Our Story: Why We Created Wellness by Ari
Welcome to Wellness by Ari: Our Story & Why We Choose a More Natural Way
Hello there — I’m Dasha, founder of Wellness by Ari.
We’re based in North Carolina, where we handcraft small-batch products for the home, body, and family using simple, intentional ingredients rooted in nature.
But Wellness by Ari didn’t begin as a plan to create a product line.
It began in our home, with our family, and one candle.
Where Our Story Began
In early 2018, we received a candle as a gift.
Like most people, we lit it without giving much thought to what was actually in it. But after burning the candle in our home, we noticed something that immediately concerned us: black residue in our children’s noses.
That experience made us start asking questions we’d never really thought about before.
What exactly are we burning inside our home?
What is candle wax made from?
What creates the fragrance?
And are there simpler alternatives?
We began researching candle waxes, ingredients, wicks, and fragrances, looking for an option we would feel better about burning around our own family.
That search eventually led us to pure beeswax.
And what began as an attempt to create a better candle for our own home became the beginning of Wellness by Ari.
From One Candle to Something Much Bigger
Our first products were 100% pure beeswax candles.
But once we started paying closer attention to the ingredients in one everyday product, we naturally began looking at others.
Soap.
Skincare.
Bath products.
Outdoor products.
The more labels we read, the more we found ourselves asking the same question:
Could this be made differently?
Our mission began to take shape:
Create products for our family that we could feel completely good about using — and then share them with yours.
That principle still guides Wellness by Ari today.
Returning to Ingredients That Have Been Used for Generations
As our collection grew, we found ourselves continually drawn toward ingredients that weren’t necessarily new.
In many cases, they were incredibly old.
Grass-fed tallow. Raw beeswax. Goat milk. Mineral-rich salts. Botanicals. Pure essential oils.
These are ingredients people have used for generations.
We believe there’s tremendous value in revisiting that traditional knowledge while combining it with thoughtful modern formulation.
We don’t choose an ingredient simply because it sounds natural or because it’s currently popular.
We want it to have a purpose.
Why Simple Ingredients Matter to Us
Modern products can be incredibly complicated.
We wanted Wellness by Ari to move in the opposite direction.
Our goal is to formulate with intentional ingredients and avoid unnecessary fillers, overpowering synthetic fragrances, and materials that don’t align with the products we want in our own home.
That doesn’t mean we believe “natural” automatically means better in every circumstance.
Natural ingredients still need to be understood and formulated appropriately.
Our philosophy is simply to ask:
What is this ingredient?
Why are we using it?
What purpose does it serve?
And when a simpler, nature-derived ingredient can accomplish what we’re looking for, that’s usually where you’ll find us.
Our Candles: Where It All Started
Candles will always hold a special place at Wellness by Ari because they’re where our story began.
We use 100% pure American beeswax as the foundation of our candles.
Beeswax has a naturally subtle honeyed character, a beautiful warm glow, and excellent candle-making properties, including a relatively high melting point.
We then pair our beeswax with carefully selected pure essential oils to develop our botanical scents rather than relying on synthetic fragrance oils.
And because essential-oil quality matters to us, we seek oils backed by GC/MS analysis whenever available to help evaluate their identity and chemical composition.
Our goal isn’t to create the strongest-smelling candle possible.
It’s to create the kind of candle we wanted for our own home in the first place.
Our American Beeswax
We’re also very particular about where our beeswax comes from.
Our beeswax is sourced only from beekeepers within the United States.
Depending on the season, region, flowers visited by the bees, and degree of filtration, natural beeswax can vary in color.
One batch may be creamy and pale.
Another may have a richer golden hue.
We love those differences.
Natural variation isn’t something we believe needs to be hidden or artificially corrected. It’s part of what makes working with a material created by honeybees so special.
Every batch carries a little evidence of where it came from.
Our Wicks
Even something as seemingly simple as a candle wick deserves consideration.
We use hemp + wooden wicks, selected to complement our beeswax candle formulations while aligning with our preference for thoughtfully sourced materials.
Wax, wick, vessel, essential-oil blend, and candle diameter all affect how a finished candle performs.
That’s why candle making is much more than simply melting wax and adding scent.
It’s a craft we’ve continued refining since 2018.
Beyond Candles
Wellness by Ari has grown considerably since those first beeswax candles.
Today, our collection includes handcrafted products for the body, home, and family, including:
- 100% Pure Beeswax Candles
- Goat Milk Soaps
- Grass-Fed Tallow Skincare
- Bath Salts & Bath Soaks
- Shower Steamers
- Outdoor Insect Repellent
- Other thoughtfully formulated wellness essentials for everyday living
Different products require different ingredients and different approaches.
But the philosophy behind them remains the same.
Purity. Function. Quality. Intention.
From Grass-Fed Tallow to Goat Milk
Some of our favorite ingredients are ones that modern manufacturing largely pushed aside.
Grass-fed tallow is a beautiful example.
Tallow has been used traditionally for generations and contains naturally occurring fatty acids that make it an exceptionally rich emollient for skincare.
Goat milk is another.
Its creamy character makes it a beautiful ingredient for the handcrafted soaps we create for everyday use.
Then there are mineral-rich salts, botanical oils, herbs, plant extracts, essential oils, and other traditional materials that allow us to create products without losing the connection to nature that inspired this business in the first place.
What We Choose to Leave Out Matters Too
Our philosophy isn’t only about what goes into a Wellness by Ari product.
It’s also about what doesn’t.
We say no to unnecessary fillers, overpowering synthetic fragrances, and ingredients that don’t align with our standards or serve a meaningful purpose in the formulation.
We believe products can feel luxurious without becoming unnecessarily complicated.
For us, luxury isn’t about having the longest ingredient list.
It’s about the quality of what’s actually in it.
Small-Batch by Choice
Everything we create is rooted in small-batch craftsmanship.
There’s a reason for that.
Working in smaller batches allows us to stay connected to our products.
We can evaluate them.
Test them.
Refine them.
Adjust when necessary.
And continually look for ways to make them better.
We’re not interested in producing something simply because that’s how it’s always been done commercially.
We’re interested in understanding why it’s being done.
Wellness Is Found in the Everyday
Wellness doesn’t have to mean completely changing your life overnight.
Often, it’s found in the small choices we make every day.
The candle burning while your family gathers in the evening.
The soap beside your sink.
The bath you take at the end of a long day.
The balm you put on dry skin.
The products you use outside with your family.
These ordinary rituals happen over and over again.
We believe the ingredients behind them deserve consideration.
Honoring Traditional Wisdom
One of the principles at the heart of Wellness by Ari is our respect for ancestral ingredients and traditional craftsmanship.
Previous generations knew how to make remarkable things from relatively simple materials.
Beeswax.
Animal fats.
Milk.
Salt.
Herbs.
Plants.
Oils.
We’re interested in preserving some of that wisdom—not by ignoring what we’ve learned through modern science and formulation, but by bringing the two together.
Traditional ingredients. Modern understanding. Thoughtful craftsmanship.
That’s where Wellness by Ari lives.
Welcome to The Wellness Journal
We created The Wellness Journal because we want to share more than finished products.
We want to share the why behind them.
Here, we’ll explore the ingredients we use, the ingredients we avoid, traditional wellness practices, formulation decisions, essential oils, beeswax, tallow, goat milk, botanicals, and the research behind the choices we make.
We’ll also be transparent when something commonly repeated in the natural-wellness world isn’t as simple as it sounds.
We’re continually learning.
And we think our customers deserve to learn alongside us.
From Our Family to Yours
Wellness by Ari began because we wanted something different for our own family.
More than eight years later, that same principle remains at the center of everything we make.
If we’re going to bring it into our home, burn it around our family, or put it on our skin, we want to understand what’s in it.
That’s the standard that started this journey.
And it’s the standard we’ll continue working toward as Wellness by Ari grows.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for choosing small-batch craftsmanship.
Thank you for caring about what’s inside the products you use.
And thank you for allowing something that began in our family home to become a small part of yours.
Welcome to Wellness by Ari.
Rooted in nature. Inspired by tradition. Handcrafted with intention.