About Us

"About Us" Audio Overview

Just who are the people behind Skinny Dip Candles? Far from being developed by folks wearing white coats in a corporate lab, the creators of Skinny Dip Candles are a mother / daughter entrepreneurial team. For those who are curious, our "Skinny Dip Story" follows below.

~ Karen Porter ~                                       ~ Laurel Porter ~

Our Mission

To create, produce, and deliver eco-friendly products that feature high quality natural ingredients, and offer them at reasonable prices that bring value to our customers. It is our goal to treat every customer as we ourselves would like to be treated.

Our Story

Back in 2004 the two of us came up with the concept of a cosmetic-grade body candle. That idea came as the result of participating in a holiday craft fair. Having made traditional candles in the past, we had taken out a booth to sell our highly scented room candles at the fair. Across from us in another booth was a woman selling soy candles. In her sales presentation, she was dipping her finger into the melted soy wax to show that it was a cool burning wax. All day we saw people "ooh" and "aaah" and express how cool it was that you could dip your finger into the wax. (We knew, however, that a regular candle, even a soy one, has far too much fragrance oil in it to ever be safe for skin use -- so please be aware of this.)

Based on this experience, we wondered if we could develop a candle intended for body use -- one full of body nourishing ingredients proven to do great things for the skin. We also knew that any product intended for use on the body would require knowledge and application of FDA guidelines during production and in marketing, so research we did.

We then set out to formulate a unique and and novel body candle that would actually perform as intended. We experimented with lots of potential ingredients, and by trial and error and lots of testing, we finally arrived at an ingredient mix that delivered excellent moisture to the skin, effective slide for use in massage, and a lot of fun in application.

From there we needed to name the candle and develop our brand. More challenging than we had expected, we found it very difficult to come up with a great name. After lots of thought, numerous brainstorms, and our share of wine (which stimulates creativity, right? :), we had come up dry. Then, in the middle of one night, I (Karen) woke up with "Skinny Dip Candles" appearing from nowhere. Why and how it just popped into my head, I'll never know. But it was perfect. We loved the fact that the name figuratively represents how the candle is used -- just "dip in and use it on your skin." And the fact that it's a fun, catchy name that people tend to remember, certainly doesn't hurt! 

At the time we created the candle, our intent was to simply sell it in the retail store we owned in Austin, TX. We knew it could be a way to differentiate our store from other gift shops in the area, and as we had hoped, the Skinny Dip Candle became an immediate, runaway hit. By simply demonstrating the candle in our store and introducing it to customers, we sold hundreds and hundreds of them.

Not only was the candle unique and novel, but the fact that it did wonderful things for people's skin made it practical and useful as well. As word spread we started to get interest from other retailers. We also got inquiries from people outside of Austin who wanted to know where they could buy Skinny Dip Candles. 

In response to that, we launched SkinnyDipCandle.com in 2006 to sell our candles across the U.S. and Canada (and beyond). We also began modest wholesaling of Skinny Dip Candles to retailers. As our business grew, it became difficult to juggle our retail store with our growing wholesale and website businesses. In mid-2006 we made the decision to move away from bricks and mortal retail and focus on the wholesale and website sides of the business.

In the spring of 2008 we moved our business 2000 miles across the country to rejoin the rest of our family in our hometown of Missoula, Montana. We found an awesome production facility (scroll to see it below) that has become our home away from home.

Since our move we've added staff and our business has continued to grow. Our original 12 Skinny Dip Candle scents, now numbers over 30. Our natural lip balm line has expanded to 21 flavors. We've added a 1 oz. "Skinny Mini" Skinny Dip Candle, as well as our new line of "edible" (flavored) Skinny Dip Candles. We have also added Skinny Dip Salts, genuine Dead Sea bath salts.

Through it all, we remain a close-knit family business. We still hand pour each candle and lip balm we make. Working side-by-side each day, we honestly enjoy what we do. (And we're pleased to say we still like each other as well :) 

We truly have a passion for what we do and we take pride in how we do it. And that approach appears to be working. At last count we had shipped to every state in the union, all but one of the Canadian provinces, and to 17 foreign countries on 5 continents. Our website business has blossomed and our wholesale accounts have expanded.

We truly feel blessed that our customers have found pleasure and value in Skinny Dip Candles and our other Skinny Dip products. And we can't thank enough those who have helped us grow by giving us the greatest compliment of all -- that of repeat business and the referral of others.

Thank you for visiting our site and getting to know us online.

We sincerely appreciate your support! 

Visit our Skinny Dip Candles page and become a Fan!

Find Skinny Dip Candles on Twitter.

www.twitter.com/SkinnyDipCandle

Skinny Dip Candles' office, production, and warehouse space in Missoula, Montana.