Writing

Why people choose CandleScience:

We are the most reliable, helpful, and fun place to learn how to make fragranced products and grow a business. Creating enjoyable experiences is what makes us distinct and memorable.


We make learning how to craft with fragrance simple, fulfilling, and inspiring by providing easily accessible and easy-to-follow guides, resources, tools, and supplies. We remove barriers that prevent individuals from learning the craft or starting a business.


We foster an inclusive community where creators of all skill levels can connect, collaborate, and celebrate their achievements. We provide expertise and support that enables them to succeed. No one else matches the value we offer.


Our diverse team of experts continuously seeks to enhance the experience by developing new and improved products, resources, and tools that empower individuals to create confidently and build successful businesses.

Simple principles and rules to follow for effective communication:

Focus on the Audience

Always prioritize the reader or customer and their needs and interests. Select messaging that aligns with their tone. Keep in mind we don’t brag just for the sake of bragging.

Be Clear and Concise

We don’t want readers to get lost in too much content. Make sure all words are important and necessary. Keep paragraphs short and allow readers to easily and quickly find the information they need

Influence Action

Identify the desired thoughts, actions, or feelings of the reader, and create a clear call to action. When clarity is crucial, emphasize the importance of an action rather than simply outlining the tasks involved.

Acknowledge Success

We celebrate successes big and small in meaningful, tasteful ways to help customers feel competent and accomplished.

Connect and Empathize

We focus on building trust without judgment. We inspire action by encouraging and educating others and providing solutions through social proof, data, storytelling, and relatable metaphors

Our voice is friendly, clear, inspiring, knowledgeable & empathetic for any audience.

Voice is how we say our message. Our voice is anchored in a human-centric approach. We communicate as if conversing with a close friend, creating a sense of warmth and familiarity. Our communication is always positive, highlighting benefits, giving guidance, and providing clear direction to help our audience achieve their goals.

Friendly

Be welcoming, exciting, and inspiring our customers with natural, conversational language. To do that, use an energetic, engaging tone. When it feels natural, we sprinkle in a bit of charm or use a metaphor to simplify complex ideas. We showcase aspirational identities and help guide them on their journey. The maker is the hero!

Additional attributes: Conversational, warm, cheerful

Clear

Our words should be clear, concise, and useful. Provide simple explanations focusing on the benefits to help build trust in every interaction. Allow our expertise, positivity, and confidence to shine through without coming across as bragging. It’s important to ensure that every word we choose is necessary and impactful.

Additional attributes: Confident, trustworthy, concise

Inspiring

We empower everyone to harness the power of fragrance to achieve their goals, whatever they may be. Our passion instills belief in our audience, inspiring them to do the same. We joyfully celebrate their achievements, fostering a sense of competence and fulfillment within our audience and community.


Additional attributes: Empower, positive, helpful

Empathetic

Our primary focus is our customers and their needs. We empathize with their challenges and see them as innovative entrepreneurs. We never belittle or judge them. We build trust and encourage action by providing support, guidance, and practical solutions backed by social proof, clear data, and engaging storytelling.

Additional attributes: Relatable, compassionate, memorable

Language Tips

Do not use exclusionary terms, cultural appropriation, ableist or misgendering language, or anything that could be interpreted as offensive or a slur. This includes references to pop culture, slang, abbreviations, or anything else that might resonate with only a few people but not most.

• Use the active voice. (avoid passive voice)
• Use positive language. (avoid negative language)
• Use plain English. (avoid jargon and complexity)

While our voice is consistent across platforms, we shift our tone to match our audience’s emotional state, ensuring that every interaction is tailored to their needs. Consider what our audience needs to achieve and address them with clarity.

Tone Variations

• Informative: (tailored to benefits) for product descriptions, guides, instructions… Use metaphors, similes, and figurative language to help readers “experience” a scent, a scene, etc.
• Engaging: (empowering, inspiring) for storytelling, brand messaging, articles, product launches
• Supportive: (empathetic, proactive, transparent, helpful) for customer service, FAQs

Simple Rules

• Be clear
• Make it memorable
• Be approachable
• Respect all
• Empower

Headings and subheadlines help organize content for readers. Use headlines (H1) for page and article titles. Subheadlines (H2) break pages and articles into specific sections, allowing readers to digest and scan content easily.

Nominative Headlines

Headlines that identify a topic without a verb use title case. These are nouns or noun phrases. Examples:

• Candle Wick Guide
• Soy Wax Troubleshooting Guide
• Candle Jars: Traditional and Modern
• Candle Making Supplies for Beginners and Businesses

Sentence Headlines

Headlines that have a verb use sentence case. This is our preferred headline structure, especially for articles, guides, and inspirational content. There are a number of types, such as how to, command, etc. Examples:

• How to make a soy candle
• Should your business be a sole proprietorship or LLC?

Headline Style

• Front-load the most meaningful words (avoid leading with prepositions or contextual phrases)
• Be clear and specific
• Keep it concise. (aim for 4-9 words)
• Avoid repetitive exaggeration (multiple exclamation points or hyperbolic words in succession)
• Use title case for nominative headlines
• Use sentence case for sentence headlines

Remember to keep things conversational and structure sentences in how people speak naturally. It’s fine to end sentences with prepositions most of the time, but be careful not to be too informal. If you’d never say it in conversation, then don’t write it that way.

Sentences:

• Efficient: Keep sentences relatively short (10-15 words) for easy reading.
• Precise: Use precise language and avoid filler words or redundancies.
• Feeling: Evoke the senses or emotions when relevant.
• Active: When providing guidance, start the sentence with an imperative verb so that it is clear what the reader is being instructed to do.
• Direct: Don’t use permissive language like “you can.”

Use clear and focused paragraph structures to maintain logical flow and keep content concise, scannable, and engaging. Images, graphics, and lists can support paragraphs and help convey complex topics and themes clearly.

• Efficient: Limit paragraphs to 3-5 sentences for optimal reader engagement.
• Grouped: Avoid multiple paragraphs that contain only one sentence or phrase. If you see this pattern emerging, consider consolidating multiple lines into a single paragraph or grouping these lines into a list.
• Natural: Craft clear transitions from section to section that follow natural speech patterns to orient the reader.

Use bulleted or numbered lists to enhance the clarity and impact of key points or important details. List, organize, and structure ideas, allowing the reader to digest and skim content easily. When using lists, it’s important to provide a brief introduction to give context. If the order of the list is important, use numbers, such as when describing steps in a process. If the order doesn’t matter, then use bullets. These rules may not apply to instructional articles.

• Label: For introductory sentences leading into a list, end with a colon
• Concise: Each bullet should be a single concise sentence or phrase
• Punctuation: If a list item is a complete sentence, use proper punctuation and capitalization for complete sentences
• Capitalize: Capitalize the first word of each item without using punctuation.
• Clear: Use clear, straightforward language without extraneous words
• Itemized: Break up complex points into multiple bullets for easier scanning

Buttons should be clear, concise, and predictable.

• Lead with a strong verb to encourage the desired action and use sentence case.
• Clarify the action of a button (e.g. is it a link or a submission?).
• Limit complex phrases like articles, prepositions, and adverbs (e.g. the, of, now) to one per button.
• Lowercase We’re updating button styles to be lowercase across digital platforms

Examples:

• add to cart
• shop now
• get shipping quote
• add collection to cart (rather than “save on the collection now”)

Descriptive Links

We use links to direct users to relevant content and trusted external resources. Like headings, distinguishing links from other text on a page makes content easier to skim. Link text needs to be descriptive and make sense on its own. Write the sentence as you normally would, and link relevant keywords. If a link comes at the end of a sentence or before a comma, don’t link the punctuation mark.

Inline Links

Links within sentences should not include a preceding article (a, an, the, our). Example:

• YES: View the wick guide for a wick suggestion.
• NO: View the wick guide for a wick suggestion.

Standalone Links

Standalone links should generally use a verb + noun format and avoid punctuation. (unless the link is a question)

• YES: Forgot password?
• NO: Forgot Password.

Learn More Links

Only include a “Learn more…” sentence if the copy addresses more than one concept or resource that could be linked to their dedicated page. Select the most appropriate link in that situation and contextualize it with “Learn more…”.

• YES: Essential oils are a common aroma compound used in fragrance oils but are not always used. Learn more about the use of essential oils.
• NO: Essential oils are a common aroma compound used in fragrance oils but are not always used.

Alternative Text

Please remember the following guidelines for using alt tags with images:

• Required: The alt tag is the most basic form of image description and should be included in all images.
• Purpose: The text used will depend on the purpose of the image.
• Caption: If it’s a creative photo or supports a product, guide, or article, describe the image in detail in a brief caption.
• Describe: If the image serves a specific function, describe what’s inside it in detail so that people who can’t see it can gain the same information.
• Data: If you’re sharing a chart or graph, include the data in the alt text so people have all the important information.

It’s important to note that each browser handles alt tags differently, so it’s a good idea to supplement images with standard captions when possible.

Checkboxes

Use sentence case for checkboxes.

Dropdown Menus

Use title case for menu names and a sentence case for menu items.

Forms

Use sentence case to label fields. Use title case for form titles and sentence case for form films.

Navigation

Use title case for main or global navigation and sentence case for sub-navigation. Navigation links should be clear and concise.

The CandleScience Brand Name

• Always capitalize the first “C” and the “S” in CandleScience.
• Refer to CandleScience as “we,” not “it.”

Text alignment

• Left-align texts longer than 3 lines. Left-aligned text is easier and quicker for the human eye to read. Using left-aligned copy also makes things look more polished and aesthetically pleasing.
• Center-align headlines and buttons only within layouts that are centered. When reading center-aligned content, our eyes must scan both sides of the text. This takes us longer than reading left-aligned text since we have to find where the next line begins.

Bold

• Use bold text sparingly. It can call attention to something important, but if overused, it can have the opposite effect, making content look chaotic and cluttered. Don’t use bold copy as a substitute for subheadings (like h2 and h3). Lastly, Use only one type of treatment at a time (color, bold, indentation).

Italics

• Use italics for citations or to define an important term. Avoid italics in copy for emphasis; instead, use bold if needed.

Ampersand

The best way to write “and” depends on context.

• Body copy: The full word “and” should always be written in full throughout the body copy.
• Joining: An ampersand can be used when joining two words or names into a single defined asset, proper noun, or other entity, like ‘Terms & Conditions.’
• Aesthetics: In headlines, ampersands can be used sparingly to balance line lengths or conserve space. Do not use a comma before an ampersand.

Use this simple framework to create clear and effective copy or messaging.

Step 1 - Begin with an outline

• Purpose - Why does this exist? Is it intended for promotional, educational, or other use?
• Audience - Determine the audience you are addressing to align your message with their needs and tone.
• Goal - Clarify what you want the reader to think, feel, or do as a result of your message.
• Criteria - Outline any specific needs or requirements that will be used to assess the final product. This should include applicable brand criteria.

By outlining messaging and content with the items above, you ensure the message is created with the audience and reader in mind and aligns with our brand positioning. This can also work as the core elements of a creative brief.

Step 2 - Draft the message

Expand the initial outline into a fully formed message, ensuring it aligns with our brand positioning and persona. Check that the copy fulfills its intended purpose, whether promotional, educational, or inspirational.

Step 2 - Review and revise

After drafting the copy, please review it to ensure it aligns with our messaging themes and positioning. Ensure the message supports our brand ambition, articulates the purpose, differentiates us from competitors, and upholds our values and personality.

Universal Headlines

• Start your creative adventure
• Let your imagination play
• Pour more joy // Modification example: Pour more joy into your craft. Pour more joy into your candles. Pour more joy into your business.
• For the makers who illuminate our world
• Tell your story // Modification example: Find your spark, tell your story. Tell your story, find your spark.
• Empowering the art of air and personal care
• Making made fun
• Igniting Creativity, Crafting Success

Fragrance Headlines

• Craft confidently with CleanScents
• Phenomenal Fragrances for Modern Makers
• Tested Fragrances for Every Craft
• Higher Standards. Better Scents.
• Transform your world through the joy of fragrance and crafting
• Cleaner fragrances for mindful makers
• Better fragrances for mindful making
• Good, Clean Fragrances
• Delivering mindful fragrances and inspiration for your creative pursuits

Business Headlines

• Expert guidance for every step of your business/making journey
• Here for you every step of your journey
• Guiding you from your first pour to business success
• Supporting small businesses with big dreams
• Supporting small businesses making a big impact
• Expert advice to fuel your success
• Made for makers // Modification examples: Business advice, made for makers. Candlemaking advice, made for makers. Product inspiration, made for makers.

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