimmick. It is the natural result of moisture in the wood interacting with the flame, the same physics that makes a fireplace feel like a fireplace. Customers notice it immediately.
"I love the sounds it makes as it burns too, it's a nice crackling sounds which makes me feel cozy on winter nights. Great customer service too, will keep ordering!" Alexa, Sunday Reset Candle
Wooden wicks also produce a wider, flatter flame that melts wax more evenly across the surface of the jar. Less tunneling. Longer life. Better scent throw, because more wax surface area is melting at once.
At MBur, wooden wicks are placed by hand during production. Each one is positioned at the correct center point before the wax sets. It is a small detail that changes the entire burn.
Fragrance Without the Fallout
This is where a lot of small candle brands cut corners without telling you. Fragrance oils are not all the same. Phthalates are plasticizers commonly used in fragrance formulations, and they are endocrine disruptors with a growing body of research connecting them to hormonal interference.
MBur uses only phthalate free fragrance across the entire line. No chemical dyes either. The color you see in the jar is the natural color of beeswax, which ranges from pale ivory to warm amber depending on the batch.
The result is a candle that fills a room without leaving you wondering what else it is filling your room with. That is not a small thing.
"I absolutely love these candles! I instantly notice the difference in the air quality, in comparison to the Bath and Body scented candles. I love Bath and Body's candles but I acknowledge that it caused a slight headache and other minor respiratory discomfort. Awesome products. Totally addicted." Jason H., Sunday Reset Candle
What Small Batch Actually Means
At scale, candle production becomes about throughput. You optimize for speed and you accept some variation. Small batch production at MBur means each pour gets attention that a factory line cannot provide.
The workshop is in Queens, NY. Not a fulfillment warehouse. Not a contracted manufacturer in another state. The person who designed the scent is often the same person who poured your candle. That proximity to the product matters in ways that are hard to quantify but easy to notice when you open the box.
Read more about how this all started in our story: handcrafted in Far Rockaway, Queens NY.
"From the packaging to the burn of the candle, everything was top notch! Candle burned slowly and was exactly the amount of hours the company said it would burn. I was able to enjoy it for days even though it was the smaller size. Company included samples, instructions, and shipped fast. Well done, MBur Candle Co!" Portia Darby, Sunday Reset Candle
The Scents: Not an Afterthought
MBur's scent lineup reads less like a candle catalog and more like a collection of moods that someone actually thought about. A few standouts worth knowing:
Room Service is the bestseller for a reason. Saffron, white tea, violet, and a base of sandalwood and amber. It smells like the lobby of a hotel you saved up to stay at. The Room Service candle starts at $20 for the 20 hour size and goes up to $60 for the 80 hour 12oz.
Sunday Reset hits peppermint, eucalyptus, cedar, and patchouli. It is the candle that makes your apartment smell like you cleaned it even when you did not. The Sunday Reset candle runs $20 for 20 hours up to $60 for 80 hours.
Do Not Disturb is the bedroom scent: ripening fruit, fresh florals, and a warm base that signals the day is done. The Do Not Disturb candle is available in the same size range, starting at $20.
Not sure where to start? The candle samples are $5 each and cover the full lineup. Try three or four before committing to a full size.
How This Compares to What Else Is Out There
For context, here is where MBur sits relative to two other independent beeswax candle makers in the same space:
What separates MBur is the combination of burn time, phthalate free fragrance, wooden wicks, and the fact that it is made in New York City by the people who designed the scents. Most small batch candle brands can claim one or two of those things. MBur checks all of them.
The Bottom Line
Small business candle making done right is slower, more expensive, and more demanding than the alternative. MBur chooses that path because the alternative produces candles that smell fine for 20 hours, leave soot on your walls, and give half your customers a headache.
If you have been burning the same big box candle for years because it is convenient, this is the case for trying something made by a person, in a workshop, in Queens, with actual standards.
The full MBur candle collection is available now, with sizes starting at $20 and burning up to 80 hours. Free shipping thresholds apply at checkout.
Ready to try it? Start with a $5 sample and find your scent before committing to a full jar. Pick your candle sample here.
What buyers say:
Related Reading:
Shop our candles
