A wide array of handmade soaps and candles are available at Good Scents Home & Body Shop. photo by: Robbie Clark.

Lexington, KY - We hear more and more about how to go green: recycle, use compact fluorescents, purchase locally. Good Scents Home & Body in Victorian Square adds another layer of products to the shelf for the conscious consumer.

With their soy candles and handmade soaps, Bryan Flynn and Ron Williams are taking "keeping it local" to a high level right from the start. The raw materials for their candles (in the form of wax chips) come from Golden Brands, a Louisville company started in 1982. The company, which processes wax and oils, in turn buys raw soybeans from Kentucky farmers. Kentucky has been growing more and more soybeans as demand has increased throughout the country. Of the top agricultural products in Kentucky, soybeans now rank fifth, barely behind our traditional mainstay, tobacco.

Flynn and Williams swear by soy as the best product for a good candle. Besides the fact that they come from a local vegetable product rather than a petroleum byproduct, as paraffin candles do, Flynn says "soy candles burn cooler, and can hold more fragrance than a paraffin candle." Each fragrance has a different "sweet spot," or best concentration to maximize enjoyment without wasting excess fragrance or causing the candle to smoke. Their smallest candle, an 8-ounce mason jar or travel tin, can burn for 54 hours, or more; soy burns more slowly and more completely than paraffin.

Along with using as many local products as they can, the owners work hard to provide a personal approach. Most items in the store are very affordable, ranging in price from $5 to $15. Need something special? A custom candle (you choose fragrance, color and size) will be ready in 24 hours. Essential oils and scents can be combined in any way to suit your tastes, and they record your choices and keep them on file for reproduction at any time in the future. Your fragrance choices can be used in their soy candles, reed diffusers, soy melts for warmers and many other products. If you bring in a favorite fragrance that has been discontinued, or want a candle made that smells like your cologne, Flynn will work on creating a pleasing match. This can be done either by nose alone or sending it off for laboratory analysis.

Both Kentucky natives, with business backgrounds in hotel management and chemical engineering, Williams and Flynn bring together unique skills and an attention to detail that buyers will appreciate. It took them over four months to find a pleasing apple fragrance – not candy apple, which is everywhere, but real, fresh-off-the-tree apple. Customers regularly ask for items that later end up being added as new products.

Their willingness to go to great lengths to please might be partly due to the circumstances behind their origin. It started with a Christmas present gone right. Flynn's mother is very sensitive to chemicals and fragrances, never daring to go into typical candle stores for fear of headaches and allergic reactions. The gift, a soy candle, turned out to be a surprise: no negative reaction when mom came to visit. This sparked their curiosity. Could they replicate it? They started researching, purchasing tools and ingredients, and making candles. Soon they found themselves making soy candles for friends, and then friends of friends, with requests coming in nonstop. It didn't take long to realize they had something special.

After soy candles, they branched out into soaps. All Good Scents soaps are made by hand, like Williams' grandmother used to do, but with the technical advantage that modern chemistry brings. One of the tools used at the shop is a "lye calculator." Every time they want to test out a new soap recipe, they plug in the weights and types of oils (such as olive, coconut and shea butter) into the formula and the device tells how much lye to use. Why lye? Even with all of our new innovations and technologies, we still need lye to convert fat (oil) into soap. Ever have a bar of soap that melted away into nothing too fast? That's because it had a lot of fat that didn't get converted. Bar of soap that would knock a hole in a brick wall if you threw it? Too much fat got converted. And then of course, just like baby bear's porridge, there is the soap that feels just right, smooth to your touch. That smooth feeling is caused by the perfect percentage of fat left unconverted by lye. Speaking of porridge, the hands-down favorite soap is still oatmeal.

All soaps made by Good Scents have natural ingredients and are poured into wooden molds made for them by a family friend. After pouring they cure in a closet with lots of air flow to dry. At least a couple weeks are required for initial curing, and then the soap is cut into bars. The freshly sliced soaps are then set out to cure for an additional two to three weeks before being made ready to sell. Changes in season, humidity and temperature all affect the outcome of their soaps and candles. "Every batch is different, almost like making candy," Flynn said.

Everything at Good Scents is made in small batches right in the store, quite often while you wait, and the business is now a year old and growing, even amidst difficult economic times. With over 50 fragrances and essences, they carry a wide array of products to pamper you, loved ones and friends in memorable ways. They make and sell specialty soaps, like jewel weed for poison ivy, or goats milk soap, a natural exfoliant. This spring, Good Scents will be starting an organic pet care line, and have been increasing their products for massage therapists. Also available are bath salts made with Himalayan crystal salt, foaming milk baths and fragranced bath fizzies. They host parties for young and old to make their own bath fizzies, or bath salt art in a fun bottle (I remember a smiley-faced one at the counter).

Good Scents Home & Body Shop

Victorian Square 2nd floor, suite 221

(859) 402-2081

www.BuyGoodScents.com
 

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