Carpe Noctem Candle Co — Local services in Stillwater

DON’T MAKE CANDLES HERE IF YOU’LL NEED THEM SHIPPED I hate leaving bad reviews, but I’m at my wits end with this place!!! Customer service is awful. We had a good candle making experience as a surprise for my friend’s birthday, but are VERY disappointed with the post-candle making customer service and communication. TLDR: After making candles, we were informed we would get a call the next business day with options for shipping, but never received one. They disposed of our candles before the agreed upon pick up date and failed to call us back with a remedy. This went on for a month where we were unable to get in contact with the manager. When we finally heard back she said there is nothing they would do. Our candles were disposed of and we are out $120.

We both live far from the store (an hour and two hours away) so had asked about shipping options when we checked out on the day of the class. The girl at the register told us she wasn’t sure how to do that and didn’t know it was something she knew that they offered. She let us know she left a note for her manager and we would get a call on Monday with shipping options. That was fine with us and we didn’t think anything of it. We did not receive a phone call until one month later warning us that they would dispose of our candles if not picked up. I called back within 20 minutes of that initial voicemail and let them know we would be by on Saturday to pick up the candles. They said they would hold them through the weekend and would be disposed of on Monday if we didn’t show. When we drove 2 hours to pick up the candles on Saturday, they were no where to be found. The girl working there let us know that they must have been burned and she was very sorry for the mix up. She left a note for her manager to call us on Monday - neither of us heard from them. I called back twice after that, both times a manager was not in and they left a note to call us. I finally got a hold of the manager, Molly, yesterday. I told her the story and bad experience and communication we had gone through, she didn’t really seem to care. She said she would get in contact with the owner to see what they could do and would get back to me tomorrow. Today I received a call from Molly who let us know that there is nothing they can do (no refund, no shipping of other candles) and our candles are no longer at the store. I wouldn’t recommend anyone who is not able to physically pick up their candles in person (i.e. anyone from out of town who needs them shipped) to book a candle making experience here. Yes, everyone makes mistakes and I understand that the candles were probably disposed of on accident… but I am very disappointed with their failure to offer any sort of refund or replacement. We will...

We attended the "Pour Your Own Candle" experience. It's a fine indoor activity for a small group if you're okay with potential product imperfections, but our group left somewhat dissatisfied for these reasons:

Gratuity & Pricing: An automatic 20% gratuity was applied to our entire bill, including optional drinks, vessel upgrades, and retail store purchases, not just the $50 service fee. When questioned, the business compared it to a restaurant, but you wouldn't tip on merchandise from a gift shop attached to a restaurant, for instance. This policy felt opaque.

Scent Blending: The "olfactory experience" uses anonymized scents that are already complex blends. Following the recommendation to combine two-three scents resulted in candles with a dozen or more notes, which can be overwhelming for some. You can mix in just one of the scent blends by itself, but they also sell some of these single blends in their store for a lower price. Our personal preference would have been some single-note offerings to choose from as well.

Product Quality & Guidance: We were told this is an "experience, not a class," with only verbal instructions. Despite following directions, half our group's candles had quality issues (pooling oil, air bubbles). The business blamed these issues on customer error, which was frustrating given the lack of hands-on guidance. It's disappointing to pay a premium price and leave with a flawed product.

Receipts & Transparency: No receipts were auto provided nor verbally offered, making our higher-than-expected totals confusing. When I requested mine, they emailed me the wrong person's receipt, compounding the lack of transparency.

Return Policy: My candle was unusable due to significant oil pooling. The business refused a refund or even an exchange, stating the "experience" is non-refundable which is understandable, but it's also not exchangeable which contradicts their website policy allowing exchanges for unused products. Their suggested solution—to blot the oil with a paper towel—was an unacceptable fix for a defective,...

My boyfriend & I took the candle making class together for our anniversary and had an absolute blast!! It was an easy to follow along with class- our instructor was super kind & helpful too. Despite everyone else in our class being in a large party celebrating an event, she made sure to ask us if we were celebrating anything too & that made us feel very included & was so thoughtful! We both appreciated the olfactory experience of smelling the scents to curate our candles versus knowing what the scents were. That was so fun! At the end, we were able to find out what the scents are that we choose for our candles. I was also shocked that we got to make two candles! That was such a nice surprise and made me really feel the value was there for what you pay for the class! Also the option to have your candles shipped was a huge plus for anyone coming from out of town that can’t come back to pick them up! I’d definitely recommend this class...