Hello & Welcome to The Tell Tale Blog!
I'm Jillian Walkowiak - a College Writing Adjunct by day and a horror fiend/candlemaker by night. If I'm not grading English essays, I'm binging horror movies or making may way through horror books. I also love to travel with my amazing partner Matthew & teen daughter or relax with one of my many furry family members.
While at a local horror movie con in 2018, I purchased some fantastic candles from a soy candle vendor; very high quality but they did not have any connection to horror. My partner and I had a running joke that I should make candles as a better way to fulfill my wax addiction, but it finally clicked as a real possibility at the con. Why not create a high-quality candle that could provide an immersive horror experience? My combined background in horror and history would help me find my way to olfactory details in each terrifying tale to create a really unique product that I wanted to see out in the world. And so, The Smell of Fear Candle Co was born!
My very first candle was The Cask of Amontillado and I pulled its scents of sherry, oak casks, & earth right from the Montressor Family Vaults. The rest all followed suit with each scent taken directly from scenes, settings, or a character's favorite things in popular horror stories. All of the candles, melts, & diffusers that I create separate themselves from the others out there in that my products provide an immersive horror experience whether you're watching a classic slasher, reading a favorite gothic tale, or just desiring some spooky ambiance.
I've created candle collections based on horror movies, scary TV series, spooky literature, creepy cryptids, and other terrifying odds and ends; all things that the true horror fan’s strangely comforting nightmares are made of. There is a multitude of candles in the full collection. I'll always feature my regulars and occasionally will try to get some that are hidden in the shadows out into the light.
Additionally, I can also do wholesale orders catering to those that like to burn brightly on the dark side.
Every aspect of my candle production, from label design and printing, to pouring, to packing and shipping is done in-house by me, your faithful candle maker. All candles are hand-poured, small batche done my home lair in Buffalo, NY. I use a paraffin-free, sustainable, long-burning coconut-soy blend and fragrance oils with no phthalates. I occasionally add bee-friendly beeswax in the hot summer months for additional fortification. My cotton-based wicks are both lead and zinc free and wooden wicks (when used) are sustainably sourced. I make all of the bloodcurdlingly best choices for my spine-tingling scents that are guaranteed to haunt your home in the best possible way.
Keeping The Smell of Fear earth friendly & sustainable is very important to me! I not only use sustainable candle making materials but am a big proponent of Reduce/Reuse/Recycle in orders so most of my shipping materials are repurposed. Additionally, I use Shopify Planet to maintain carbon-neutral shipping.
Stay tuned for more here at the Tell-Tale Blog, from candle use & reuse tips, movie recommendations & reviews, as well as random spooky musings.
Leave me a comment to say Hi, tell me something about yourself, or tell me what you'd like to see on the blog!
Happy Haunting!
