When Lauren Burke started Burning Flame Candle Company in March 2020, the world was shutting down. She had lost her hospitality job, people were staying home, and the future felt anything but certain. So, like many entrepreneurs before her, she began with what she had: time, instinct, a family history of retail and craft, and a few supplies close at hand.
“At the time, it actually felt a little hypothetical,” she says. “While everyone was in shutdown, I decided to start building a business.”
Five years later, that “hypothetical” business has become something very real. From humble beginnings selling candles on Instagram and delivering them to customers’ doors, Lauren has grown Burning Flame Candle Company into a Halifax-based brand with products on shelves at Lawton’s, all 48 Kent Building Supplies locations, and numerous other retail stores across Atlantic Canada.
A Happy Accident
Candles were not a random choice, exactly. Lauren grew up around makers. Her mother was always crafting, sewing, and attending craft shows. At one point, she owned a decor store where she made and sold candles, soaps, and bath bombs.
When the pandemic hit, Lauren asked a practical question: what was already available that she could turn into a product? The answer was soy wax candles.
“My mom was making soy candles long before I started Burning Flame, but I felt there was an opportunity to market them differently. I took that foundation and built a modern brand around it,” Lauren says.
She calls the beginning a “happy accident,” but it also brought together skills she had been gathering for years. Born and raised in Halifax, Lauren had worked in hospitality, where she learned how to talk to people, build relationships, and understand what customers respond to. Her parents were entrepreneurs and salespeople, and by the time she was seven years old, she was already doing craft shows and ‘learning how to hustle’.
“I just took the handcrafted product and mainstreamed it,” she says.
From Instagram to Store Shelves
Burning Flame Candle Company first took root online. In year one, Lauren made candles, posted them on Instagram, sold them without a website, and delivered them herself. In year two, customers were still buying heavily online, so the website became an important sales channel. By year three, people wanted to shop in person again, and Lauren began shifting toward wholesale.
“I have always tended to go where the business takes me,” she reflects.
That adaptability has become one of the company’s strengths. Although Lauren does attend the Sackville Farmers’ Market and a few Christmas craft shows, wholesale and custom partnerships have become the heart of the business.
Another serendipitous breakthrough came through Kent Building Supplies. Lauren had noticed that few candle makers were using LinkedIn to promote themselves directly to larger companies, so she decided to give that a try. She contacted major brands and local businesses, including Kent, with a simple observation: they did not have candles on their shelves.
“I sent messages, and I said, hey, I’m a candle maker,” she recalls. “I noticed Kent literally has zero candles on the shelf. Would you be interested?”
The timing was perfect. Kent had a 50th anniversary coming up and had been considering candles. Lauren responded quickly: “I’ll have a sample on your desk in a week.”
A sample led to a meeting, and the meeting led to Burning Flame candles being stocked in all 48 Kent locations.
A Workspace, a Leap, and a Lot of Hustle
As the business grew, Lauren needed more room. She had been making candles in a 600-square-foot, two-bedroom home while raising her young son. The volume had simply outgrown her kitchen.
With support from CBDC Blue Water, she was able to move into a workspace in Bedford, sign a lease, invest in equipment, and give the business room to scale. It was a major commitment, and not everyone around her was sure it would work.
“I put all my chips on the table,” she says. “I was like, I’m going to make it work.”
Since opening the shop, Lauren has added more Lawtons locations and expanded into other retail outlets across the region. Still, she is candid about the pressure behind that growth. Scaling a manufacturing business means meticulously managing cash flow, supply costs, and large orders. Soy wax purchases alone can represent a significant upfront expense.
“Sometimes I’m just like, I’m not qualified to do this,” she admits with a laugh. “I don’t know what I’m doing. But sales solves all problems, so I just keep saying yes and keep it going.”
Support That Knows Her by Name
Lauren first accessed support through Nova Scotia’s Self-Employment Benefits Program, which provided early startup support. Later, when she needed financing to grow, several people encouraged her to connect with CBDC Blue Water.
“When I found CBDC and Jennifer O’Quinn, they believed in the idea,” Lauren says. “And they still continue to believe in the idea.”
That belief has mattered deeply. Lauren says CBDC’s support has gone beyond financing, helping her better understand and streamline the financial side of the business as she continues to grow.
“CBDC is like dealing with family,” she says. “They treat you like family, and they make sure that you understand how to better your business.”
Or, as she puts it more simply: “They know you by name.”
A Nova Scotian Brand
Lauren’s creative process is closely tied to Nova Scotia. She draws inspiration from lilacs, lupins, fresh ocean air, food, and the kind of sensory memories that feel familiar before they are even named. One recent favourite, a Root Beer Float candle, came from a partnership with Propeller Brewing Company (a fellow Nova Scotia brand) and became one of her most popular scents.
“When people say, ‘what sets you apart’, I really am just this nostalgic, classic Nova Scotian brand,” she says.
This year, Lauren was recognized at the Nova Scotia Legislature as a woman in business, an honour that felt especially meaningful as a single mother who started the company from home.
“What made it even more special was knowing that my story might encourage other women to take a chance on themselves,” she says.
Looking ahead, Lauren wants Burning Flame Candle Company to become a trusted Canadian household name, a brand that supports the local economy while proving that small businesses from Nova Scotia can compete on a larger stage.
Her advice to others is simple and hard-earned.
“There will never be a perfect time, and you don’t need to have everything figured out on day one,” she says. “Be willing to learn, always shoot your shot, and take the opportunities when they come your way.”
Some opportunities will work. Some will not. But for Lauren, every step is still movement. And in her case, that movement has taken a candle company from a kitchen counter to retail shelves across Atlantic Canada, one risk, one order, and one carefully poured candle at a time.