Our Story

We make candles for the in-between moments.

A small studio. A lot of intention. Every candle made by hand in Portland, Oregon.

The Story

Stella & Co. started in 2018 on a kitchen table in northeast Portland. What began as a hobby — experimenting with soy wax, essential oils, and hand-labelled jars — quickly became something more when friends and neighbours kept asking for more.

We grew out of frustration with candles that smelled synthetic, burned too fast, or came in packaging destined for landfill. We wanted something better: candles that actually smelled like what they claimed, that burned clean, and that came in vessels worth keeping.

Today every candle we make is still poured by hand, one batch at a time, in our small studio on SE Morrison Street. We release two or three new scents a year. We don't chase trends. We just try to make something you'll reach for again and again.

What we believe in.

Small Batch, Always

We will never scale up at the cost of quality. Each pour is a considered act. We know exactly how many candles left the studio this month — and that matters to us.

Transparent Sourcing

Our soy wax is American-grown. Our fragrance oils are phthalate-free and never tested on animals. Our cotton wicks are unbleached. If we can't tell you where something came from, we don't use it.

Slow Design

We release 2–3 new scents per year. We sketch, we test, we sit with them for months before they go on sale. The result is a small collection we genuinely love rather than a catalogue we're indifferent to.

Reusable Vessels

Our glass vessels are made to be kept. When your candle burns down, rinse it out with hot water and use it as a planter, a pencil cup, a juice glass. We designed them that way on purpose.

Sara Merritt

Founder & Head Chandler

Meet the maker.

Sara has been making candles since long before it was fashionable. A former ceramics teacher, she brought her love of material and process to wax and fragrance, obsessing over burn quality and scent throw the same way she once obsessed over glaze chemistry.

She lives in Portland with her husband and their two dogs, Miso and Rye. On weekends you'll find her at the Saturday market, talking to customers about the strange alchemy of smell and memory.

"A good candle doesn't announce itself. It just quietly makes the room feel right."