If you are wondering who owns Paddywax candles today, the answer is Designworks Collective, a Nashville company that runs a family of consumer brands. Paddywax began in 1996 in Gretchen Hollingsworth's kitchen, and it has been part of that larger group for well over a decade. The common picture of a small, founder-run shop is out of date.
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As for where the candles are made, Paddywax says they are poured by hand and packaged at its own facility in Nashville, Tennessee. That also clears up a second myth, the one that says the jars are filled overseas. Who makes a candle and where it is poured are good first questions. The question right behind them is what the wax actually is, and that question is why we pour all of our pure beeswax candles by hand in New York City from a single wax with nothing blended into it.
How a kitchen project became one brand in a family of brands
Paddywax has a story many home brands share. One person makes candles at the kitchen counter, friends start buying them, and then local shops call. Gretchen Hollingsworth started the brand in Nashville in 1996, and it grew from that counter into a national name.
At some point a growing brand needs more than a kitchen. It needs real warehouse space and a team that can sell to large stores. Joining a parent company is one common way to get both, and Paddywax took that path when it became part of Designworks Collective.
Designworks Collective is a Nashville group that owns several lifestyle labels. Paddywax shares that parent with sister brands such as Archipelago and Gentlemen's Hardware, plus a few others. The group runs distribution for these lines together, so one sales team can place several of them in the same store.
That is why you often see Paddywax sitting beside its sister brands on a gift shop shelf. The brands look different, yet the business behind them is shared. When you buy one, you are buying from the same company that makes the others.
The company also runs Paddywax Candle Bar, a set of shops where you can book a workshop and pour your own candle. It is a hands-on way to see how a candle comes together. It also tells you how the brand thinks of itself, as a place to have an experience as much as a place to buy a jar.
So ownership answers the first part of your search. The second part is about the sticker on the bottom of the jar, and what “made in Nashville” really covers.
What “made in Nashville” covers, and the question it leaves open
Paddywax says it mixes and pours its candles in Nashville, then tests and packs them on site. That is real work, done by real people in a U.S. city. The parts that go into a candle, like the jar and the lid, can come from other places, which is normal for almost any product sold in a container.
A city on a label answers one question well. It tells you where the wax was melted and poured, and it leaves the wax itself unnamed. For anyone who reads labels closely, that unnamed part is the line that matters most.
Picture yourself in a home store on a Saturday morning. You pick up a candle you like, tip it over, and read the small sticker on the bottom. You find the city and the scent name, and then you hunt for one more line: what is actually burning in this jar.
That missing line is the reason our labels stay short. Our Room Service beeswax candle is made from 100% beeswax, with wooden wicks and phthalate-free fragrance, and it uses no chemical dye. There is no blend to decode because there is only one wax in the jar.
That brings us to the wax itself, which sets the floor for everything else a candle does in your room.
The wax, which sets the floor for everything else
Paddywax labels its wax as a soy wax blend, made with soybeans grown on U.S. farms. Soy is a plant wax, and it is soft. On its own it can frost or sink in the jar as it cools.
Candle makers fix this by blending. They add other waxes or additives so the soy sets smoothly and holds its fragrance. The word “blend” confirms soy is in the mix and leaves the rest of the recipe unnamed.
Some blends use other plant waxes. Some use paraffin. To see why that difference matters, it helps to know where paraffin comes from, one step at a time.
Where paraffin comes from, step by step
Paraffin starts as crude oil. At a refinery, crude is heated and split into parts, with gasoline at the light end and heavy oils for lubricants at the other. Those heavy oils contain wax, and refiners pull it out so the oil keeps flowing in cold weather.
The wax that comes out is then bleached and treated so it looks clean and white. Follow those steps and the conclusion is plain: paraffin is petroleum waste, left over after oil is turned into other products. Research has shown that paraffin candles release benzene and toluene as they burn, along with formaldehyde, and they leave dark soot on jars and walls.
We cannot tell you what is in any specific Paddywax blend, and we will not guess. What you can do is ask any brand one direct question: what is in the blend besides soy? A clear, complete answer is a good sign from any company.
The other side of that question is what a candle looks like when there is nothing to decode. That is the work we do every day in New York.
What a single-ingredient candle looks like from the inside
Every MBur candle starts with one wax. Beeswax is the wax honeybees make to build their comb, and beekeepers collect it as a byproduct of honey. Buying a beeswax candle supports the people who keep those hives going.
It is also the oldest candle material we know of. People were burning beeswax for light as far back as about 5,000 BCE, thousands of years before the first refinery.
Beeswax has the highest melting point of any common candle wax. Here is why that matters in your room: a wax that needs more heat to melt gets used up more slowly, so each candle lasts longer. That is how the 12 oz size of each MBur candle burns for 80+ hours, while the 5 oz size burns for 40.
We pour each candle by hand in New York City. The fragrance is phthalate-free. Phthalates are chemicals often added to make a scent cling longer, and toxic fragrances tend to rely on them, so we leave them out of every scent we make.
The wax and the fragrance live inside the jar, where you have to trust the label. The next two details are ones you can check yourself.
The two you can see with your own eyes
The first is the wick. Ours are made of wood, and a wooden wick crackles softly as it burns while holding a steady flame. You can hear it from across the room on a quiet evening.
On the 12 oz size there are two wooden wicks. Two flames spread heat across a wider surface, so the melted wax reaches the edge of the jar and the candle burns down evenly. One wick on the 5 oz size does the same job in a smaller jar.
The second is the color. We use no chemical dyes, so what you see in the jar is the natural shade of beeswax. When it is lit, beeswax gives off a warm light close to natural sunlight on the spectrum, which is why a room looks softer by its glow.
Those details are easy to list on a page. What tells you more is how they hold up when someone lights the candle at home on a regular night.
What people say after the first burn
A spec sheet can only promise so much. The real test happens on a weeknight, in a real living room, after the jar has been open for a while.
One of our customers, Tiffany, burns our Retail Therapy beeswax candle in her bedroom and her living room. Its notes are Red Currant, Black Currant, Jasmine, Peach, Black Tea, Amber, Anise, Tonka Bean, a dark fruit scent with warm tea underneath. Here is how she described it, in her own words:
“This scent has me in a chokehold. I burn it in my room and my living room and it fills my space SOOOOO nicely. I've tried quite a few scents from them and they all have different vibes and gives you something unique....and they all smell amazing. Theres nothing I hate more than a candle that can't fill the room and baby this is NOT that. This candle permeates every corner of the room. Cant say enough about how impressed I am with this company.”
Tiffany Gordon, verified customer
Her review points back to the reason we keep the recipe simple. A single wax melts in a predictable way, and once the melt pool reaches the edge of the jar, the scent has the whole surface to rise from. That full surface is what carries fragrance into the corners she mentions.
That is the payoff of a short label. A careful reader usually has a few more questions, so here they are.
The questions you may still be asking
“But Paddywax is poured by hand in America too.”
It is, and that counts for something. Both brands pour by hand in a U.S. city, so the city alone will not help you choose between them.
The wax line is what separates one candle from another. Ours lists one wax, beeswax, with nothing blended in, so you know what is burning before you strike the match.
“But a big parent company can afford more testing.”
Testing matters most when a recipe has many parts. A blend has to be balanced batch after batch so the soy and its additives behave together in the jar.
A single wax has fewer parts to balance. The test that matters to you at home is simpler: does the candle fill your room? That comes down to two choices, which scent you pick and which size fits the space.
“I want to know there are real people behind the brand.”
That is a fair thing to ask of any company. Ours are poured by hand in New York City and packed for shipping by the same small team. Paige, a customer who shares an apartment with a roommate, put it this way: “They smell up a WHOLE room during the burn & even a while after blowing them out.”
With the wax settled and the people behind it known, the only decision left is fit.
Which scent and size fit your room
Two things decide fit: the size of the room and how often you light a candle there. Get those two right and the candle does its job every night.
The 12 oz size has two wooden wicks and burns 80+ hours. Pick it for a larger room, or for the room you light most nights. The second wick is what lets it melt edge to edge in a wide jar.
The 5 oz size has one wooden wick and burns 40 hours. Pick it for a small room, like a bedroom or a home office, or for a room you use less often. In a small space, one flame fills the air without crowding it.
For scent, Room Service is the candle people choose for a room where they host. Its notes are Saffron, White Tea, Purple Peonies, Orchid, Tobacco, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Tonka Bean, soft tea and florals over a warm, creamy base. Retail Therapy suits a room that is yours alone, where you want something darker and fruitier at the end of the day.
Questions people ask about Paddywax and MBur
Is Paddywax still owned by the person who started it?
No. Gretchen Hollingsworth founded Paddywax in her kitchen in 1996, and the brand is now part of Designworks Collective, a Nashville company with several sister brands. If you prefer a candle you can trace to one small team, our beeswax candles hand poured in New York City are made by the people who answer our emails.
Are Paddywax candles made in China?
Paddywax says its candles are poured and packed at its facility in Nashville, Tennessee. Parts like jars and lids can be sourced elsewhere, which is common across the industry. Every Room Service beeswax candle we make is poured by hand in New York City.
What kind of wax is in a Paddywax candle?
Paddywax labels its wax as a soy wax blend made with U.S.-grown soybeans. A blend can include other waxes, so ask any brand what else is in it. Our Retail Therapy beeswax candle is 100% beeswax, so the label has nothing left to explain.
How long do MBur candles actually burn?
The 5 oz size burns for 40 hours on one wooden wick. The 12 oz size burns for 80+ hours on two wooden wicks, because beeswax has the highest melting point of the common candle waxes. Both sizes of the Room Service candle follow those same burn times.
The short version
Paddywax is owned by Designworks Collective and poured in Nashville, and it was founded in a kitchen in 1996. Ownership and city tell you who made a candle and where. The wax line tells you what is burning in your room, and ours names one ingredient.
For the room where you host, the candle to bring home is the 12 oz Room Service ($65). It is our #1 bestseller and the scent people pick when friends are coming over, because the tea and peony notes feel calm and welcoming the moment someone walks in. Two wooden wicks melt the 100% beeswax edge to edge across 80+ hours. As Breann, one customer, wrote after her first burn: “Once I lit it, however, I fell in love!”
If you have a free evening this week, plan to light it then, because a long first burn that lets the wax melt to the edge sets the pattern for every burn after it.
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