Charlene Hamilton is the maker behind The Forest Deep in Hudson Falls, New York — and if you’re in the Candle Makers Resource Group, you already know her. She’s one of the group’s most active members, and her story-driven candles (and now perfumes) have built her a loyal following. We asked her our usual Meet the Maker questions, and here’s what she told us, in her own words.
Business: The Forest Deep
Based in: Hudson Falls, New York
Website: theforestdeep.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563909085514
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theforestdeepcandleco/
Making candles for: About four years
In business: A little over three years
Full-time: Yes — “my full time job, other than wife and mom!”
Can you tell us about yourself?
I’m born and raised in Upstate New York (not NYC!), where I’ve spent my whole life. I’m a wife, a mom to two boys twenty years apart, and a cat mom to five resident furbabies, with four more little rescue kitties currently keeping me busy as I work on socializing them.
My oldest is married and out on his own, while Alex, my youngest, is still at home. I was a homeschool mom to Alex, who graduated at just 15! My husband is my biggest supporter, my cheerleader, and my chief heavy lifting officer.
I’m someone who finds joy in the quiet things. The first deep breath of autumn, the hush of the first snowfall, old keys, forgotten cemeteries, and things that have a history and story of their own, if you’re quiet enough to listen. I have a deep love for the outdoors and for the little moments that make your soul sing.
Can you tell us about your business, and what your role in the company is?
The Forest Deep Candle Co. started at the end of 2023, born out of a love of candles shared between me and my youngest son, Alex. We’d spend hours at Yankee Candle (gasp!) smelling all the candles, usually during our annual fall trip to their flagship store in Massachusetts. It was a special tradition we both looked forward to every year.
One day, I saw a friend’s post about making candles on a small scale, and I thought, we could do that! Alex was so excited, and The Forest Deep was born. He actually chose our name, inspired by our shared love of the outdoors and open spaces.
I’m basically a one-woman operation, with sniffing tests and smelling operations regularly assigned to my husband, Glenn, and Alex. You’ll often find me rushing out of my studio with a handful of blotter strips to stick under their noses because I need another opinion on why I absolutely NEED that bigger bottle of fragrance oil!
I try to do something for the business every day, whether that’s pouring candles, developing fragrances, connecting with wholesale clients, or making a social media post (ugh, the worst!).
This year, I’ve also started branching out into perfumes. I’m a lover of all things sparkly (I’m part crow!), so perfume bottles were practically calling my name. But it’s about more than pretty bottles and lovely scents. Each of my perfumes tells a story, sometimes with another story tucked inside it. If a fragrance oil doesn’t tell me its story and simply smells pretty, it doesn’t make the cut. I want every scent to evoke something, take you somewhere, or make you feel something.
And while I’m the one running the day-to-day operation, I’m certainly not doing it alone. Glenn and Alex help me run our shows, lend their noses to my fragrance experiments, and cheer me on when the stress gets to be a little too much. I truly couldn’t do this without them.
The Forest Deep has become so much more than making candles. It’s a creative outlet, a shared family adventure, and a way to bring stories and special moments into people’s homes. And we’re still finding new stories to tell.
What made you get involved in candle making?
Honestly, our love of candles is what started it all, and the fact that it was something Alex and I shared made it even more special. I don’t work outside the home (but believe me, I do plenty within it!), so we thought this would be a great way to earn a little income while doing something we both loved.
Little did we know just how much science (and honestly, MONEY!) was involved in making candles! We spent a long time researching and figuring out what we wanted our company to be. Who knew there were so many choices in wax types, fragrance oils, and everything else that goes into making a good candle?
Then my first order of fragrance oils arrived, and once I started opening those bottles and smelling everything, the obsession was born! What started as a shared idea turned into something I couldn’t wait to learn more about, create, and grow.
And we never looked back!
What do you enjoy most about running your business?
Seeing a customer open a candle, take that first smell, and get tears in their eyes because it brought back a special memory…maybe even one they’d forgotten until that very moment…is a feeling you can’t explain until you experience it yourself.
Knowing that something you love, something you’ve created and poured your heart and soul into, has given someone else a moment like that… that’s the joy. It’s knowing that what I make can be more than just a candle. It can bring someone back to a person, a place, or a moment in their life that means something to them.
Those are the moments that remind me why I do this.
What are some of your best-selling products?
One of our bestsellers has a pretty funny backstory! One of our first shows was The Great Adirondack Moose Festival. Yes, a moose festival. I wanted to create a candle just for the event, so I came up with Moose’s Muffin, scented with Maple Walnut Pancakes. It smells exactly how it sounds, and it’s my husband’s absolute favorite. Me? I HATE it! Not because it doesn’t smell wonderful, but because I don’t want my house smelling like that all day! Apparently, customers disagree with me, because it’s a sellout every year. These days, it’s called Maplewood Morning everywhere else, but at the Moose Festival, it will always be Moose’s Muffin!
Another favorite is Halloween Night, a seasonal blend I created to capture the nostalgia of Halloween as a kid. Think damp fallen leaves, crisp autumn air, woodsmoke in the distance, and just a hint of that sweet treat you weren’t supposed to eat until you got home and had your candy inspected. It’s all about that wonderful anticipation of trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
And then there’s Adirondack Fog, one of our year round favorites. It’s inspired by those quiet mornings in the mountains when the trail disappears into drifting mist, the pines slowly emerge through the fog, and the whole forest seems to hold its breath before the day begins. It’s like standing alone in the mist, surrounded by the beauty of the Adirondacks, with nowhere else you need to be.
Can you give us a tip you would tell someone starting out now in the same business?
My biggest advice would be to start slow and do your research. Learn about candle making, explore the different options, and decide what’s most important to you in a candle, whether you’re making them for yourself or hoping to turn it into a business someday.
Above all else, make safety a priority! We’re putting fire into someone’s home, and that’s a huge responsibility. Just because something looks cute doesn’t mean we should make it!
Don’t try to do too much at once. Sometimes, even now, I fall into this trap! I see all the cute vessels, the pumpkins, the cauldrons, the Christmas trees and ornaments, and I want to do all of it! But each new thing takes time to learn and do properly, and trying to do too much at once can lead to so much unnecessary stress and anxiety.
Give yourself time to learn, grace when things don’t work out, and the determination to keep going when they don’t. You don’t have to do everything at once, and you don’t have to get everything right the first time.
You’ve all got this!
How did you come up with the name The Forest Deep, and what does it mean to you?
The name The Forest Deep was actually chosen by Alex! I was leaning toward something with Raven in the title (I’m part crow, remember?), but that didn’t quite resonate with him. He felt there was so much more to what we wanted to create than that.
We both love nature and those quiet, overlooked spaces. A fallen tree slowly decaying, giving life to the tiny mushrooms that need a place to grow. Untended places where fallen leaves dance in the wind, and moments so quiet that, if you’re still enough, you can hear the snow fall.
To us, The Forest Deep is about finding beauty in the places others might overlook, and in the little stories nature tells when we take the time to listen.
Where do you find inspiration for your scents and products?
I find inspiration in nearly everything, even things that might not seem like much at the time. I’m driven a lot by emotions, and so often, a scent is more than just a smell. It’s a memory.
It’s the scent of lemon and flannel when you helped your dad polish the car. It’s the smell of fresh baked bread, still warm from the oven, on a day you came home from school in tears, and your mom was there with a hug and a smile. We’ve all had moments like those, when something small made everything feel a little better.
That’s what I love about fragrance. A scent can take you right back to a person, a place, or a moment you thought you’d forgotten. I want my scents to do more than smell good. I want them to make you feel something, to tell a story, and maybe even bring a little piece of your own story back to you.
You mentioned you are branching into perfumes as well — tell us about that.
I love candles, but I’ve always felt that some scents are more personal than something meant to fill a room. Some fragrances are meant to be worn close to the skin, close to the heart.
To me, perfume is so much more personal than a candle. A candle is meant to fill a space, creating an atmosphere for everyone to experience and enjoy. Perfume is different. It’s intimate. It’s an expression of who you are, something you carry with you throughout the day. It’s a quiet invitation that says, come closer, this is who I am.
That’s what drew me to creating perfumes. I wanted to explore fragrance in a different way, creating scents that feel personal, tell their own stories, and become a little part of the person wearing them.
Where do you make everything, and what does a typical making day look like for you?
I converted my dining room into my candle studio because who really needs to eat… wait, let me rephrase that… who needs to eat formally? Honestly, it was the perfect space, with plenty of room, good wall space, and a big closet. I’m still remodeling it as the business evolves, because I find that changing things around can make the workflow so much smoother.
One wall already had a gorgeous golden mural, and I painted the rest of the room a deep, deep blue. Think of the sky just before a storm, when the sun comes in low one last time, casting golden light along the horizon and across the dark clouds. Everything in my world seems to come back to nature in some way, from my studio to my home and my business.
I don’t really have a set daily routine in the studio. Some days I’ll pour candles all day long and get a hundred done, while other days are spent blending fragrances and making test candles. It depends on what needs doing and where my creativity takes me that day. I don’t force myself to do one part of the process when I’m just not feeling it. I do, however, plan ahead for the busy season, making sure I have plenty of our big crowd pleasers ready for shows every weekend from September through mid-December. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into those busy months!
As for a typical making day, you’d better not ask what I’ll be listening to! Sometimes it’s complete silence so I can hear my own thoughts. Other times, it’s The Raven Boys audiobook series, because everything about those books speaks to my soul. Or it’s Pentatonix singing Hallelujah loud enough to be heard from space, because that song needs to be felt as much as heard. And, of course, there’s Christmas music… even in June, because there’s nothing more peaceful than Christmas music.
What is your favorite product to make, and your favorite scent — and why?
My favorite product to make will always be candles. That’s where it all started, and where my love for this business began. There’s something special about creating something that can bring a little warmth, comfort, or a memory into someone’s home.
As for a favorite scent… boy, that’s a hard one! My favorites change depending on the day, the season, and even my mood. Some scents make me happy, while others leave me feeling melancholy or wistful, longing for a certain time in my life or for someone who is no longer here.
For me, a favorite scent isn’t necessarily the one that smells the prettiest. It’s the one that has a personal connection, something tied to a core memory or a moment that has stayed with me. A fragrance might smell wonderful, but if it doesn’t stir something in me, it probably won’t become one of my favorites. That same fragrance might mean the world to someone else, though, and that’s the beautiful thing about scent. We all carry our own memories, and the same fragrance can tell a completely different story to each of us.
What has been your biggest challenge so far, and what did you learn from it?
I’ve faced a few different challenges, each in its own way. Candle making itself actually came pretty easily to me. Of course, there were failed candles along the way, but the concept and the science of it just clicked.
My biggest challenges have tended to come from the social side of running a business. I’m terrible at social media! I never know what to post, and half the time I forget to post at all. And building a website? That’s not for the faint of heart! It took me waaaay longer than it should have because I kept putting it off. It felt so overwhelming that I just didn’t want to deal with it. Then one day, I finally decided to just DO it, and I had the basic version finished in a few days!
I’ve learned that procrastinating over things that make me anxious only makes them feel bigger and harder than they really are. Now, I give myself a couple of days to mentally prepare for something difficult, and then, as Nike says… Just do it!
What sets your products apart from other candles people can buy?
I think there are so many wonderful candles out there, and we all bring something a little different to what we do. For me, it comes down to the care and attention I put into every candle I make.
I give 100% to every part of the process, from choosing the cleanest ingredients I can find and rigorously testing every new scent to keeping my labels current and listening to what my customers want. I want every candle that leaves my studio to be something I’m proud of, and I take that responsibility seriously.
At the end of the day, I want people to know there’s a real person behind The Forest Deep, someone who cares deeply about what she creates and the experience it brings into their homes.
What is next for The Forest Deep?
What’s next for The Forest Deep? My biggest hope is to build a company that I can one day leave to Alex, something he can run and be proud of, and perhaps even grow into something bigger of his own. I want to leave him a piece of me, something we built together out of love, shared memories, and all the little moments that brought us here.
For now, we’ll keep doing what we do, working hard and especially gearing up for our busy fall and winter seasons. I want to continue cultivating lifelong customers and building relationships with wholesale partners so we can share our love of candles with as many people as possible.
We’re still writing our story, and I’m excited to see where it takes us.
What do you do when you are not making candles?
Oh, this is a fun one! I’m an avid decorator, but only for autumn and Christmas. Autumn decorating begins in July (inside, don’t get excited!) because it takes me weeks to put everything up, and I want plenty of time to enjoy it. Christmas season starts in September (again, inside!) and lasts until at least February. Why limit the things you love to a few weeks a year?
I also love to read, although I’ve reached a point in my life where happy endings are a MUST. But not necessarily the Hallmark-movie kind! I’m not really a mushy romance person.
As a family, we obviously love nature, and we take scenic drives through our beautiful area several times a week. We count the wildlife we see along the way, including deer and eagles… but not cows. There are just too many cows.
Quick-fire round
Describe your work in three words: Nature, nostalgia, wonder
Favorite scent family: Woody, masculine
Coffee or tea while you work? Coffee, is there really another choice?
Early bird or night owl? Permanently exhausted pigeon
Music, podcast, audiobook, or quiet while you pour? All of the above, depending on the day
One tool or supply you could not live without: Norden label tool
The candle you burn most often in your own home: Halloween Night
Markets, online, or both — where do you love selling most? I love a big online order, but talking to customers is where my heart is.
Thank you, Charlene, for sharing your story with us!
Find The Forest Deep online: theforestdeep.com · Facebook · Instagram
