HOTWICKS CANDLES | OFFICIAL BLOG

Holiday Shipping Deadlines... Order before 12/19 or else

2009-12-16T23:38:00.000-08:00

'Twas the week before Christmas and HOTWICKS stopped shipping candles... well kinda.

If you plan on surprising Grandma with her very own Stripper Candle on Christmas morning you should order by 11:59 PM (EST) Friday, 12/18/09. We'll still do our best to get later orders out ASAP, but can't guarantee Christmas delivery.

Happy Holidays from HOTWICKS!

www.HOTWICKS.com

Deliciously Inedible... 3 New Treats For Your Nose

2009-09-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

According to some guys in lab coats, 80-90% of what you taste is directly related to your sense of smell (artist’s interpretation of process on left). Therefore by default, 80-90% of everything you eat now can taste just like bacon, pizza, or cotton candy!

HOTWICKS is proud to introduce THE BACON CANDLE, THE PIZZA CANDLE, and THE COTTON CANDY CANDLE.

Check them all out here.

HOTWICKS is now tweeting... or twittering. Whatever.

2009-06-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

HOTWICKS is now on Twitter. So is Oprah and that guy who played Data on Star Trek The Next Generation. All said in exactly 140 characters.

Show Dad you love him… Now for 20% less

2009-06-12T12:28:00.001-07:00

Wow 365 days goes fast, but it’s almost that time to start freaking out about a Father’s Day gift. Good news is you’re still a handful of days away from the usual car wash coupons and lottery tickets, and actually still have time to get him something good, like… ahem… a HOTWICKS candle… ahem.

Really, getting him a Whiskey or a New Car scented candle not only has the potential to rocket you to the top of his Last Will and Testament, but also assures your Old Man that his genes carried a healthy dose of originality. Now, if that’s not reason enough to buy some candles, how about 20% off! There, that got you. Use promo code “POPS” at checkout until 6/21/09 and get 20% off your entire order.

Happy Father’s Day from HOTWICKS!

HOTWICKS: America's 11th Weirdest Business in Inc. Magazine!

2009-04-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

YAYYY! What's weirder than a company that specializes in artificial testicular implants for neutered dogs? HOTWICKS!!

Our candles made it on Inc. Magazine's list of America's 30 Weirdest businesses, available at news stands now. Considering we're currently working on a candle that smells like the losing end of an outhouse, we'll proudly accept the honor.

Check out the full list here.

New candles, new candle size... new blog post

2009-03-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a really long time since we released new candles, but this week we went nuts and launched a brand new size, and 8 new scents: Fresh Bread, Man, Mouthwash, Pine, Pipe Tobacco, Sawdust, Steam Room, and Whiskey. These were some of the most requested scents we got, so you better buy them!

All of our scents are now available in a new 6oz glass... kind of like a shot glass, just nicer and not full of booze. We still love our 8oz tin candles, but the new size has a lot of advantages:

1. More candles, more often. We've had hundreds of funny ideas (what would a John McCain candle have smelled like?) and now we can make them faster than ever.

2. New price, more threesomes. One of the coolest things about HOTWICKS Candles is that you can combine them to create funny "scent-uations" (We're trademarking that Yankee Candle!). Burn BEER + MAN + WHISKEY and you get FRATERNITY. The new size and new price makes that much more affordable.

3. No three. Ever wonder why people have to enumerate everything into 3 points? Sometimes two points is totally sufficient... shoot, we just remembered another real point...

4. The Real World. We're hoping to get our new candles into lots of stores, so if you own a retail store and are interested in wholesale pricing contact us here, OR, if you have a website and would like to earn a commission from promoting HOTWICKS become an affiliate here.

Enjoy the new candles and your feedback is always appreciated.

THE HIPPIE CANDLE GOES HOME

2009-03-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

After a year and a few months in business we decided we needed to shake things up a bit. And how does a strange business get any stranger? Move to San Francisco, California!! (THE HIPPIE CANDLE's never been happier.)

While we're really excited to stink up a new city, we need to give a special thanks to Portland, OR. and the unique, anything goes attitude that gave rise to HOTWICKS. Without you PDX there would be no urinal cake scented candles on Earth.

Look for these new Bay Area inspired scents soon:
THE FISHERMAN'S WHARF CANDLE - a blend of tired tourist, $25 leather jackets, and questionable clam chowder.
THE TENDERLOIN CANDLE - Definitely not beef scented.
THE DOT COM CANDLE - Just burning money... lot's of burning money.

HOTWICKS Goes Number 2!

2008-10-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

Pardon the scatological pun, but HOTWICKS has finally added a second employee! Now when we say “we” we’re not lying.

Our newest employee, Sara, has been busy learning the business and now officially runs customer service, sales, and most importantly -- the Suggest A Scent page. This leaves our first employee with more time to post self-aggrandizing blog entries, continue stripper scent research, and develop new candles.

Speaking of new candles, we should have a bunch of new ones soon. Stay tuned.

HOTWICKS Goes Global!

2008-06-14T15:32:00.001-07:00

We've been in business for about 6 months now and thought it was time to become an "international candle company." This week HOTWICKS extended shipping to almost two dozen countries around the globe, instantly doubling US manufacturing exports... who says Americans can't make anything anymore?

To see what countries we can ship to, just add a candle to the shopping cart (or better yet, add ten candles) and then click on the "Country" drop down menu near the bottom of the page. Drop us an email if you don't see your country (except you North Korea).

You want a candle that smells like what?!!

2008-05-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

My god you people have some incredibly funny and completely disgusting ideas for future candle scents. In fact, you sent us so many ideas that it took a few months for us to digest them all and post them to the website, but alas, the SUGGEST A SCENT page is finally updated. Scroll down a bit below the submission form to see them all.

We tried to avoid repeats, so if you don't see your suggestion it's probably because someone beat you to it. The most popular were by far "Tire Smoke/Burnt Rubber," "Gasoline," and "Bacon." We also got quite a few suggestions for female anatomy scented candles... "THE GYNECOLOGIST'S NIGHTMARE CANDLE" being the most disturbing.

Thank you to everyone that contributed, and a tip for future contributors, try and include a story or reason why you want that candle. It makes for a more interesting read.

Thanks from HOTWICKS.

New Topless Photos!

2008-03-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

That's right, our candles just posed without their lids! Now you can see the glittery goodness of THE STRIPPER CANDLE, as well as the hyper fuschia pink of THE URINAL CAKE CAKE CANDLE. Most importantly, you can see that all of our candles are poured with a psychopathic commitment to quality.

Finally... New Candles!

2008-03-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

We'll be honest, when we started this little candle adventure we weren't sure if the idea would fly or not. We launched with a few scents and prayed that people would actually buy them.

Thankfully, enough of you found candles that smell like strippers and toilet deodorizers appealing enough that we're able to stay in business. So we reinvested your money into research and development and are happy to announce 4 new scents:

Check them out, and thanks again for keeping HOTWICKS burning!

Our very first Beer Festival!

2008-03-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

If you're in the Portland, OR this weekend and not drunk, then there's something wrong with you. This weekend is the 14th Annual Spring Beer and Wine Festival and HOTWICKS will be featured in booth number 41... near the "Tour de Cheese."

The festival runs through Saturday and we'll have plenty of BEER CANDLES and other scents for you to sample and buy.

HOTWICKS goes to Chyna!

2008-02-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

No, we haven't outsourced candle production to our industrious Far East friends, but we have landed our first "celebrity with HOTWICKS" photo!

A few weeks ago we were asked to donate some candles to the Screen Actors Guild awards. We had visions of Daniel Day-Lewis or James Gandolfini accepting their awards in one hand with a HOTWICKS candle tin in the other... well we got something so much better than that! We got a picture of Chyna, best known from her performances in "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," "The Surreal Life" and the WWF.

Chyna's shown here with our world famous candle THE URINAL CAKE CANDLE. We hope it's casting off its industrial freshness in her bathroom right now. Thanks Chyna!

WE'RE FAMOUS... AGAIN!

2008-01-30T15:44:00.000-08:00

We* did two interviews and both accidentally hit the same week. Today's awesome HOTWICKS article comes to us from Lance Kramer and the Willamette Week. We're really happy with how it came out. Lance added some funny details that weren't in our previous article, like our fear of being confused for a meth lab. Oh, and special thanks to Benjamin Reed for the cool photo. I wear goggles because I once got wax in my eye... not fun. Check the whole thing out here.

* Editor's note: "We" (me, Mike) talk in plurals not because "we're" bipolar or suffering from multiple personality disorder... "We" simply want to sound like a bigger company than "we" are. In many ways "we" offer the same experience as a big company... high quality products, a great looking website, world-class order processing and customer service... so cut "we" some slack and let "we" use whatever pronoun "we" want.

DRUMROLL PLEASE... THE BEER CANDLE IS BORN

2008-01-29T22:28:00.000-08:00

We've been working on the beer candle for awhile. The tough thing about beer is that it can smell a lot of different ways.

We like really sh*tty beer that looks the same going is as it does coming out. So this candle kind of smells like a skunked domestic beer, or that stale bar beer smell.

One of these golden beauties has been burning all day in the HOTWICKS bathroom, and folks, it's a winner. It also pairs well with our other candles.

Here's a few suggestions:
BEER + STRIPPER + COFFEE = BACHELOR PARTY
BEER + GRASS + CAMPFIRE = CAMPING TRIP
BEER + GRASS + PIGSKIN = GAMEDAY
BEER + CAMPFIRE + HIPPIE = DRUM CIRCLE

Buy it at www.HOTWICKS.com

HOTWICKS IS FAMOUS!

2008-01-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

We just had our first news article published in the Portland Tribune!

Randall Barton did a great job digging into the dark and seedy history of HOTWICKS, and Jim Clark actually made HOTWICKS' founder (and this blog's author), Mike Chorazak, look respectable in the photos.

Check out the article on the Portland Tribune Website