Christina Hermes Atelier was founded in 2019 in a converted print shop in East Oakland. Six years later we still pour every candle here, in batches small enough to sign.
In the winter of 2018, Tariq Lloyd was recovering from pneumonia in a small apartment on 76th Avenue with no working heater and a very generous downstairs neighbor named Christina Hermes, who kept bringing up jars of soup and a candle she had made in her kitchen. The candle smelled like an orchard in October, and it kept the room from feeling like a hospital.
When Tariq was well again, he asked Christina to teach him. She refused, quite politely, and then spent three afternoons showing him anyway. She passed away in the summer of 2019. The atelier opened that November and carries her name because it was hers first.
Tariq is originally from Baltimore and studied literature at Howard before moving west in 2015. He worked as a bookseller, a barista, and briefly as an assistant to a perfumer in Grasse. He writes every fragrance in the collection, mostly at a small oak desk near the window, mostly first thing in the morning.
He is often at the studio in person — if you visit on a Thursday or Saturday, he is probably the one at the pouring table.
Reach him directly: admin@christinahermes.com
Fifteen scents, not fifty. Two new releases a year, not twelve. A shorter list is easier to make well and easier to love.
If we cannot name the farm, the mill, or the maker, we do not buy it. We publish our supplier list once a year.
You will keep the vessel long after the wax is gone. We design them to earn a shelf.
Ninety percent of our raw materials travel less than 300 miles to reach us.
Bring your empty jar back — we will refill it for less than a new one costs.
Every batch is logged in a paper ledger. If a pour ever behaves oddly, we can trace it to the day it was made.
