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After a few years working with personal care brands, I was itching to try formulating my own personal care product. After spending some time looking into beard oils, I realized I wanted to create something more gender inclusive and aesthetically-driven. My friend and Lumary business partner Anderson Duncan suggested candles, and the flame of Lumary was lit.
The coined name is constructed from Latin elements which would roughly translate to, “a place where light is made.” The mark is inspired by an archeological finding at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—an ancient Roman cross, chipped across the corner.
These inspirations reflect my longstanding interest in the intersection of work, creativity, and spiritual practice.
Building on our inspirations, I led the creation of a brand which would “transform unconscious moments into conscious ones” through the simple practices of lighting a candle, reading a short mantra and enjoying a custom-blended fragrance. We wanted Lumary to be at once esoteric and accessible, something we called “ordinary magic.”
Our “Wilderness” candle featured the fragrance of damp soil, fir needles, and a distant floral note. When burned indoors, you could close your eyes and imagine you were in the forest after a rain.
After learning the basics of candlemaking, I dove headlong into the fascinating world of fragrance blending. Along the way, I learned of the powerful connections between fragrance, memory, and emotion. Eventually, I used those connections to deepen the impact of each candle.
Our series of candles were oriented around ways to “live deep.” For example, our “Mystery” candle bore this mantra: “Mystery is the threshold from knowledge to wonder.” The fragrance blend included nag champa, smoke, and wood to evoke an ancient temple where incense has burned for centuries.
Lumary was selected as a maker brand inside Citizen Supply in Ponce City Market. We retailed our candles and incense and led candlemaking workshops on the weekends. These workshops were a mix of education on fragrance and neuroscience as well as an opportunity to use a specific memory as creative inspiration. These memories ranged from beach vacations to the fragrance of a lost loved one. Watching each person go through this creative process was one of the most rewarding parts of Lumary during its life. Eventually, I moved on to other work, but Lumary still impacts everything I do today.
