Dane Buy Local member profile: Scentimints

Dane Buy Local promotes local businesses and encourages people to shop locally. Its membership has grown to several hundred businesses representing all sectors of the economy. In this ongoing series, we present Dane Buy Local members.

By George Zens

When entering Scentimints in Stoughton, one is immediately hit by such a wall of fragrance, it is almost breathtaking.

And that is not very surprising, considering that Scentimints specializes in scented soy candles, as well as natural bath and body products – all in all over 1,400 scents competing for attention.

Candy Cain, the bubbly, energetic and enthusiastic owner of Scentimints, started her business seven years ago as a result of going on a shopping trip with her mother, trying to find natural fragrances for her father, who was suffering from asthma and couldn’t use regular cologne.

She makes her own soy candles, which are virtually soot-free, and also burn longer than regular candles. While she gets some scents from specialized suppliers, she also creates many of her own, combining different oils for different scents, and incorporating as many natural botanicals in the process as she can.

Considering the sheer number of different scents she has developed over the years, it is impossible to list them here. Oh, and by the way, if for some reason you don’t find the scent you want, the friendly people at Scentimints will custom-create it for you.

To keep things as sustainable as possible, the candle jars are all refillable at a discount, as are several bath and body containers and cologne bottles.

Among the products they will custom-make are hand- and body lotion, bath and shower gel, bubble bath, dry fragrance sprays, massage oils, linen sprays, body parfaits (against sunburns), bath salts, lip balms, healing foot butter (against dry and cracked skin), sachet bags to give a nice smell to cars, drawers, lockers and closets, room sprays and hand sanitizers – to name but these.

Healthy specialty soaps are another important part of Scentimints’ line-up. They come in different shapes and, of course, many different scents. From ground loofah to goat’s milk, olive to oatmeal, they carry soaps for every need.

An important item during the warm season is her bug buster, which comes in several different forms and apparently is an excellent natural mosquito repellent.
Besides enjoying creating new scents, customer service (she calls her customers ‘friends’) is very important to her:

“I was brought up on customer service and believing in the entrepreneur spirit. My grandparents owned a little drug store for years and then grandpa had a Rawleigh route. I rode along many times and learned from the best. The big chain stores can’t give you the personal service. With my products, items can be customized in scent strength, you don’t get that at the mall. I also care enough about our customers to find out their names, you won’t just be a cash register receipt here!”

Scentimints
194 W. Main Street
Stoughton, WI 53589
Telephone: (608) 877-7530
E-mail: scentimints@aol.com
www.scentimints.com