Get Lit with Cocktail Candles

Looking for an unique housewarming or hostess gift? Getting married and looking for bridal party gifts? Look no more. Ruthellen Cocktail Candles are here.

Created by Ruthellen Perry, these gel based candles take form of your favorite drink, including margaritas, cosmopolitans, wine, beer, and hot chocolate. "If you drink it, I can make it into a candle," she said.

Perry was attending a cookout with a Mexican theme about seven years ago and wanted to bring an unique hostess gift. By trial and error, she self taught herself and perfected a margarita candle. She began receiving requests from people who also attended the party, and then from friends of friends. About five years ago she decided to turn her hobby into a business.

Perry started attending and selling her candles at fairs, such as the annual Junior Woman’s Craft Fair and did well and she found there was a demand for her candles. She began buying her supplies in bulk from suppliers and played around with different designs. Perry also loves to frequent antique stores in the area to search for the perfect drink glasses.

She prefers to work with gel versus soy or wax because she can form it to the design she needs easier. Perry also added that her gel based candles "burn slowly, liquifies and then rehardens and lasts longer than most wax based candles." The average burn time is 50 to 100 hours, and as many as 200 hours for larger candles such as the strawberry margarita.

Perry accepts special requests. She has made candles replicating green beers for St. Patrick’s Day,7&7's for a seventieth birthday party, and champagne for a bride and groom using their flutes for a wedding keepsake.

In order to ensure the proper visual reproduction of the real thing, Perry actually mixes the drink as a model for her candle making. "I make sure the colors are right, the ice cubes are the correct size and the drink is the correct color."

She enhances the realistic look of her cocktail candles by typically using garnishes made of wax or glass. For example, a strawberry for a strawberry margarita candle and an olive for a martini candle will most certainly be a part of her designs. This precision and detail consciousness prompted Perry to have her designs patented and trademarked.

"Most people comment that the candles are too pretty to light and use," commented Perry. She assures them that "the candles are so much prettier when burning than when they are not burning."

Although she can scent her candles by request, she noted that her candles "are not made to scent up a room. You burn them because they are pretty, not to get rid of odors."

Since starting to sell her cocktail candles on a regular basis, Perry has worked with a few area businesses to stock and sell them for her including in Northborough and Boxwells in Westborough. Otherwise, she stated that word of mouth has been great advertising.

She has avoided selling her creations on line because she "didn’t want to outprice the product. It would take a lot of special packing to ship which would add to the cost."

Her dream is "for a bigger company to pick up her products to sell. Right now my workshop is my garage, and I would love to be able to park my car in the garage again," she chuckled.

Her prices are reasonable considering the amount of time, effort and details that go into making one candle. She estimated that it takes her about one hour to make a candle from start to finish. Prices range from $19.95 to $26.95. She also can create mini cocktail candles as well.

Some of her favorite designs include "a red, white and blue beer for Fourth of July and a Father’s Day martini that includes a mini golf ball and golf club in it. Champagne candles are fun to make, it’s always a happy occasion," said Perry.

Perry can be reached at 781-718-4828 or by Email.