Meet the Maker

How it Started

Selfie taken on my 50th birthday this year.

 

Hiya! My name is Tina and I am the founder of Verbivore Candles.

I live in Arnprior - a gorgeous town nestled 'Where the Rivers Meet' in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada. I moved to Arnprior with my husband, teenage kids, a Huskie-mix rescue pup, a Golden Doodle who eats everything he shouldn't, and two rescue cats in the Summer of 2022. 

However, if you heard me talk, you'd realise that I'm 'not from 'round these parts...'. I grew up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

And, yep, my accent is still going strong. That ain't going away. 

I was a bit of a scent-hound in my teen years, venturing (every chance I got) into Myer - a department store in my hometown- and spritzing Georgio Beverly Hills on my wrists, longing for a time where I could afford my own bottle of the fragrant liquid gold. 

Then, one day in the early 90's, I stumbled upon a little store called The Body Shop, in a laneway store in Melbourne's CBD. You may have heard of it. 

I was drawn, in my early teens, to skincare/bodycare and fragrances that were as close to natural as I could get my grubby little mitts on. Even back then, as a 12-13 year old, I was passionate about researching every single ingredient in personal skincare and fragrances that my mum and I were using. 

When I found myself in The Body Shop (back when it was still all Anita Roddick), I walked around the store all giddy, instantly wanting to buy the entire store's contents with my Austudy allowance. 

I settled with their strawberry perfume oil to start with. A 13 year old's budget only stretched so far. 

Thus began my lifelong love affair with beautiful scents.

 

How It's Going

After staying at home to raise my gorgeous neuro-spicy kids into their teenage years, i started venturing into scratching that creative itch to make my own non-toxic scented candles. 

In quiet moments, I understood something: I had submerged myself into parenting, running the gauntlet, the day-to-day stuff that comes with looking after a family and, somehow, somewhere early on, I lost touch with the woman i was pre-kids. The one who loved to wander, make art, dance, wear beautiful clothes, light candles and read until late...little things that made me feel good, beautiful, light.

So, in 2019, I slowly started inching back towards that creative part of me. I decided to do something for myself and began experimenting with making something I was already slightly obsessed with - scented candles. I purchased wax and fragrance oils and off I went, steaming up the kitchen windows with my jug of wax double-boiling on the kitchen stovetop, figuring out how to math the perfect ratio of wax-to-fragrance oil. 

Finally, after years of making candles and researching the best ingredients to make those candles with, I launched Verbivore Candles at the Arnprior Market on June 9th 2024.