Jessica White's current passions came out of nowhere — not from childhood hobbies, familial interests, or even her schooling. After growing up in Oakland, California, White moved to Chicago to attend DePaul University's undergraduate journalism program. Also, she simply wanted to experience the seasons for the first time in her life.
Though she helped her mom in the garden as a child, White's interest in plants began to click into place when she toured a rooftop garden at DePaul. "There are things that just started aligning," she tells Hunker. After graduating in 2016, she moved into a neighborhood where she could access a community garden within walking distance. There, White planted her first bed, producing lots of greens and cilantro, and became infatuated.
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While still cultivating what she calls her most successful garden, in 2017, the burgeoning horticulturist began working with a seed starts organization and hydroponics company. For the former, she would sow the starts in her own apartment before passing them along to the company for distribution. The only problem: In Chicago, you can only plant outdoors about six months out of the year. White wanted more.
To extend her growing capabilities and be closer to family, the plant enthusiast moved to Los Angeles in August of 2018. Following her passion, White then started working for a gardening company that focused on mostly residential properties to assist with tending vegetables, fruit, and some cannabis. At the start of 2019, she also established a local community garden plot, which she still has to this day.
"I am immersing myself completely in this," White says. "This is all that I want to do."
Since her job involved mostly outdoor work, the plant parent was able to remain employed once the pandemic hit. However, like many, she began to explore other solitary, lockdown-friendly hobbies and happened upon making candles in 2021. That's when the idea for Loam Candles (yes, referring to the soil) was born.
"I think making candles can have a lot of overlap with growing plants in some ways," White explains. "There is a lot of trial and error involved in the process. There is lots of testing. You may or may not get it right, and you have to wait a while before you realize if it's good or not. It's the same with plants … I enjoy that trial and error process. I feel like [making candles and gardening] reflect each other in some ways."
After ending her gardening job in August 2020, White began finessing her candle-making abilities and launched Loam in March 2022. However, it was the scents she experienced while on the job that helped inspire her candles.
"I started realizing all the little details of the outdoor world that I think, if you spend most of your time inside, you just miss completely," she states. "Lots of seasonality and details that if you're not sitting under a citrus tree every day, you just wouldn't know about. I found a lot of magic in that experience, and I really wanted everyone to be able to experience something like that."
White reveals that the two candles that most closely mirror her journey in the garden are Herb Bed and Community Garden. "I've spent the most time in community gardens, and that one has mandarin, fig, tomato leaves — basically, everything that would be bursting with ripeness at the height of summer," she says. "For Herb Bed, there's something about harvesting lavender or rosemary that leaves a sticky residue on your hands, which I really like. That candle is trying to represent that experience of harvesting a bundle of herbs and that residue that's left on your fingers."
Now 28 years old, White is the one-woman show behind Loam, pouring candles, building boxes, shipping her products, and attending in-person markets. "It's nice to create something that smells good to you and have other people try it," she says. "It's a lot like plants — you grow a plant or something to eat, and then you get to share it with other people. There's lots of joy and fulfillment in that, and it's the same with candles … I like making the candles, and I love seeing people respond to them and seeing how their experiences might tie with a certain scent."
A perfect example: At a recent in-person market, a visitor began crying at the Loam Candles booth when she smelled the Community Garden candle. It reminded her of her grandparents' garden back in her home country, a place she missed dearly. The candle's scent transported her there.
In addition to bringing people this type of familiar, comforting joy, White always has the earth in mind. After all, it's where her path began. Making Loam as sustainable as possible is an ongoing effort, but as of right now, all of the brand's soy and coconut wax candles made with 100% cotton wicks are held in recyclable glass jars and packaged in recyclable boxes. All packaging comes plastic-free, and some is even reused. For instance, White often ships her candles using the honeycomb packing the jars initially came wrapped in.
Yet another way in which White aims to give back is by donating 5% of the brand's profits. Currently, these funds are going to the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a coalition made up of food system workers — those who labor to get us the food we eat every single day. Their focus is on improving working conditions and ensuring that they have a say in these environments.
"I feel like I've been given many things by being able to be out in a garden, especially in the specific circumstance I was in," White says. "I was in a luxury version of that experience, while there are many [workers] in some part of the food chain world breaking their backs every day providing food for people. I wanted to be able to give back to that through Loam."
To support this mission, you can purchase Loam's candles here or find a nearby stockist here. With spring coming up, White is also planning to release new scents and is excited to attend more in-person markets, where she can see people's reactions and get feedback.
"It's nice to know that for one, candles make people happy. It makes me happy to make them," White concludes. "And two, I can use them as vessels for good."