If their shop smells like Travis Kelce at Christmas, these candle chemists called the right play

When the owners of Decori home and gift shop at the Village at Briarcliff suited up to create a Travis Kelce candle scent, they turned to their virtual assistant to help make the call.

Candles from the Cefalù line at Decori; photo by Joyce Smith

Alexa suggested a play on the “audacious, confident and powerful” scents of Creed Aventus.

Three formulations later, partners Ralph Liebetrau and Jim Scarpino had the fragrance for TK87 — now one of the most popular scents from their own line of luxury candles, Cefalù, crafted in house by the two Kansas City artisans and retailers.

Click here to check out “Kelce’s biggest fan,” hand-sculpted holiday creation by Jim Scarpino.

The duo started selling the candles a few months ago at Decori, 4169 N. Mulberry Drive, and they’ve recently been “selling like crazy” at Charmed House in the West Bottoms, Scarpino said.

Along with TK87, popular scents include Luxe Hotel, Decori One, and Leather Amberwood (a tweak on Tom Ford’s Fucking Fabulous fragrance).

Cefalù retails for $29 for an 8-ounce candle, $9 for five ounces of wax melt, and $189 for the Cefalù diffuser (comes with 4-ounces of oil).

Click here to follow Decori on Instagram.

Decori, 4169 N. Mulberry Drive, at the Village at Briarcliff; photo by Joyce Smith

Idea passes the burn test

Decori has carried candles from Kansas City-based Trapp for its two decades in operation, adding Tyler candles from Tyler, Texas, four years ago.

Still, Liebetrau and Scarpino dreamed of offering candles unique to their store. In January 2022, they began work on the candle line that eventually would become Cefalù.

A friend who had worked at Trapp introduced them to an international fragrance company based in New Jersey. That company sent them a handful of designer fragrance oils and they began tweaking the scents, making sure they had a “good cold and hot throw.” 

“The cold throw is what you smell when you open the jar. The hot throw is what you smell when it is burning,” Liebetrau said. “Then working with different waxes. Not every wick works with every wax. Not every fragrance oil works with every wax. It has to be the right combination of fragrance oil, the wax and the wick.”

They researched wax companies and wick companies, ordered the supplies and set up a candle manufacturing operation in the kitchen of their Northland home.

Each fragrance also needed a “burn test” to make sure it would burn properly all the way to the end of the candle. Creative Printing Co. in Merriam designed the packaging.

Candles from the Cefalù line at Decori; photo by Joyce Smith

Blooming new scents

Liebetrau and Scarpino call their line Cefalù, after the city in northern Sicily from which Scarpino’s family traces its roots.

Cefalù now boasts more than 25 fragrances, including “Tracey Topiary” named for Liebetrau and Scarpino’s first fragrance oil sales representative.

It’s the scent you might get walking into a floral shop cooler, “all those different fragrances of flowers,” Scarpino said.

The duo now manufactures the candles both in their home and store, but they plan to soon move all production to the store.

Other specialty shops in Kansas City and beyond are asking to carry the line, they said, noting they’re considering wholesaling opportunities after the holiday season.

Until then, they’re working to develop new lavender, currant, and fig scented candles to add to Cefalù’s roster.

Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follower on X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.