FAQ

You bet your britches! While some candles, like “Tapir Saddle” and “Mood Lighting for My Little Factory” really only make sense if you’re familiar with Mormonism, here are some candles that could work for a broader range of people:

• Worthy AF

• Self-Care Day

• Loud Laughter – this one references an oath Mormons make in the temple, but you can still enjoy invoking loud laughter without knowing the full Mormon story behind it!

• Gay Away the Pray

• Apostasy

• Licked Cupcake — great for any purity culture dropouts!

• Second Saturday Bliss

• Bookworm Apostate — my all-time favorite candle!

• I Consecrate My Time, My Talents, and My Money to the Gay Agenda — while this candle uses language from the Mormon temple ceremony, you don’t have to know that to appreciate the spirit of the candle.

• Adventures in the Lone & Dreary World — this also uses language from the Mormon temple ceremony, but if someone came from a high-control group that makes “the world” sound scary, the message of this candle still resonates

• Angry, Bitter, Maladapted, Shrieking Sociopath — this language actually comes from a politician, not a Mormon leader! If you’ve ever been shamed for not having kids, this candle is for you.

• Trained in Wickedness, Debauchery, and Every Species of Crime – while the inspiration for this sinful candle comes from a Brigham Young quote, it’s a sentiment that anyone can appreciate 🙂

• Lieutenant General Supreme Commander – the inspiration for this candle is rooted in Mormon history, but it’s a fun, cheeky candle even if you’re not familiar with that history. In fact, it’s a great gift idea if you’re looking to boost someone’s ego 🙂 Or at least their megalomania!

• Save the Monarchs, Not the Patriarchy

We do ship to Alaska and Hawaii!

As far as international shipping… Not yet, but we’re working on it!

Sure, we can work something out!

Email me at jennifer@exmocandles.com if you’re interested in doing this, and we’ll set something up.

It’s also really fun for us to meet fellow heathens 🙂

Great question!

We pour our candles in batches of 4. While we generally don’t offer candles that are not currently available on our website, if you want to order 4 of the candle in question, we’d be happy to pour a special batch for you, as long as we have the fragrance oils we need to make it.

Email me at jennifer@exmocandles.com if you want to do that.

Nope! You’re safe as long as they don’t actually open the package.

We have zero branding on the exterior shipping box, and we’ve removed our company name from the shipping label, too.

Your candles will arrive in a plain brown box, and the label will say it’s from Jen + Adri.

We’ll replace all candles that arrive broken, but please notify us within 7 days of receiving your order.

Please email Adri at adrian@exmocandles.com with your order number, a picture of the product, and a list of what needs to be replaced. We’ll get you a replacement shipped out ASAP!

If you received the wrong candle or one is missing from your order, email Adri, and we’ll correct this most unworthy mishap. You may keep any candle that we may have shipped to you by accident.

Oh, unclean one! Did your heathen hands slip and make an accidental purchase?

Do not despair.

You have 12 hours to contact us, and we will give you a full refund on your purchase. While we will issue the refund immediately, the processing time on your bank’s end is out of our control and may take 3 – 5 business days.

If you need to cancel an order, email Adri at adrian@exmocandles.com. 

We would love to, but there’s not a huge market for ex-Mormon candles in Virginia, where we live.

However, as the business grows, we’d love to come out to the Morridor for some pop-up events. #goals

For now, you can only buy our candles online.

This isn’t just about making great candles for us. It was always going to be about community, too.

We’ve done candle spotlight fundraisers to raise money for the following organizations (as of June 2022), and we’re excited to do more!

• Project Rainbow:  $266.90 raised
(To help foster visibility and community for the LGBTQ+ community in Utah)

• International Rescue Committee: $149.35 raised
(To assist Afghan families seeking refuge)

• Recovering from Religion: $52.50 raised
(To help connect people leaving religion to secular support groups and secular therapists)

• Juli Jensen (+ Food and Care Coalition): $40 raised
(Juli bakes bread to support her family during tough times. We raised money to buy bread from her, which she donated to the Food and Care Coalition in Provo, UT)

• Sunflower of Peace: $230 raised
(To provide tactical medical backpacks with first aid supplies to the doctors and paramedics on the front lines in Ukraine)

If you have suggestions for organizations we could donate to for future candle spotlight fundraisers, please shoot us a message!

And because we also plant one tree for every candle sold, we’ve also planted 2,500  trees so far through One Tree Planted (as of September 2023):

• 100 trees in the Andes Mountains (where Adri’s family is from)

• 100 trees to protect the endangered Southern Resident Orca in the Pacific Northwest (the trees impact the salmon, which comprise 80% of the orca’s diet)

• 100 trees in areas affected by forest fires in the western U.S.

• 100 trees in Iceland (where we honeymooned)

• 100 trees in Oregon (my mom chose this one to honor my youngest sister’s fiancé, who grew up about 15 minutes from Portland)

• 100 trees in Côte d’Ivoire (which has lost over 70% of its trees since 1960)

• 100 trees in Indonesia (supporting biodiversity and mangroves with 5-10x normal carbon absorption)

• 100 trees in Colombia (Adri has ancestors from Colombia, and the area where they plant experienced 60% deforestation in biodiverse areas in the early 2000s)

• 100 trees in chimpanzee habitats in Uganda

• 100 trees in Appalachia (this is our own backyard 🧡)

• 100 trees in butterfly habitats in Mexico

• 100 trees in biodiversity hotspots in Honduras

• 100 trees in the Amazon rainforest

• 100 trees in butterfly habitats in Mexico

• 100 trees in Appalachia

• 100 trees to protect watersheds and endangered species in the Philippines

• 100 trees in Ethiopia

• 100 trees in Australia (restoring areas affected by bushfires and creating habitat corridors for koalas)

• 100 trees to protect the endangered Southern Resident Orca in the Pacific Northwest (the trees impact the salmon, which comprise 80% of the orca’s diet)

• 100 trees in Kenya

• 100 trees in Canada

• 100 trees in Bhutan

• 100 trees to restore areas previously damaged by tree disease in Idaho (a lot of our customers are in Idaho, so this is for them!)

• 100 trees to protect the endangered Southern Resident Orca in the Pacific Northwest (the trees impact the salmon, which comprise 80% of the orca’s diet)

• 100 trees in cities as part of the Urban Forestry program, providing green spaces for communities in need, reducing urban heat islands, and enhancing air quality for urban populations

Since opening, we’ve donated candles to community events, such as the Latter-Gay Stories Miracle of Forgiveness Gala, the Especially for Truth youth and women’s camps, and a West Virginia event giving voice to survivors of sexual abuse within church settings. 

Finally, we’ve supported multiple ex-Mormon podcasters and YouTubers on Patreon using funds from the candles, and we’re supporting six different content creators in the ex-Mormon space with our fabulous Creator Candles.

Great question! We approached this business with sustainability in mind. While we’re not sustainability experts, these are the things we do:

1. We optimize our jars for upcycling. We’ve chosen easy-to-peel labels so that endless scrubbing doesn’t become a deterrent to reusing your jars. We’ve also designed custom jar lids, so that your candle jar will continue to be a statement piece in its second life.

2. For every 100 candles we sell, we donate $100 to One Tree Planted. That means that each candle plants one new tree. As of September 2023, we’ve planted 2,500 trees on six different continents. (see tab above if you want details about where we’ve planted) Our “Save the Monarchs, Not the Patriarchy” candle also plants 3 additional trees/candle in monarch butterfly habitats in Mexico.

3. Our candles are 100% vegan-friendly. We do not use animal products, and our products have never been tested on animals, either.

4. Our candles are non-toxic and contain zero pthalates.

5. We choose suppliers with warehouses in our same geographic region in order to reduce our carbon footprint.

6. We do not use any plastic in our packaging or shipping materials. Instead of bubble wrap, we protect our candles with crinkle cut packing paper and Indestructo cardboard mailers. And instead of plastic tape, we use biodegradable shipping tape.

If you have other sustainability suggestions, we’d love to hear them! We’re not sustainability experts, but we do care, and we’re willing to learn.

We use a blend of soy and paraffin waxes. Soy wax helps our candles burn slower and longer, while the paraffin brings stability and a higher melt point, protecting the candles from melting during shipping. Both types of wax are safe and non-toxic.

Here’s a 3-minute tutorial that shows you how to do it:

ExMo candles burn for a minimum of 40 hours.

But you can get closer to 45 hours if you:

• Trim your wick to a 1/4″ between burns, 

• Keep out of drafty areas, and

• Only burn for a couple of hours at a time.

Click here to read our full 14 Articles of Candle Care.