From the owner of Aelia Candles, Jessica Hewson:

I have always loved fragrance. I still remember the precious drops of my mother’s Floris, Rose Geranium bath oil, enveloping the house. The magnificent oriental soft spice of Shalimar that floated behind my grandmother and gave life and depth to the stories and lessons she gave.

I wanted to make fragrance. I wanted to understand it, and I have always been attracted to situations that bought me in contact with it.

So many of the things that have happened in my life are given strength in my memory by the association of a fragrance. So many holidays in Byron Bay enriched by the heady scent of white frangipanis (the best ones), finding the best of my Christmas stocking all the way down at the bottom, a little bottle of real violet scent. Exquisite. Our Canberra garden, freezing in winter, but bought alive by the achingly beautiful smell of Daphne.

We are based in the Southern Highlands. Aelia is the combination of my two daughters names. Amelia and Eliza. They are both fragrance lovers, and harsh critics. At Aelia Candles we strive to create fragrances that are true. The fragrances are not available in other candle ranges as they are created unique to Aelia.

I am a candle lover and so understand the importance of candles that burn well, deliver excellent throw, are eco friendly and deliver the highest quality fragrance.

Aelia candles are made from the highest grade eco vegetable soy wax available, and the wicks are lead-free cotton, selected to achieve maximum fragrance throw for each candle fragrance.

Selecting wax is (irritatingly) a bit of a science, because some fragrances simply don’t work well in certain waxes. If, like me you are a bit (well, a lot) of a candle snob, you will probably be quite fussy about the wax used in your candles. I don’t like paraffin candles at all, as they give off a slightly petrol smell and of course they’re not a renewable resource, so … not good for ourselves or our planet. Coconut, like soy, is a good clean choice but very sticky to work with and our elves don’t like it … palm wax? Never a consideration! Destroying animal habitat for luxury candles is unthinkable. So, next best, beeswax – it’s favoured by churches and by me, but its production is unreliable (drought and other weather conditions make continued production tricky) and so our best, cleanest, planet- and beast-friendly choice is the soy wax we pour into Aelia candles.

By the way, our fragrances are individual – they are not found in other brands. They are unique to Aelia and, just as our candles are made here in Australia, so too are our special luxury fragrances.

Browse the selection of these luxurious (and locally made) candles here at Nest & Burrow (Moss Vale only).