Summoning Circle: Sustainability meets darkness with Cursed Candle Co.

October 4, 2023

Emily Jacobs,

photo by Leah Evans Photography

Self-described as a librarian by day and a candlemaker by night, Logan Isaman runs Cursed Candle Co., a candle company specializing in black-dyed candles, from their home in Lawrence.

Candlemaking started as just a hobby for Isaman right before the start of the pandemic.

“I like to jokingly tell people that I have apocalypse hobbies,” says Isaman.

Courtesy photo

Isaman got started with their hobby when they were broke for Christmas one year. While trying to think of gift ideas, they came up with the idea to make candles.

“I started with that, and then thought, I could make these black and make them really cool and make a whole brand out of it,” says Isaman. “And it just kind of grew from there.”

Isaman learned to make candles and dye them black from the Internet. They started out using mason jars as vessels and selling them at farmer’s markets.

As Cursed Candle Co. grew, Isaman moved to using steel vessels as well as glass. They only use vessels that are recyclable and offer refills through a partnership with L.e.s.s., a sustainability shop in downtown Lawrence, where customers can drop off their used vessels to be cleaned and reused.

The candles use 100% soy wax and certified clean ingredients. Isaman is constantly coming up with new scents and matches ideas to a fragrance name or collection. They love coming up with fandom-inspired collections, including a Star Wars-inspired line (with light-side and dark-side-themed candles) and a Lord of the Rings line for J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday. Isaman even came up with an early 2000s nostalgia collection, where they collaborated with Lawrence-based Strange Rocks Ceramics for the vessels and created scents inspired by several different perfumes that were popular during that time, including Victoria’s Secret’s “Lovespell,” Bath and Body Works’ cucumber melon, and Abercrombie & Fitch’s “Fierce.”

photo by Leah Evans Photography

Isaman also takes custom requests, which often include housewarming and wedding gifts. But their favorite custom order was for Canadian interior designer and tattoo artist Hilary Jane.

“I’ve sincerely admired this person’s work for years,” Isaman says. “She’s on my list of travel destinations for a tattoo. And then she very randomly reached out to me wanting to do a collaboration on a candle, and her idea for the collaboration was to essentially recreate an ancient fragrance combination known as Kyphi.”

Kyphi, which Isaman says is sometimes referred to as “the fragrance of pharaohs,” is a unique combination of over a dozen ingredients.

“She had a sample that she wanted to match the fragrance to, which, of course, doing this from a different country was a challenge because she couldn’t just hand it to me and be like, ‘Like this, please,’” Isaman says. “I sent her, I think, six different versions of this recipe, and she was like, ‘This one. This is it.’ So we made a line of those, and that was really cool.”

Logan Isaman of Cursed Candle Co. // Courtesy photo

Isaman loves collaborating with local artists for candle labels as well. They’ve done prayer candles (in black, of course) with local brand Wasteland Society and also did a collaboration with Lawrence tattoo shop Standard Electric Tattooing.

“I just really love putting dope art on my candles,” says Isaman.

Isaman works as a librarian in Lawrence during the day, primarily working in fundraising. They’ve donated their candles to fundraisers as incentives for people to participate to get a free candle.

After work, they’re going home to make candles, which they say takes up a majority of their free time.

“My partner would tell you that all I do is work,” Isaman says.

Cursed Candle Co. is largely a solo project, though Isaman says that they hope to involve their partner more in the future and that they’ve had help from family and friends.

They hope to eventually take their business full-time so that they can make their own schedule. However, Isaman isn’t interested in turning their brand into a brick-and-mortar—instead, they’re hoping to combine their business with their love of travel by traveling to destinations to showcase their business.

“I really love to travel,” Isaman says. “And combining it and then also being able to make money going there, that’s just a win-win for me.”

Currently, Isaman is getting ready to roll out new fall fragrances and preparing to travel to Hot Springs, AR, for a craft fair this October, along with participating in local festivals and craft fairs. They hope to plan more trips coming up to get the Cursed Candle name out there.

“I feel like I’m kind of on the precipice of it [success],” says Isaman. “I just poured more candles than I’ve ever poured at one time. I ordered more supplies than I ever have. I’ve gotten myself into these markets where I will be in front of bigger audiences than I’ve ever been in. So this really is my year, like I feel like I’m going into my first real big year, and I’m really excited about it.”