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Natalie Sliwinski prepares some candles for customers employee at The Candle Mercantile, 870 W. Main St., where customers can make their own candle scents.

Every column we write starts out with an introductory paragraph — known to the journalism tribe as the “lede” — designed to, hopefully, draw in the reader. Today’s topic requires two.

First, for the ladies in the audience: Upon entering The Candle Mercantile be ready for an extraordinary experience of the senses, an olfactory overload ranging from the familiar to the exotic, where the only creative limit is your imagination.

For the guys: It’s better than you think. And the beer is cold.

Stephanie and Bill recently visited the store located at 870 W. Main St., Lake Geneva. It’s a terrific spot, just east of the library and a short block to the lake. Perfect for the foot-traffic browsing for which downtown Lake Geneva is known. And if you’re driving there’s free parking, always a plus for Lake Geneva shoppers.

The Candle Mercantile is unusual and unique. The end result of a visit is the creation of a custom scent, all your own, which can be crafted into a candle, a diffuser, a room spray or a body spray. That much we knew before walking through the door.

What we didn’t know was how much fun the process could be, as one realizes it’s not about picking ready-made products off the shelf. We were greeted by co-owner Leigh Ann Myers, who created the store with her best friend of 30 years, Liz Doyle.

If you like to ease into things — we do — there’s a comfy bar where the conversation unfolds naturally. With the help of a mimosa cocktail for Steph and a Spotted Cow for Bill.

Deb Swanson was our guide for the day. She’s delightful, and explained how one goes about creating a personal, custom scent. She knows her stuff and coached us up professionally, but we’ll give readers the layman’s explanation.

Each client starts with a small plate-like tray, a jigger-size measuring tool, a long spoon and, crucially, a card and pen for recording scent preferences. Then, along one whole wall of the shop, clients browse through a veritable forest of sample scents. If one’s nose becomes overwhelmed — trust us, it happens — we’re told to step back, sniff your clothing to clear the senses, then go at it again. And that works.

Now, back to the double-lede again.

Ladies: There are a multitude of feminine scents, all fruity and flowery and sweet and indulgent.

Guys: Leather. Buttered rum. Hops. Even dad’s pipe.

Let’s go just a bit beyond, too. For the naughty, there’s cannabis. And for the kids, there’s monkey toots. Seriously.

Scents are arranged alphabetically, which helps because there are a lot of them. After making selections, Deb guided us toward which ones might blend well together. Three seems to be the magic number. With Deb’s help we squirted a little of this and a little of that from scented oil bottles into the jigger, then stirred the concoction with the spoon. You go heavy with some, light with others, until it all smells just right to you.

The next step is selecting the preferred product, whether that’s a candle or a diffuser or a spray. We picked candles. The custom process includes mixing your scent with hot wax. Even Bill found it fun, though of course he managed to spill some and make a mess.

Leigh Ann joined us for a chat as we finished. She’s a big personality with a quick smile, talkative and entertaining, all the better to make clients feel welcome and relaxed. We wondered how this unique shop came to be created. And why in Lake Geneva.

Neither Leigh Ann nor Liz — who have been best friends since high school — had any experience with candle-making. Both had successful careers in other business fields.

“I had left corporate America. Liz was ready to leave corporate America. We knew we wanted to do something. We didn’t know exactly what that was,” Leigh Ann said. “There was another concept store like this somewhere else in the U.S. that I went to. I sent Liz a video and we thought, This is it.”

Liz lived in Lake Geneva and the pair of new entrepreneurs believed this destination community provided just the place their store concept could thrive.

“We felt like it fit really good with the town and where the town was going,” she said.

The shop opened in June 2019, just in time for the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.

“That first year was crazy, and scary,” Leigh Ann told us. “Last year was a phenomenal year for us. Lake Geneva was busy and we had lots of tourists from places we’d never had tourists from.”

She credits her team for the store’s success and for making the experience fun for clients.

The shop is open seven days a week and it’s busy, particularly at the height of the tourist season. Walk-ins are welcome, but reservations are suggested.

As for us, the experience was followed with a perfect evening sipping wine and lighting Stephanie’s custom-scented candle. The mixture is cake batter, black cherry and pink sugar.

We’ll try Bill’s later, maybe after a motorcycle ride, since he calls his custom scent — mixing leather, buttered rum and mahogany — “Harley Hellfire.”

Stephanie Klett is the President and CEO of Visit Lake Geneva, and the former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. Bill Barth is the former Editor of the Beloit Daily News, and a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame.

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Natalie Sliwinski prepares some candles for customers employee at The Candle Mercantile, 870 W. Main St., where customers can make their own candle scents.