Making the Selah Scent - an Interview with Sarah

Every month, the Modern Forestry Studio creates a new signature scent. This month, we’re so excited to introduce Selah, named after our daughter born in February 2019. 

Why do you create a new scent each month? 

Great question. We sometimes wonder why, because it does create a lot of different candle scents in the studio and storing all of them has become a challenge. But it keeps us, as creators, creating. It’s easy to get consumed with maintaining the company and forget why we started in the first place. At our core, we are creators, and we need to continue doing that. 

How do you come up with a new scent? 

We try to vary new scents between floral, sweet, fresh so that it stays varied. Before we even have a name, we begin combining different scents. It’s really a LOT of experimentation. Once we have a couple of combos, we send those home with the Forestry Team to test burn. We then come back with our favorites and begin thinking through a name. 

Why did you name this scent Selah? 

The Selah scent is an English country garden - lilac, rose, gardenia - with a melon top note. It’s light. It’s fresh. It’s a new twist on springtime. Neither John nor I love the floral scents, and the melon balances out the floral. So much so, that we’ve really really enjoyed testing it back in March. The weather was just warming up here in South Carolina, the windows were open, birds were returning, and we were ready for Spring. At the same time, Selah was just a few weeks old and we were growing in our roles as parents of two Littles. Springtime. New baby. New beginnings. Selah seemed like the perfect name. It is Hebrew, meaning rest.

What does Selah think of the Selah candle? 

Ha! She probably has no idea that her parents are candle makers. Weird. But Peter is used to seeing candles, and he calls it the “baby candle.” 

So you do burn candles around your kids. That is significant to the Modern Forestry story, right? 

It is. I was getting migraines when we were first married, and after trying different elimination diets and doctor visits, one doctor told us to stop burning store-bought candles because of the chemicals they put back into our air. It makes sense now, but at the time that was revolutionary. We didn’t have any kids at the time, and I’m super grateful. If store-bought candles were given my system trouble, I can’t imagine how they would effect an infant. So we started Modern Forestry Soy Candles with a pretty intense focus on ingredients. Ingredients matter, because our air quality matters. We totally burn Modern Forestry candles around our kids, because they’re safe for our home and family. 

What’s the May scent? 

I can’t tell you, because we don’t know yet! We have a couple ideas in the works, but our Mug Club members have a huge sway in deciding the scent for each month. Mug Club folks are our subscription box community. They have a special group on Facebook, and each month they vote on the next scent. They’re also the first group to receive the new scent. They get it mailed to their home the first week of each month. So they’ve been enjoying the Selah scent since early April. Everyone else can purchase the scent online and at local markets on the 15th of each month. 

Off topic, but why is it called “Mug Club”? 

All of our subscription box folks have a Modern Forestry mug by our friends, Oak Leaf Pottery, that you can only get by subscribing to our monthly subscription box. When you sign up for 6 months ($20/month), you get one of these special mugs in your first box along with your monthly candle. 

How long do monthly scents stay around? 

That depends. We love them all, but we'd have over 100 scents if we kept them. Candles, fortunately, aren't like kids. You have to pick to favorites, see what's trending. Some are great for a season, but they only stick around for a few months. Others come back seasonly year after year. We made Peach Orchard two years ago, and it outsells everything but Coffeehouse April-September. We can't hardly keep it in stock. It's monthly scent that's never gone away. Even in December, we're pouring it. We'll see how the new Selah scent does. We've receive HUGE feedback from our Mug Club community the past two weeks, and we're excited for it to go live on the website tomorrow. 

The Selah scent is available, as of April 15, 2019.