A Brand Created from a Life Lived

Bumblin Bee Candle Co.

A Brand Created from a Life Lived

We didn’t start with fragrance trends or mood boards.

We started with life: lilacs in spring, open windows, and an old home restored a little at a time.

Us on either side of a wall, that doesn't belong there–we're ripping it out
Us on either side of a wall, that doesn't belong there–we're ripping it out
That restored walkway. Cedar, oak and vanilla, inspires Dressed in White.
That restored walkway. Cedar, oak and vanilla, inspires Dressed in White.
Our lilacs in Spring perfuming the yard. Lilac Bloom was born.
Our lilacs in Spring perfuming the yard. Lilac Bloom was born.
Our first candle test, August 31, 2021
Our first candle test, August 31, 2021
The Bee that bumbled around our garden and never left.
The Bee that bumbled around our garden and never left.
Month 0

Posts and Pours

Started on social during COVID. You’ve heard that story before.

Late-night pours in the kitchen. Wax cooling on the counters. Fragrance oils spread across every available surface while we tried to figure out what this could become.

Most of it was instinct back then.

Posts and Pours
Our first melts — technically before the candles by about a month.
Posts and Pours
The first 8oz vessel. We still remember that jar.
Posts and Pours
The collection grows rapidly, we started with 1 and 3 months later had over 15 (most custom).
Month 2

Custom Scents Creation

Custom blending started not long after. We knew we couldn’t build a collection entirely from scents everyone already knew.


The first was Witching Hour.

Over time it evolved — first into Cabin in the Woods, then back again, rebuilt with a veil of smoke to feel darker, warmer, a little more atmospheric. Like something simmering slowly just out of sight.

Custom Scents Creation
Witching Hour: Fir, Smoke & Amber
Custom Scents Creation
Candied Heart: Cinnamon, Raspberry & Musk
Custom Scents Creation
Pacific Cove: Driftwood, Birch & Cedar
Custom Scents Creation
Toffee Coffee: Caramel, Coffee & Sugar
Months 3-6

Catalog Prototyping

Iteration after iteration after iteration…


…after iteration.

Margins adjusted by fractions. Paper swaps. Color shifts no one else would probably notice. Re-printing pages because one image felt slightly off.

O.M.G.

Looking back now, the catalog was probably the first real sign of what Bumblin Bee would become: particular in all the ways that matter.

Month 7

Catalog Makes Print

There was a moment early on when the catalogs finally came back from print.

We loaded them into the car and immediately started driving shop to shop, convinced every store would understand the vision the second they held one–they didn't all get it.

Month 7

Our First Store

Redtail Market in Frankfort, Illinois.

Still hard to believe that happened the very first day we went out with the new catalogs — literally hours after picking them up from the printer.

One of those moments where everything suddenly felt real.

Our First Store
Months 7-11

Stores 2-12

Stores two through twelve came quickly.


So did the learning curve.

Shipping. Reorders. Packing materials. Lead times. Broken jars. Missed details. Systems that looked good on paper and worked very differently in real life.

We thought we had the process mapped out. We still made mistakes.

That’s part of it, though.

You learn. You adjust. You grow.

Stores 2-12
Store 4
Stores 2-12
Store 3
Stores 2-12
Store 7
Stores 2-12
Store 2
Month 12

Our first Fall Fest Ever, let alone as a candle co.

We had never done a craft show before, and it just so happened one of the largest fall festivals in the country takes place right outside Redtail Market.

Somehow, it worked.

And not long after the weekend ended, conversations started about eventually buying Redtail itself.

Month 13

Bumblin Bee, LLC buys Redtail Market.

Apparently life takes you in the direction you were meant to go. Our first store as a candle maker selling candles and now it's our HQ, our home.

Bumblin Bee, LLC acquires Redtail Market and continues to operate it today—the same place where so much of this story first started to feel possible.

Bumblin Bee, LLC buys Redtail Market.
We Rebranded and made the rusty horse and wax stamp our mascots.
Bumblin Bee, LLC buys Redtail Market.
60423 Frankfort Display
Bumblin Bee, LLC buys Redtail Market.
Oak & Moss Display
24 Months

Keeping it small. Keeping it personal.

After the first year of owning the store, one thing became very clear during the holiday season: we couldn’t do everything.

The pace, the volume, the logistics of wholesale at scale — it stopped making sense for the kind of company we wanted to be.

So we made the decision to stay smaller, more intentional, and closer to the customer experience that built Bumblin Bee in the first place.

Keeping it small. Keeping it personal.
Today

Redtail Market

Available here and at Redtail Market — only.

Our headquarters, our retail counter, and home to the local makers we wished had been stocked beside us when we started.

Built through intention. Shaped by life.

Unexpected. Welcome. Ours.

Redtail Market
0 Scents poured
0 Exist nowhere else
0 Late-night test pours

A home isn't defined by its architectural character. It's defined by the life inside it.

Two places. That's it.

Visit Redtail Market for the full shelf, discovering your journey, and a curated mix of local makers we believe in. Or shop right here.

3 W Nebraska St
Historic Downtown Frankfort

Visit Redtail MarketBrowse the shelf