We Started at Square One. On Purpose.
Love Square One began in 2020 with one Presto pot Joanna, a kitchen counter, and a lot of questions. There was no perfectly mapped-out business plan. There was just a woman who had spent eleven years in dentistry, including time with a mobile dental clinic serving communities that needed care, and a moment in the middle of a pandemic where she stopped and asked herself: what do I want the next chapter of my life to feel like?
The answer, it turned out, smelled like warm wax and wood smoke.
Why Candles
It started as learning. Then it became something more. Because scent is not just a scent. Scent is memory. It is the specific warmth of a kitchen on a Sunday. The way a hotel lobby in Florence felt on the first morning of a honeymoon. The exact smell of someone you love coming home.
Once you understand that, you cannot make a candle carelessly. Every fragrance we pour at Love Square One is connected to something real. A person, a place, a memory, a feeling. Our candles are not named randomly because they sound elegant. There is almost always a story behind them, and usually it is ours.
A Husband and Wife Making Things Together
Today, Love Square One is made by two people in Lake Norman, North Carolina. Joanna blends and pours. Anthony engraves. We are also best friends, which means we laugh a lot, we disagree sometimes, and we have gotten very good at working in a small space together without losing our minds.
We are Italian at heart. We got married in Tuscany. We honeymooned in Florence and Munich. We are sentimental about food, family, travel and the particular feeling of a long dinner that turns into a longer conversation. A lot of that finds its way into what we make.
Our engraved candles are something we are especially proud of. As the candle burns, the engraving illuminates and glows, turning the vessel itself into part of the experience. It is the kind of thing that photographs beautifully but feels even better in person. Custom and personalized designs have become one of the most meaningful parts of what we do.
What Goes Into Every Candle
We use vegan coconut-soy wax, untreated wood wicks, and carefully selected fragrance oils. We care about what is in our candles because we burn them in our own home. Every batch is hand-poured in small quantities so we can pay attention to what we are making. We are constantly testing, learning and improving, because that is the only way to do it well.
Wood wick candles have a soft, quiet crackle that changes the feeling of a room. Coconut-soy wax burns cleaner and longer than paraffin. These choices are not marketing language. They are just what we believe in.
What Square One Actually Means
Life does not always go according to plan. Sometimes you find yourself back at square one because you chose it. Sometimes life puts you there.
We wanted to change what that phrase meant.
To us, square one is not failure. It is possibility. It is the place where you begin again with a little more wisdom, intention and love than you had before. It is where Joanna was in 2020 when she left a career she was proud of to try something she had never done. It is where a lot of our customers are when they find us, navigating a new home, a new chapter, a loss, a beginning, an ordinary Tuesday that somehow feels significant.
We cannot fix hard things with a candle. But we believe that lighting one can remind you to slow down. To breathe. To remember someone you love. To make a regular evening feel like it matters. And sometimes that is exactly what you need.
More Than a Product
Love Square One has grown beyond what we imagined when we started with that one pot. Our candles and home fragrance are now carried by over 60+ stores across the country. We do candle making classes, pop-up markets, wholesale partnerships and custom orders. We have met people in the most unexpected ways and been invited into their homes and their stories, which is the part we did not plan for... and really cannot imagine giving up.
Our room sprays, reed diffusers and wax melts are all made with the same intention as our candles: to create something that makes your space feel like yours. Clean ingredients, thoughtful scents, and nothing that feels generic.
Come Find Us
We are based in Lake Norman, NC, and we love meeting people in person at markets and events. If you are local, we hope to see you. If you are not, we hope something we make finds its way into your home and earns a quiet place there.
Life brings all of us back to square one eventually. There can be something beautiful about beginning again. And wherever you are in your story, we hope you remember to love. Square One.
