No, Kinzie Sargent doesn’t have a website for her candle business, and yes, her family is asked about it a lot. Her parents, Todd and Mandy, want to keep Kinzie’s Kandles pretty low-key. She’s only 11, after all.
“We want her to still be a kid,” Todd says.
Other than the fact that you can buy one of her candles at the Colorado Eagles’ gift store, and that she worked with Visit Loveland to create the official candle for the city’s Sweetheart Season this year, and that there are hundreds of fans eagerly awaiting the release of her holiday candle (any day now) like she’s Taylor Swift putting out her next album, it’s been pretty chill.
So low-key, in fact, that she’s even had a couple people try to rip off her name and sell imitation Kinzie’s Kandles, as if her candles are Labubus. When all this is pointed out to the Loveland couple, they laugh.
“We started with 40 candles, and we thought there was no way we were going to sell all of them,” Mandy says.
More than 5,000 candles later, Kinzie is still going strong.
Kinzie selling the signature scent
she created for this year’s sweetheart season in Loveland.
Starting a business at 5
The idea came about six years ago, when Todd was enjoying a swim in his father’s pool in Las Vegas on a vacation with his family. Kinzie, who was in kindergarten, was not in the mood to relax.
“Dad, when are we going to do this business?” she asked.
The two had talked about starting one for months. Kinzie wanted to donate money to the House of Neighborly Service after a field trip with her school. Todd and Mandy said that sounded great and asked her, half-jokingly, where she’d get the money. When she told them she would start a business, they laughed until they realized she was serious. Then they debated for months about what business they could start, until the pandemic solved it for them in 2020.
Candles, they thought, would be a nice way to light up dreary houses. They thought of a slogan: Be The Light. That seemed to resonate.
They bought wax at a hobby store and scents for homemade candles on a website that made it fairly easy for Kinzie to make different kinds. They melted the wax on the stove in a pan, then they added the scents and poured the hot wax into prepared jars. Todd helped quite a bit, and Mandy chipped in when she could. Kinzie’s sisters, Jade, now 14, and Josie, now 8, helped as well.
“It was just so cool,” Kinzie says, “and a good way to spend time with Mom and Dad.”
The orders started coming in immediately, at first from family and friends. When word spread that a 5-year-old was making candles, everyone wanted one. The first 30 candles they made sold out overnight. These days orders come mostly through their Facebook page.
As the business grew, Todd’s boss bought them a candle maker that pours hot wax out of a spout, and Mandy learned enough about graphic arts to create a logo.
But Kinzie’s parents made it clear that her business was hers to run. They homeschool her, and what better way, they reasoned, to teach her economics. She’s had to look over spreadsheets, take money to the bank and decide how many candles to make to keep her profit margin. If she runs a booth at a craft fair, she’s the one who mans it all day, maybe with Josie’s help.
Six years later, Kinzie is enjoying the perks of success. She bought her first bike and a snowboard and paid for half of a surfing camp. She buys her sisters Christmas presents. She donates to the Greeley Stampede’s Scholarship Fund as well as various silent auctions and fundraisers. A few times a year, she makes a special donation to the House of Neighborly Service.
Her hard work is also being recognized by other businesses. Jared Jensen put the Kinzie’s Kandles logo on his racing boat at the Roar of the Rockies in September. She recently presented to business leaders during a conference at Colorado Youth Outdoors. She’s even met Gov. Jared Polis. So far, it hasn’t seemed to go to her head.
“It’s just really cool when I can give Mom and Dad money to help people,” she says.
Kinzie Sargent (middle) selling her candles at a craft fair.
The flame still burns
Late last year, Todd had a meeting with Kinzie about the future of the business. Things were starting to feel a little stale. Some of their best customers—their extended family, for instance—seemed to have enough watermelon-scented candles. He asked her a tough question: Should we continue?
Kinzie insisted that they should. So Todd, knowing they needed a new market, had a thought: He knew some people who work with the Colorado Eagles. Maybe Kinzie could give them a sales pitch.
She created a white candle with an icy, coconut-lime scent and poured the wax into a black container resembling a hockey puck. She called it Zamboni Wax.
When Todd and Kinzie met with the Eagles’ reps to pitch the product, she did the talking. They loved it, and two months after they thought the business might close, the Eagles began selling the candle in their souvenir store. They’re selling well.
“People fell in love with them,” Todd says.
Now there doesn’t seem to be an end to it. Kinzie remains a kid, spending about one weekend a month making 200 candles or so, though that may pick up around the holidays.
“I don’t see it ending,” Kinzie says. “Maybe one day I’ll open my own store.”
She will have her own candle again in February for the Sweetheart Season. But she’s being coy about what the scent will be. You’ll have to wait until February to find out. Just like Taylor Swift, Kinzie will release a new product only when she’s ready.
