It's been a decade since Duncan walked away from the army to embrace his creative flair. That's when - along with Cheryl, his wife - Candle Shack was born.

The journey from candle enthusiast to Candle Shack CEO and Head Of Innovation has been long and full of special miletones.

From the first successful candle, filling a room with a beautiful scent and a perfect burn to the first good feedback on a candle sale, the learnings from the journey were invaluable.

Going through the arduous process of trial and error, Duncan has become an expert in candle-making, especially in wax! He even designed his own wax melter, the iMelt. 

Seeing the ailes of Selfridges filled with products made by Candle Shack, Duncan realised they were now European home fragrance experts and trusted advisor to leading home fragrance brands, but the journey was no easy feat. 

Hence the academy, a way to share all the knowledge and experience he gained to now help you master your own process, which made it feel like the culmination of all these years of hard work.   

For Cheryl, smell has always evoked memories. As a child, she concocted fragrances and later, when she owned a hair salon and beauty salon. Smell was always a consistent aspect of her changing life and a uniting factor. 

When Candle Shack started, fragrance went from being Cheryl’s passion to playing a more central role in her life. Without any formal training, she remembers the struggle of learning about fragrance families, creating collections, choosing waxes... As the company grew, Cheryl began to focus on fragrance, her passion. Through the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, in France, she's working on becoming a fully qualified perfumer.  

Cheryl is now a leading expert in all things fragrance and is responsible for creating Candle Shack’s new fragrances. Going from experimenting with candle scents in her garage to leading a laboratory of home fragrance experts gave her a unique outlook on the industry and the hardship enthusiasts and small businesses face when they start out. 

She developed the fragrance elements of the course that she wishes she had when she started out.