When you enter West Clay Company, a candle, fragrance and lifestyle shop on South Tamiami Trail near Trader Joe’s, you’re greeted by a wall of fragrance wafting from the room where founder Suzy Allen and her husband Mo Hashem make their products.

“We don’t even smell it anymore,” Allen says with a laugh. “When we are pouring candles in one scent, we don’t do any fragrance blending that day because the warm wax makes the fragrance fill the shop.”

Today’s candle is “Birthday Babe,” and aromas of confetti cake and buttercream frosting fill the shop. It’s a “gourmand” scent, I’m told, made to evoke food fragrances, and boy, does it. Perhaps Allen and Hashem should set out a tray of cupcakes for shoppers to satisfy their cravings on days this candle is being made.

“We have the capacity to make 600 candles, but we typically make them to order in smaller batches,” Hashem tells me. “We don’t have a huge space to maintain a ton of bulk inventory, so we make around 200 at a time.”

Allen and Hashem met at a pizza shop in West Clay, Indiana, for which the company is named. “We learned early on how well we work together,” she says.

Allen founded the company in 2015 after experiencing some autoimmune issues that caused her to reevaluate the chemicals she had in her home.

“I have always loved candles and wasn’t willing to give them up, so I started learning about how to make a cleaner product and thought I’d try to make them at home,” she says. “I started learning more about fragrance and blending and made some more, gave them to friends, and started receiving requests.”

That’s when she realized she was onto something.

“[The business] took over our house and we exploded in the best way. People want this type of product and aren’t willing to compromise on something that makes their house cozy, but the products are getting worse and worse for [your health] because of mass production," she says.

They moved to Sarasota in 2020, knowing they'd love it because Allen spent her childhood visiting her grandparents at their home Lido Key. 

Allen uses synthetic fragrances from a supplier that focuses on eliminating chemicals that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or that contain reproductive or organ toxins. The fragrances are made without phthalates or any other ingredients listed on California’s Prop 65 list. They’re then blended and added to a candle made from coconut wax and a touch of soy wax, which Allen says burns the cleanest and the best.

Aside from its Sarasota storefront, West Clay Company products are also available at Urban Outfitters, Tillys and Bouqs, a flower subscription company. Hashem and Allen even developed a signature fragrance for The Sarasota Modern Hotel in the Rosemary District.

“The scent is rosemary forward, of course, because it’s the Rosemary District,” says Allen.

On Wednesdays, Allen and Hashem host candle-making classes in the back of the shop. Participants can sign up online for $50. It’s great for a group, and even fun if you go alone, which I learned earlier this week.

Hashem and Allen kick the class off with an introduction to fragrance. Participants are invited to smell a variety of scents, mark down which ones they like best and cross off any that they hate. I’m partial to a nearby luxury hotel’s lobby fragrance and secretly decide to recreate something similar, but admit that I have no idea what I’m doing.

That’s no matter, because Hashem and Allen are hands-on the entire time. They will not let you fail.

 

 

 

 

 

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I’m accustomed to using my nose as a tool. As a former chef, it’s crucial when determining if a dish is complete, if something is burning in the oven, if something is going to taste bad. They say 70 percent of taste is smell, after all.

So I walk into the class thinking I’m going to crush it because of my superior sniffer—then immediately realize I'm clueless about how to build a fragrance. I know none of the terminology or what makes a “good” fragrance. Sure, I know words like "floral," "citrusy" and "woody," but that is the extent of it.

Still, I’m intent on not telling anyone that I’m trying to make a hotel lobby-esque candle. I pull a fragrance called “jasmine saffron” and immediately know it needs to be the dominant fragrance in my candle. From there, I dutifully mark which other fragrances I like and think might go well with jasmine saffron before returning to my seat, where Hashem examines my choices. I can tell that he understands the scent I'm trying to create, and we get to blending. Although he makes suggestions along the way, I feel like I’m in the driver’s seat.

I won’t tell you all of the fragrance notes in my candle, because that's now proprietary information (well, for me). But I will say that I never could have gotten there without Allen and Hashem’s consistent attention throughout the process. The night I'm there, a group of six nurses from Sarasota Memorial Hospital are also in the class, and Allen and Hashem are equally attentive to everyone.

“You know, this kind of smells like a luxury hotel fragrance,” Allen says when she picks up my final combination of fragrances.

I hadn't told her that was my goal, and am elated. She laughs when I tell her and brings another scent bottle to add to our mix. “Smell this and tell me if you think we should add a little bit,” she says.

She’s right. The new scent perfectly balances out the fragrance, even though I can’t begin to understand why. I can’t wait to pick up my candle the next day, after it's had ample time to cool.

The company has also recently launched a clean skincare line, made from a tallow base, and this time, fragrance-free. The opportunities for cleaner products are seemingly-endless, and Hashem and Allen never run out of fresh ideas.

“We’re so passionate about doing this,” Allen says.

West Clay Company is located at 4141 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 18, Sarasota. For more information, click here.