Alejandra Guerra, Co-Founder, Everly

Tell us about your company and what inspired you to start it?

I started making candles from home after my hubby surprised me with a candle-making class in Toronto.

I knew most candles contained nasty ingredients like petroleum wax and fragrances unregulated by the FDA, so I made it my mission to create the cleanest candles on the market.

Once I started getting repeat customers, I realised how wasteful the candle industry is with its single-use model, so I paired up with my mom and set out to change it.

We created Everly with the mission of cleaning up the candle industry by diverting millions of jars from landfills.

Everly Candles

How specifically does it relate to sustainable design, production and/or consumption?

Our Clean Candle Refill system helps you refill any empty candle jar at home in under 3 minutes so we can divert millions of jars from landfills.

We source and manufacture our products in Canada and work with local artists to create our signature ceramic Eternal Vessels, which are meant to be refilled eternally (no pun intended).

Our Clean Candle Refill kits are always:

🥥 Made with 100% Coconut + Soy Wax

🌿 Non-toxic, Luxury Scents

🔥 Burn 2x Longer Than Others (60-Hours)

♻️ Come in Compostable Packaging

Everly Candles Refills

What community or customer behaviours are you hoping to create or reinforce?

We want to inspire customers to upcycle and use what they already have. While we carry our own jar, we encourage our customers to upcycle whatever they have at home, whether it’s an old candle jar that needs refilling or a mason jar from an old pasta sauce. Our hope is that this behaviour carries into other aspects of their lives.

Everly Candle Refill

What is one of the most helpful or enlightening lessons you’ve learned along the way?

Patience. Persistence + to always believe in yourself.

What’s the biggest problem you’re currently trying to solve?

Entrepreneurship is the most humbling experience I have ever had. You solve one problem only to be faced with 100 new ones. When building a sustainable business, those challenges are augmented. Everything seems more expensive when you’re mindful of how and where you source all your materials.

The result is that you have a product that needs to be more expensive to have a viable business. That said, we’re working on making our product more accessible price-wise while staying true to our values of sustainability and clean ingredients.

Everly Candles Refills