The Wick Lab — Attraction in Provo

Lots of fun. A venue not for the faint of nose, it's a good thing the whole process for a single candle takes only about an hour. They have lots of neat scents. You go in, sign a waiver, grab a clipboard with order slip on it, and follow the instructions on it. You go along smelling sample candles of all their scents (smeller-reset jars of coffee beans are found among the shelves as well), and you write down the names of aromas you prefer as you go. After that, grab your candle wax vessel (about half a dozen options from $25-$30) and find a seat at the bar. The Chandler (candle maker) offers you a traditional or crackling wooden wick (in the end, my choice of the rose gold container and the wooden wick did not go well together. It would not stay lit, so I resorted to nestling my candle inside a small slow cooker that had orange peels, cinnamon, and clove in it and the wax stayed melted and let off a nice aroma. I'd not choose wood wick again.) and then you adhere it into your vessel with a puffy sticker. They then fetch scents for you to test combinations. Bottles of oils that you carefully squeeze so that puffs of aroma combine and swirl under your nose. Once you find the combination you like, you drip out amounts into a shot mixer in the ratio you deem worthy, then you unavoidably spill as you carefully dump it into your pitcher of wax. You stir, stir, stir and they tell you when to stop. As you pour the wax into your candle vessel, I recommend holding your spoon over your selected wick and drizzle the wax over the back of the spoon, like rain pouring onto an umbrella, and it'll protect your wick as the wax smoothly gathers below. They then hand you a sticker so you can customize a label for your candle. Loads of a good time getting wholesomely high on fun and fumes. If you reserve a time ahead, it seems you save some bucks, though walk-ins are welcome. They use a tablet for checkout and naturally it asks if you want to leave a tip. Then you leave your candle there to set at least a day, and you depart with a yellow slip to reclaim your prize another day. Would definitely recommend! It's a great experience or product to gift as well. Didn't even check if they had restrooms or any water or such. Just got in and out almost the only two folks in there on Friday just after...

The good: The atmosphere of the shop is nice and clean. They have a ton of fragrance oils to choose from and you can also mix scents. Staff were polite and helpful.

The neutral: As far as DIY studio businesses go, this one is a very quick process. Once you pick your scent it's probably ~15 minutes before you're finished. This can be a good thing for some circumstances, but if you're looking for a group activity or teambuilding event keep in mind that it's a very simple process and you're in and out very quickly.

The bad: A lot of the sample candles on the wall (you smell the candles to get a feel for what scents you want to use) had very little fragrance. They told us that this was because they were kept on the shelf with no lid and that the oils at the top of the candles had evaporated. We were a little concerned that our candles might not have much scent, and asked if we could add extra oil. They first told us yes, but then once we actually sat down and started the process they told us no.

You wait several days for the wax to solidify before picking up the candle, and then wait a few days more for it to cure completely. Unfortunately when we got our candles we found that 3 of the 4 had very little scent before burning the candle, and when actually burning the candle a few weeks later we found they don't add any scent to even a small room. You could very slightly smell the fragrance if your face was right over the flame, but that's it. Considering the cost of the candles, it was disappointing. The fourth one (white birch scented) does smell nice though, and its fragrance can fill a room. If they all had a smell that defined I would be happy to recommend this place, but a 1/4 success rate I can't recommend anyone go here if you want to go home with a scented candle. After a few hours of use the other three candles went...

It's a fun concept and while you're there it's enjoyable. The employees are nice and are helpful when trying to come up with a good combination of smells for your candle. I would say the most disappointing part is the candle itself. I think most of these reviews are from people who rate it immediately after making their candle. When you're there it's a 5 star experience, but the candle itself is what knocks off two stars for me. It's quite pricey for a candle that has a lackluster smell. Now, I don't know how you trouble shoot a candle because we waited over a week and half for it to set and the wooden wick (which by the way they recommended since it's a $2 add on saying it makes a crackling sound but it can't even stay lit long enough to hear it or when it is lit for over an hour you hear absolutely nothing and that was me sitting next to it. They said it would prevent tunneling but it still tunnels). Your safest bet is going with the normal wick. We used the max amount of scented oil while there, but it has absolutely no smell when lit. Now, part of the reason could be that it's not lit long enough to have a scent, but even when it was lit for over an hour in a small room there was still no smell. The strongest smell when lit is probably the $2 wooden wick add on. I wish we could have put more oil or something while there. It's really deceiving because when you sniff the candle directly (when it's not lit) you can smell it, but it definitely is not as good of a candle compared to the ones you can buy at the store. We've bought plenty of candles from the store that can spread throughout the entire room in a couple of minutes. The experience is fun but the product is too expensive for something that...