Fruitful endeavor
Woman finds success making lifelike candles in homage to her family
Gonzalez holds a cabbage candle.
A worker pulls a corn candle out of its mold June 18 at the studio.
Cherry molds are used to make candles at Happy Organics' studio.
Mixed berry candles are packaged in molded-pulp baskets.
Jessica Gonzalez stands with her candles at Happy Organics' studio in Los Angeles.
A worker holds a cactus candle June 18 at Happy Organics' studio.
They look like real fruits and vegetables.
There's playfully elegant Bosc pears, puckered mandarins and green-and-purple asparagus taper candles, which range in price from $12 to $40. Some are molded into corn on the cob, celery and rhubarb shapes. Others look like mushrooms, figs, tomatoes and snap peas.
The most popular are the small birthday candles shaped like raspberries, cherries and blackberries, packed in molded-pulp baskets just like you'd find at a grocery store or farmers market.
Jessica Gonzalez's Happy Organics beeswax candle collection is an homage to her family's Central Valley, California, produce company. Judging by the smiles and charmed looks on shoppers' faces, her candles are less about illuminating rooms and more about sharing the joy she sought when she first started the company in 2018.
"I love doing in-person events because it's so fun to see people's reactions," the 35-year-old said. "It makes me feel good to see other people finding joy in my candles. They often say, 'Oh, that's really funny.' And it is funny to have a cherry candle on top of your birthday cake."
From the roots
Gonzalez didn't start out as a designer. The youngest of nine children, she was born in 1991 in Salinas, California, and later moved to Merced, where she grew up on a 10-acre farm. She studied computer science at Mills College in Oakland, then worked in tech consulting in the Bay Area and eventually became the chief technology officer of an ag-tech company.
When her mother, Angela, became ill in 2016, Gonzalez returned to Merced to be with her family.
Her mom died suddenly soon after she moved home, and Gonzalez left the tech industry. "I wanted to find something more meaningful; something I loved," she said. "I didn't want my ego to keep me stuck in what I studied in college. I decided to let myself try new hobbies and passions and look for joy again."
She began working with her father, Salvador, and her uncles at the family's apiary, where they managed more than 30 hives. Her grandfather was also a beekeeper in Michoacán, Mexico. Soon, she began selling their raw honey at local farmers markets.
Her father was diagnosed with cancer a year later, so she started making cannabis-infused honey, balms and chocolates to help ease his pain.
When she saw that the beeswax candles, which last significantly longer than paraffin candles, sold faster than the honey, she decided to focus on making candles from the leftovers from her uncles' hives.
She was only 25, but it was a turning point. "It was one of those moments where I felt like I needed to change my path," she said. "I needed to change everything in my life."
When her father died in 2018, she inherited his bees and started Happy Organics, though she hadn't planned on starting a business.
After experiencing so much loss, making candles became a kind of therapy. "It felt great to work with my hands again, something I thought I'd never have time for," she said.
Molded by life
Her oldest sister, Sonia, said Gonzalez reminds her a lot of their father, who reinvented himself many times over the years.
"He grew up as a village boy in the rural mountains of Michoacán, Mexico, and went on to work in restaurants, cut down Christmas trees and pick strawberries and broccoli in the fields of Salinas," she wrote in an email. "From there, he started selling produce door-to-door, then at flea markets and eventually built his own produce distribution business from the ground up. As the youngest of nine kids from a working-class family, Jessica's always been incredibly resourceful, responsible, and amazing at reinventing herself."
Like a lot of millennials, Gonzalez taught herself how to make candles by watching YouTube videos. She started with handdipped tapers, working in the garage on the farm that helped her feel safe and connected to her parents. "It was a really nice environment to try something new and creative," she said.
Inspired by her family's produce, she cast real corn, strawberries and cherries in plaster, then made a silicone mold. Even when using the same mold, color can vary from batch to batch, and how it cools also affects the result.
"That's just how handmade things are," she said. "There's always some variation."
Growing strong
When she moved to Los Angeles in 2023 to be with her fiancé, Jordan Colindres, her business took off. "L.A. is a great place to grow," she said. "There's so much opportunity here. When I go to a farmers market, I never know who I'll meet."
She sold her candles in person at craft shows, the Hollywood Farmers Market and most recently, during a residency at the P.F. Candle Co. showroom in Echo Park.
Her business expanded — her products are available at several retailers in addition to her website. She had to source beeswax from vendors across the country to keep up with demand.
Kimberly Curtis, owner of Hide & Seek Vintage in Studio City, said Gonzalez's strawberry and cherry birthday candles "flew off the shelves last year" during the holidays. "Our customers love them," she added.
Still, Gonzalez stays connected to her roots.
Everything she and her small team make in downtown Los Angeles is handmade and "takes time," she said, describing the steps involved in crafting quality candles.
Right now, her favorite is the nopal cactus candle, which she made using a clipping from an employee's yard. While others help her with production, wholesale management and packaging, she focuses on sales, content and all-new product development.
When asked if she has advice for others who want to start their own business, Gonzalez admits she sometimes feels overwhelmed.
"The biggest thing that has gotten me through the toughest spots is my why or my reason for starting," she said. "I think that has to be really strong. That's what brought me a lot of comfort when I felt like quitting: going back to the beginning and remembering why I started this."
