ReWax and UnWine was founded in 2018 by Femi and Ashley Shillingford, who started from a simple idea: candle-making is genuinely fun, but nobody had built the right environment around it yet. The traditional model was quiet and instructional. What they wanted was interactive, social, and celebratory — a hands-on alternative to conventional nightlife that gave groups something to do together rather than just somewhere to be.
The concept worked well enough that it became the first candle-making bar franchise in the world, with locations now across Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Jersey City, Las Vegas, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, among others. The flagship stayed in Jersey City where it built the reputation that everything else grew from.
Guests choose their scent — from a rotating selection of seasonal and signature options — plus their wax color and any add-ons that customize the finished candle. The pouring process is guided, which means nobody needs to know anything about candle-making to leave with something beautiful.
While the candles cure, the room keeps moving. Karaoke. Candle trivia. The music running throughout. The two-hour format is designed so there's no lull — the creating and the celebrating happen simultaneously rather than one after the other.
Every candle is custom to the person who made it. The scent, the color, the vessel — all chosen by the guest, which makes the finished piece something worth bringing home rather than a craft project that lives in a drawer.
Why It Works for Group Celebrations
The candle-making format is naturally social in a way that's hard to engineer into other experiences. Everyone is doing the same thing at the same time, which gives the group a shared focus and a natural conversation thread — what scents did you pick, what do they remind you of, what are you naming yours — without anyone having to force the interaction.
For bachelorette parties, birthdays, and girls' nights, the private event option gives the group the full space and the full experience without an open-to-public session running alongside them. The studio can also bring a traveling candle bar to off-site events for groups who want the experience at their own venue.
Corporate groups book it for team-building because the hands-on, low-stakes creative format gets people out of their professional personas faster than a conference room ever could.
The takeaway is the thing that stays. Guests leave with a custom candle that smells like the night they made it — and every time they light it afterward, they're back in that room.
Where to Find It
ReWax and UnWine has locations across the US — Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Johns Creek, Jersey City, Las Vegas, Newark, Wilmington, Owings Mills, Baltimore, and South Carolina. New locations continue to open as the franchise grows. Check Batch for the location nearest to you.
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