Alicia Reisinger on How Her Grandmother Inspired Her to Aim High

Hi, Guideposts. I’m Alicia Reisinger. I’m the owner and creative director of Wax Buffalo, a pure soy candle company here in Lincoln, Nebraska.

I think the origination of Wax Buffalo really came from time spent with my grandmother, here in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the Haymarket. I used to come and visit her on big summer vacations, and we would drink tea and we would smell candles, and we would talk about, “Oh, we should make candles.”

And so we started doing that. I did that when I was a kid. She was this tiny little redheaded feisty woman, and 100% a feminist before I think that that was even really a thought in America’s mind. And so she really taught me to embrace things well, and to try things that were hard, and to believe in myself.

She was a really faith-filled woman. She believed deeply in God. And she really also filled my heart with that.

Fast forward, quite a few years later—I had a couple of kids and my sweet Grandma Ferne, she passed away. In the wake of her death—we were super, super close, and I think I was looking for something just to kind of distract me and not think about it anymore. And I had also been doing a lot of research on natural products in my home.

I have a couple of allergy-ridden bulldogs, and I had kiddos. So as you know, you become a new mom, you start to read those things and think about those things. And I had done a lot of research on how candles were made with some really crummy stuff, specifically petroleum-based candles.

And so I started making them again, just kind of as a distraction, as a hobby, as something to kind of you keep my mind on something beautiful, and making really healthy, pure candles in our home. And that’s kind of where the inspiration started. I really think Grandma inspired me to look inside myself, find something whimsical and fun, and kind of pour myself into something beautiful in my sadness.

So our candles are all hand-poured, truly hand-poured in studio. Our hands touch every single part of the candle, from the wick that’s smooshed in there, to the wax that’s poured in, to the oils that are mixed within that creamy mixture. So definitely that kind of midwest America grit, where we make our own things and we feel really proud about it.

And all of our oils are either essential oil blends or phthalate-free fragrance oils. So we source the finest oil to make sure that the candles are safe and you can feel confident burning nine or 10 of them at once, like I do in my home. And breathe easy knowing that we created something that we really stand behind.

Wax Buffalo was started here actually in my kitchen on my stove. It started with very small means. The very first time I ever sold candles I bought a very small box of 12, poured 12 candles, used that money and bought 24. And it kind of grew from there.

But I do think the origin for Wax Buffalo and why it’s significant to me, sitting in my kitchen and talking about it, is that I really was able to start Wax Buffalo with my family surrounding me. So my kids would help me with jars and sticker the bottoms. And when we were packaging up, they’d be drawing on the boxes that were going out to our customers.

And it really was kind of a family ordeal. And it allowed me to do some sort of work that made me feel significant and fed, yet to also be around my family as much as I wanted to be. And I think that that was something that was really significant and beautiful at the beginning of Wax Buffalo.

And now, we’re about four years old. So we’ve grown. We have a little studio. But my kids still come to the studio with me. I just think that it’s a really neat thing to be able to incorporate your family into the work that you do, and teach them beautiful aspects of what it looks like to work hard, but to also be together at the same time.