Our Story
Candles for Hungry People
Hangry Candle Co. makes candles inspired by the foods we love.
Cookies. Cakes. Cobblers. Cocktails. And whatever else makes us hungry enough to think, that should probably be a candle.
Then we put them in food cans.
Because putting a Snickerdoodle candle in a fancy glass jar just isn't as much fun.
Meet Chef Ru
Every food company needs a chef.
Ours is completely made up.
Chef Michel Ru is Hangry's resident celebrity chef, candle expert and questionable source of culinary advice.
According to his official biography, Chef Ru spent more than a decade cooking for Hollywood stars before discovering that people were more interested in his candles than his food. He eventually left Hollywood to create the candles that became Hangry.
That's the story on the can, anyway.
In reality, Chef Ru came from our imagination and became part of the Hangry world. He's on the labels. He occasionally shows up on video. And somebody around here owns a chef costume for reasons we're not going to examine too closely.
It Started With Snickerdoodle
Snickerdoodle is the OG OG — the original Hangry candle.
It helped establish the formula we've followed ever since:
Since then, the Hangry menu has included everything from Lemon Pound Cake and Peach Cobbler to Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry Sauce and Mint Mojito.
And we've made some considerably stranger things.
We'll get to those.
Funny Candle. Serious Standards.
We don't take the idea of a candle that looks like canned food particularly seriously.
We do take what's in it seriously.
Hangry candles are hand-poured in small batches, and today we're much more selective about the ingredients and fragrances we use.
Our fragrance oils come from CandleScience, and we choose from their CleanScents fragrances.
That's important to us.
A candle doesn't just sit on a shelf. You light it in your kitchen, bedroom or living room and let it burn for hours. We want to feel good about the fragrances we're putting into our candles and bringing into our own homes.
It also means we won't make something just because the name would be funny.
The Menu Changes
Hangry works more like a menu than a traditional candle catalog.
Over the years we've served up Beer, Bacon, Pizza, Cinnamon Roll, Candy Cane, Pancakes & Syrup and plenty of others.
Some were delicious.
Some were questionable.
As our standards have changed, some old Hangry candles have disappeared. If we can't find a fragrance that meets our current standards and smells good enough to deserve the name on the can, we won't make it.
But we never say never.
If we find the right fragrance, an old favorite can absolutely come out of the Hangry archives and find its way back onto the menu.
Even Bacon.
Chef Ru help us.
Made by Hand
Behind all the ridiculousness, there are real people making these candles.
Hangry candles are made in small batches. We choose and test fragrances, pour the candles, apply the labels, pack the orders and decide what deserves to come next.
We're not interested in filling the store with dozens and dozens of scents just so it looks bigger.
We'd rather have a smaller menu of candles we actually like, introduce something new when we find a fragrance worth getting excited about, and bring back seasonal favorites when the time is right.
Small menu.
Good ingredients.
Really weird packaging.
That works for us.
Made to Be Given Away. Usually.
Hangry candles make particularly good gifts because you don't have to know someone's decorating style or understand the difference between twelve varieties of sandalwood.
You just have to know:
They love cookies.
Or peach cobbler.
Or cereal.
Or ridiculous things packaged like groceries.
Birthdays, coworkers, hosts, thank-yous, holidays, or just because something made you think of someone — that's where Hangry fits.
Of course, there's nothing preventing you from buying three candles and keeping all three.
We certainly aren't going to tell anyone.
Still Hangry
Hangry has changed over the years.
Labels change. Candles come and go. Our standards have evolved. New ideas get tested. Some work. Some absolutely do not.
But the basic recipe hasn't changed much:
Make candles inspired by food.
Make them smell really good.
Be thoughtful about what goes into them.
Make the packaging fun.
And don't take candles too seriously.
That's Hangry.
Looks like food.
Smells like food.
Still not food.