What is it: Island Sham Farmhouse (ISFH) is a home and family-inspired candle experience. With a natural and holistic approach, ISFH offers a wide range of products and services from candles and diffusers to drop-in candle-making and private events. This welcoming and wholesome business opened its doors in 2021 in Port Clinton, and recently relocated to downtown Sandusky in November 2023.
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Island Sham Farmhouse offers more than 120 scents, including Blossom Shoppe. (Courtesy of Julia Nickell)Like many of us during 2020, ISFH owner and chandler Julia Nickell, began spending more time at home. Therefore, as an avid candle lover, she found herself using more candles. Out of curiosity, Nickell began to research the current candle industry and uncovered the harmful potential side effects of toxic ingredients in traditional candles. Based on these new discoveries and the need to find light during dark times, Nickell began making her own candles with natural ingredients. With the support of her family and friends, farmers markets, and her passion for natural products, Nickell’s newfound hobby quickly became
Island Sham Farmhouse.
Safe Products For All: From candles and wax melts to diffusers, room sprays, and everything in between, ISFH offers almost any scent product to make your home and car smell inviting and refreshing. Each product is handmade with American-made and locally sourced ingredients that are all phthalate, paraffin, and lead-free, making ISFH products safe for humans and animals alike. They also offer products from various local vendors who value the same natural, holistic approach to ingredients.
Fostering Personal Connection: In a world where many of us are digitally connected, it is also ISFH’s mission to bring the community together in person. On most days, they offer drop-in candle-making for those looking for a unique in-person experience. According to Nickell, “If the sign is on, you can come in and make a candle with us.”
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Nickell leads a candle-making event. (Photo/Courtesy of Julia Nickell)In addition to drop-ins and stocked inventory, ISFH offers monthly subscription boxes and candle-making events. Personalized subscription boxes are great gifts for yourself and others to spread love and joy through scent. Candle-making events are hosted periodically at Island Sham Farmhouse for the public, although people can have their own private events off-site as well.
“I am big on community and brother and sisterhood and connection,” Nickell says. “Another thing I got out of 2020 is the need to connect, how important it is for us to feel wanted and loved, and the need to show that in return.”
A Scent To Inspire: With more than 120 scents to choose from, Nickell strives to bring a personal touch to the scents she creates. For example, a lavender scent called “Sleep Sweet” is named after what Nickell’s grandmother used to say to her when going to bed at night, and now, she says “sleep sweet” to her own daughter during bedtime. This is just one example of the love and care that goes into creating and developing the copious scent options ISFH has to offer.
Learn More: This is just the beginning of everything Island Sham Farmhouse has to offer and bring to the Sandusky community. You can learn more about products, events, subscriptions, and scents on their
website, and by following their
Facebook and other social media pages.
“I can't even put into words how welcoming the community has been, not even just my retail shoppers but the fellow business owners, my landlord, and everyone,” Nickell says, “We have such a great support system and we are finally in a quality building that supports our quality of candles.”