Behind the launch of our newest soy candle, Déise.

I couldn’t be more excited to share the launch of our newest 100% soy wax candle. Meet Déise, inspired by the beautiful Waterford landscape. The sunny southeast is home to me, so I am thrilled to share this special offering with the Waterford community.

The idea of Déise began as a result of conversations with Vinny and Aoibhinn from WLR’s breakfast show The Big Breakfast Blaa. They wanted to capture the essence of Waterford in a natural candle, so they tasked me with creating the scent of the county.

We announced the project on air and opened it up to the public to get ideas for the name and the scent. We got feedback from listeners, who sent in suggestions such as sea salt, gorse, and wildflowers. There were a few suggestions for blaa and rashers, but we thought it best to leave those off and stick to our landscape!

I went about mixing oils to see what would blend well. I have always loved the smell of the sea and had been inspired by my recent sea swims, so gorse and sea salt came to mind. Not many people are familiar with gorse’s role as the Irish coconut. It gives off lovely aromas of coconut and vanilla, which I thought would blend in well with the sea salt. I also wanted to incorporate the lovely Irish wildflowers, so we brought in the mountain wildflowers of the Comeragh mountain range.

I needed to find a way to get the scents of Waterford to work together. It took a few rounds of experimenting – I ended up making five different variations over the course of a few months to get the formula just right. I ended up choosing the third version as the final scent, with top notes of lemon, rosemary, coconut, mid notes of jasmine, honey, and sea salt, and base notes of leafy greens, geranium, amber and vanilla.

As I worked through the different blends, WLR’s Vinny and Aoibhinn came to visit the workshop to see how the formulation of the candle came together. It was great to have them involved throughout the whole process to really bring the spirit of Waterford to the product.

Once we found our perfect scent, it came time for a name, which was ultimately inspired by the Irish term Déise. The Déise were an Irish tribe who are believed to have explored and settled in the Waterford area between the 4th and 8th centuries. Now, Waterford is lovingly referred to as the Déise county. We thought the name really captured the spirit of the county.

For the candle’s packaging, I worked closely with my designer and we chose to pair our Waterford blue with ice white. We launched the candle in the beautiful Isabel’s Place in Dungarvan. Isabel’s is a beautiful shop committed to sharing the best of Irish craft and design with the community, focusing on products with a story and a commitment to sustainability. We couldn’t have found a more perfect place to launch the scent of Waterford than at Isabel’s.

Whether you live in Waterford, you grew up in Waterford and your journey has taken you elsewhere, or you’re simply visiting, my hope is that this candle will make you feel right at home. You can shop the candle here or in our Waterford stockists.