Cape Candle Works started at a kitchen table in Cape May County with a bag of soy flakes, a thrift-store pitcher and a box of Libbey glasses. It still runs on the same three things, just more of them.
Why soy, glass and wood
We wanted a candle you could burn all evening with the windows closed and not think twice about. Soy wax burns cooler and slower than paraffin, produces very little soot, and comes from American farms. Every batch is 100% soy with no blends or additives.
The glass is a Libbey tumbler, the same heavy, clear glass you’d find in a good diner. When the candle is done, wash it out with hot water and it’s a drinking glass again. The wooden lid keeps dust off the wax between burns and looks right on a windowsill.
Scents are blended in-house from phthalate-free fragrance and essential oils, and every one is named for a place or a smell from the Jersey Cape: beach plums along the dunes, the salt marsh at low tide, caramel corn on the boardwalk.
Then we made soap
Customers kept asking for the scents in something they could use in the shower, so we learned cold-process soap. Our bars are olive, coconut and shea, cured for six weeks. The shampoo bars are a newer addition: a solid, plastic-free bar that lathers like a bottle and lasts sixty or more washes.
Small batches
Candles are poured in runs of two dozen so the wax cures properly. Nothing sits on a shelf for long.
Local first
You’ll find us at markets in Cape May, Stone Harbor and Ocean City through the summer, and a few shops in between.
Honest ingredients
Every product page lists exactly what’s in it. If you have a sensitivity, write to us before you order.
Start with a candle
Oars & Wind is the one we’d hand you first.