“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”

A single candle can provide the perfect backdrop for a relaxing night or a romantic dinner, or simply provide a scintillating scent that conjures fond memories.

Of course, while St. Francis of Assisi was technically right when he waxed poetic, it doesn’t mean you should only have a single candle. The more, the merrier.

That’s where Red’s Apothecary can help.

November was National Candle Month, and Red’s Apothecary, owned by Adrienne “Red” Levesque and operated out of her Primrose Hill Road home, is the Dracut Economic Development Business of the Month for November 2025. And not a moment too soon — it’s time to order your holiday candles.

“At the beginning of August, I start pouring every day,” Red said. “By mid-December, I’m barely keeping up.”

Like many who produce their own artisan products, Red began making her own soy-based candles as a hobby. It started when she realized just how expensive a candle addiction can become.

“In 2018, I went to a fair with my sister, and there was a candle that I loved,” she said. “I wanted to buy five of them, but they were 35 to 40 dollars each. So I only bought one.”

Upon the realization that buying candles was not a sustainable hobby, she started thinking about making her own. That way, she could invent her own scents and give them scents-ible names. After all, as her website (www.redsapothecary.org) states, “Who actually knows what a Midsummer’s Night Dream smells like?”

“I started making my own and I’d give them out to people, as hostess gifts or whatever,” Red said. “My boyfriend finally said to me, ‘Why don’t you start selling them?’ I was, like, no one’s going to buy these.’”

But she decided to give it a shot. She started making small batches and posting them on Instagram.

“They were gone in a day,” she said.

Realizing her boyfriend, Craig Demeo, was right, she created Red’s Apothecary as a business in October 2020.

“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.”

Red worked for Yankee Candle as a general manager in the Boston region from 2005 to 2010, and that’s where her love of fragrances blossomed.

“I love the idea of fragrance being personal and linked to memory,” she said.

So if you have fond memories of a certain perfume your mother used or if a certain pipe tobacco conjures up memories of your grandfather, Red can make a candle that smells, if not exactly like you remember, close enough that it will rekindle those memories.

“Fragrances are often tied to memory, and it’s nice to personalize your space,” she said. “It’s like perfume. It’s part of your personality, like your house’s personality. And there’s something about candlelight, especially this day and age of electronics. Candlelight is kind of old-fashioned and romantic.

“I love when someone says, ‘Hey, I love this scent, do you have anything like this?’” Red said. “Bring me a bottle of perfume, and I’ll come up with a candle. If someone wants oak moss and sage, I can get it. I make Strawberry Tomato Vine. Someone might say, ‘Can you make it more strawberry and less tomato?’ Yup, I can do that.

“I’ve done graduation favors. I did a party for a kid who graduated and he’d studied forestry, so I came up with a cypress scent. And I made the labels the school colors.”

Yes, Red makes her own labels. She is of the mind that much of the cost of a candle in a shop or at a market has more to do with the fancy bells and whistles than the actual wax and wick.

“The packaging, the jar, the label – they have nothing to do with the thing you’re burning,” she said. “I hand-write the labels. I don’t want you spending money on a fancy box or ribbons. You just need the candles.

“I want someone to be able to buy three jars for each season and have it cost about 50 dollars. You shouldn’t feel guilty because you’re addicted to candles.”

Expensive shipping? Nah, she’ll deliver the candles, or you can pick them up at her house.

“If you’re not paying for shipping, you can buy more candles,” she said.

That’s why she can afford to sell her candles for $18 apiece.

“Remembrance, like a candle, burns brightest at Christmastime.”

Ah yes, the holiday season. It’s that time of year, no getting around it. People are looking for holiday scents. So while it’s not Red’s favorite, she’s pumping out Fraser Fir candles.

“As a candle-maker, I can’t like every scent,” she said. “I’ll be pouring Fraser Fir every day in December. But I really like the cooking scents — Lemon and Thyme. Blackberry Sage. Basil and Lime – that’s my favorite. I’m always pushing that one.

“I try to make scents no one else makes. Macintosh and Pumpkin are top sellers, but you can go to a lot of places and find a Macintosh or Pumpkin candle. But are you going to find Peach Cobbler?”

Red said you can order candles for Christmas up to December 22, but the holiday scents usually sell by December 8. She will ship candles if she must, but you have to have your holiday order in by December 5.

If you’d like to see – or smell – the candles in person, Red’s Apothecary candles are available in Dracut at Brox Farm, Farmer Dave’s, Kenwood Hardware and Lupine Designs, and during the holiday fair season, she’s at markets almost every weekend.

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

People often ask, but Red said she has no plans to open a brick-and-mortar store. She just wants to make candles at her home while also working – also mainly from home – her full-time job for MillerKnoll Brand Collective, a consortium of high-end furniture makers.

In keeping with her belief that anything other than the wax contributes to the high cost of candles, she feels like opening a storefront would simply add to the overhead and force her to raise the price of her candles.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a brick-and-mortar,” Red said.

Plus, it’s all candles for Red. Opening a store would mean she would likely have to offer other candle-related items and knickknacks, and she wants to concentrate all her efforts into the scents. (Well, almost all. She does also make wreaths out of pages from books, and she could be tempted to make one to order.)

And with Christmas coming, she’ll be up to her eyeballs in wax. Red estimates she pours between 750 and 1,000 candles per year for sale on her website, and another 1,500 to sell wholesale – half of those from September to December. (She also sells tins for $7.)

She still believes a simple candle can make the difference between a good day and a bad day, that your favorite scent can be a cure for what ails you.

That’s actually why she called her business Red’s Apothecary.

“I wanted a name that sounds like it could cure your candle addiction, like you might find at an apothecary,” she said.

As for the name “Red,” well, she’s not a big fan of Adrienne, and her grandfather started calling her Red when she was a redheaded kid growing up on Cape Cod, and the nickname stuck.

So Red’s Apothecary it is. Candles that will cure your candle deficiency without putting too much of a dent in your wallet. Just call your friendly local chandler.

As Red said, “I want to be the neighborhood candle-maker.”

Find out more at www.redsapothecary.org or email red@redsapothecary.org.