Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Card.
Susan, please share your story with us.
Royal Essence, was founded in the Spring of 1988, by Ron & Liz Nickelson; two people with a dream & passion to create a candle product that was so superior it would be timeless. The Nickelsons worked diligently to create a “recipe” for a premium candle product that was strong & long lasting. For 20 years they nurtured Royal Essence, traveling many years to various craft events all over the country, while hand-blending candles; each specially created to evoke powerful emotions & resurrect memories seemingly long forgotten.
In 2010, it was time to find someone with the same passion to carry on the dream. According to the Nickelsons, God led them to myself & my husband Lee. We had become a part of the Royal Essence family around 2000. First as customers, then working events & then as a distributor. When Liz first called and asked if we would consider taking over Royal Essence, I said, “I don’t know about running a business or actually making candles” & Liz said, “we will teach you everything you need to know.” I told her, “we will have to pray about it.” & Liz said, “I hoped you would say that.” After several months of prayers, lot & lots of questions, more prayers, “classes” on candle making, everything fell into place and Lee & I were handed the “stir sticks”. It should be noted that at the time, we were both still working full time for the Sheriff’s Office. Lee was handling most of the manufacturing & I, the business side.
Several months later, I had to be taken from work at the Sheriff’s Office with my blood pressure dangerously high. After numerous test, the Dr. said, I had to “quit something”. How do you quit what you feel like was something God led you to do? It was then I remembered, about the time we started discussing taking over the business, I was eligible to retire from the Sheriff’s Office. It all continued to “fall into place” as I retired and then Lee was transferred to where he couldn’t do as much in the manufacturing, so now retired, I took over that aspect of the company also. Now when asked if “Royal Essence really good?” I reply is, “we believe in it so much, & think it is so good we took over the business.”
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There is a lot of self-inflected pressure when you “adopt” someone else’s “baby”. Even with the years of experience passed down, there was still learning curves. Finding vendors for packaging…labels, when previous suppliers are no longer around.
Keeping the high quality and not skimping when “competition” becomes more prevalent. That is where passion & love come in because sometimes you have to work harder for less to keep your dream going. Most don’t understand, “premium”. For instance, when someone compares us to a product that you can buy for $7.00 at a “chain store”, that purchases their products from a foreign country, utilizing a lesser quality of “ingredients”, made by machine and may burn in 15 hours; then you show them the same size product for $15.00, explaining that our product only uses the finest, quality “ingredients”, made in the U.S.A., by hand and will last 70 hours.
Royal Essence is a custom manufacturer, hand-blending each product to order. It hasn’t been sitting on a shelf or on a slow boat from China.
Royal Essence Candles & SniffyScents – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Royal Essence, is a veteran-owned business. We are a custom house manufacturer. We create the product when the customer orders it. We take pride in using only the finest waxes( selected for their lower oil content so we can add more fragrance oil), and premium fragrances available. We offer over 50 regular line fragrances, plus custom fragrances. If a customer wants a “special” fragrance, that is not in our regular line, we will do what we can to custom create it for them. Royal Essence, while not the largest, is one of the oldest family-run fragrance candle companies in Texas. We offer wholesale & retail pricing and also do private labeling. We offer several styles of glassware, several of which are refillable. So customers can save money by keeping their glass when the candle is gone and just purchasing a refill. While I may run the company, I feel it is God’s, He has just allowed me to run it. We additionally say a prayer over every product we pour. I am only human, I can make mistakes, so I ask God to bless every product so wherever I may fail, the product will still be “heaven scent”. You can see the sparkle on top of each candle where the angels kissed them.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Actually, two moments:
When we moved into our manufacturing shop and had two friends of ours that are pastors prayed over us and our shop. It wound up being a very beautiful ceremony shared with family and the founders, Ron & Liz.
Every time a customer tells us how much they love our product(s) and how long they have been loyal to Royal Essence. We are blessed to have numerous customers that have been with us for almost as long as we have been in business and that is almost 30 years.
Contact Info:
- Address: Mailing: P. O. Box 1085
Physical: 15608 S. Brentwood, Suite F (open by appointment)
Channelview, TX 77530 - Website: www.recandles.com
- Phone: 877-977-0956
- Email: sales@recandles.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recandles
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalEssenceCandles
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RECandles
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