The sweet smells of Casey Candle Company

Cara Caltrider devotes approximately 30 hours per week to her candles and other creations.

By Rich Wicks | Guthrie Center Times, October 2025

In her spare time, a young local hobbyist/entrepreneur is enjoying the sweet smell of success as customers enjoy the pleasant aromas of the products she creates. Cara Caltrider’s venture is known as Casey Candle Company. She explained how she started.

“I started it in 2023. When I was in high school, I had the dream of starting my own company. I created my first candle in my parents’ kitchen, and I had to do a lot of research about how to make candles. Then, during college, I kind of took a break, but I got back into it later,” Caltrider said. “When I first started, I slowly kept branching out. It’s been a lot of trial and error. Now, I make candles, countertop sprays, room sprays, wax melts, dough bowls and car diffusers.”

Although she has a fulltime job, Caltrider still devotes approximately 30 hours per week to her candles and other creations.

Caltrider enjoys offering her items at vendor markets in the area but has also found shelf space in two local stores.

“I do a lot of vendor events in area towns on the weekends,” she said. “I also sell my products at Hometown Basics in Casey and The Egg Crate in Elkhorn.”

Caltrider recalled how she has needed to learn on the fly as she created her products, and her family and friends have been happy to help. 

“My favorite story is from when I was first starting out. I got an order from a local business, and it was in the winter, so my dad, who is a farmer, offered to help me, since he had some free time. You typically wouldn’t find a farmer learning how to pour candles, but he did fine,” Caltrider said. “It’s great because my family has been so willing to step in whenever I need help.”

Caltrider recalled learning that attention to detail matters.

“The hardest part of it is getting the measurements correct, for fragrance and stuff. When I first started out, I struggled with that,” Caltrider said. “I try to keep up the inventory, but I sell out of things a lot, so it’s tough to keep up with it. So, I’m usually making candles every day.”

Caltrider also learned that candles and summer heat do not mix.

“In the summer, I do a lot of outdoor events, and then, in the winter, it’s indoor events,” she said.  “One time in the summer, I was going to a vendor event and hadn’t thought about it, and they melted, so I had to fix them. Now I haul them in coolers when it’s hot.”

One unusual but popular item Caltrider makes is dough bowls, which are decorative wooden bowls designed to hold melted wax and/or serve as a candle holder.  

“The dough bowls have been the most popular, just because nobody else around here sells them,” she said.

Caltrider continually strives to add new scents or change the scents out seasonally. 

“I have a flannel scent and a cinnamon bun scent that are very popular,” Caltrider said. She noted that the flannel and leather canyon woods are the most popular scents with men. Other options include vanilla caramel spice, lavender, pumpkin pie and Columbian coffee.

Caltrider recently began making some candles with a base of beef tallow. She explained that this type of candle-making is more time-consuming.

“It gets rendered from beef fat. It’s a lot harder. I have to put the tallow in a pot and simmer it on low for a couple hours, then drain it and put it in the fridge overnight. Then scrape it off and remelt it,” she said. 

Caltrider recently began getting beef tallow for her candle making from local farm BC Angus.

As her hobby and production have grown, Caltrider has sought more outlets for selling her items. She has a website and also uses Facebook and Instagram to market her Casey Candle company creations.

Caltrider has a long-term goal for her venture but understands it can’t be hurried.

“I’d eventually like to have a store, just so I could do events and fun things like that. So, that would be the ideal goal, but who knows when that will happen,” she said. n