This boy’s on fire
Penn Chemists candles burn with memories of a vision quest
Lawrence Scott went on vision quest of sorts in 2013 after he closed Pittsburgh Jeans Co. and his plus size jeans operation.
“It was supposed to be a short trip to Woodstock, N.Y. to visit a friend and I just kept going,” he recalled.
There was nothing but a map on the front seat of his non-air conditioned red truck and he followed one rule: No highways. He slept in the Airstream camper he was towing and describes the experience as a kind of baptism.
“I went through some tough times with the closing of Pittsburgh Jeans and I needed this trip,” he confessed.
The high price of gas brought him home, but he also came back with an idea. His eightmonth odyssey around the country resulted in Penn Chemists (www.pennchemists.com), a luxury, handmade candle company dedicated to interesting, androgynous scents.
“I will never ever do a fragrance that smells like a food,” he insisted. “I am more into unusual fragrances.”
After driving 17,000 miles with his windows rolled down, Mr. Scott concluded, “Every state smells different.”
“Your olfactory system remembers. So when you smell something it can bring you back to the moment you first smelled it.”
Some of the scents of his candles include Cut & Shave, Carolina Standard, Montauk Standard and Plantation Standard.
The name of his business came from a
bottle he purchased at a flea market somewhere out west.
“I was just scouting around and came across this old medicine bottle that said Pittsburgh Chemist and I held onto it,” he said.
When he returned to Pittsburgh, he started to research the bottle and discovered the Winston brothers, Pittsburgh chemists in the age of snake oil salesmen and quacks.
“They basically put together the ingredients for this quack medicine that claimed to cure everything.” The brothers founded Penn Chemists in 1898, selling “aromatic remedies,” elixirs and tonics.
“It was short-lived because the Pure Food and Drug Act pretty much wiped all those guys off the face of the map in 1906,” Mr. Scott said.
While the products were suspect, he liked the apothecary aesthetic and revived the name for his candles. He also developed packaging with that old-fashioned look.
His product will be sold at just a few spots in Western Pennsylvania, including the Omni Bedford Springs Resort. Hot, Haute, Hot, the furniture and accessories store at 2124 Penn Ave. in the Strip District, is the flagship store for Penn Chemists products. Hot, Haute, Hot has been owned and operated for 18 years by Keneva Kennedy and Rose Smith.
“Rose and I have been on the hunt for a new candle line for a few years,” said Ms. Kennedy. “Both of us value all of the local talent in Pittsburgh and try to support anyone that feels like our brand. We wanted so much to find a small-batch, handpoured candle with complex scents and beautiful packaging. We have searched and searched.”
Penn Chemist was the perfect fit for their shop. “I love to have something in the shop that has a soulful story,” she said.
Mr. Scott will be at Hot, Haute, Hot on Nov. 25 for Small Business Saturday at 2 p.m. to meet customers and discuss his candles. Information: ( 412) 338- 2323 or www.pennchemists.com.