June 1, 2022 | Hannah Murphy hmurphy@thereminder.com

West Springfield resident and craft candlemaker Mary Dowling-Stein holds one of her Ukraine — United We Stand candles. Reminder Publishing photo by Hannah Murphy

WEST SPRINGFIELD — A coffee-scented or blueberry candle has never smelled so realistic until Moon Jules Scents started seven months ago.

West Springfield resident Mary Dowling-Stein has been perfecting candles with the perfect scent, wax and a ton of patience for less than a year now.

“I was tired of certain companies’ candles not burning, smelling right, etc.,” Dowling-Stein said. “I decided that I would do this myself and do this the correct way. Never in my life did I realize how hard making candles were.”

She worked months on end and spent thousands of dollars to perfect her candles. Dowling-Stein states that it takes a lot of patience and testing to make sure that a candle burns correctly, and she will not sell it unless it is 100 percent to her standards.

“This is fire that is burning in a person’s home. It must smell perfect,” she said. “It needs to be a good candle, that has the best waxes, and more. I do not think people understand how much time goes into this process to get it to burn and smell so nicely.”

She was inspired to start the business by seeing her daughter create and sell jewelry as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness last October.

Once she threw herself into this project seven months ago, there was no turning back for her. Recently, she created blue-and-yellow candles to support Ukraine refugee relief efforts coordinated by Full Gospel Church of Westfield, and has a line coming up for breast cancer awareness which can be pre-ordered now.

She sells her candles online and at local craft fairs. She is looking forward to one special charity event in October.

“I will be in Wicked in Pink, where I will be selling the candles and my daughter’s bracelets separately, and all the proceeds will go straight to Wicked in Pink, which benefits the Sister Caritas Mercy patient fund, and for the Ukraine candles all proceeds go to that, as well,” she said.

Dowling-Stein sells wick and non-wick candles, with all sorts of scents, including coffee, blueberry, rose and more. Dowling-Stein plans to launch a website in September, to coincide with a new line of candles. She already has a presence on Etsy, Instagram and Facebook, which can be found by searching for “moonjulesscents” on those sites.