AMERICA STILL MELTS OVER SIGHT AND SCENT OF CANDLES.

Byline: Liz Stevens Fort Worth Star-Telegram 

Baseball. Apple pie. Vanilla-scented votives.

The candle, to its dismay, now ranks as an American pastime.

For thousands of years, humankind tamed the darkness with candlelight. Candles were our first utility, essential to the progress of the species, a household necessity on par with bread and water.

Today, coincidentally, the candle remains ``an absolute must'' - although that's because it's hip, happenin' and the height of sophistication to melt wax. The candle, once exalted as a tool of survival, has fallen victim to the Martha Stewart-ization of culture: It has become a decorating gizmo.

This is no minor obsession. In 1997, We the People spent just less than $2 billion on 4 billion candles. Everyone from Wal-Mart to Donna Karan has gotten into the wick biz. The industry has grown 25 percent annually over the past few years, and no one sees our pillar passion tapering off.

Where will it lead? Are we becoming a nation of cinnamon-apple and pumpkin-spice addicts? Will we soon require 12-step programs to wean us from our fetish with flickering light and faux-fir scents?

It's possible.

Blame it on ``nesting,'' say those in the candle industry, the trend that has us spending more time in the comfort and safety of our homes. Candles, an affordable luxury, allow us to create a peaceful inner sanctum, so unlike the hostile environment outside.

``In today's world, so many of us work under bright lights,'' notes B.J. Lacasse, owner of Wicky Wicks in Fort Worth. Even Lacasse, a candle fanatic, labors under oppressive fluorescent bulbs during the workweek. ``When we come home, we want to find our homes more of a sanctuary,'' she says. Candlelight throws a romantic glow over the grimiest rooms in the house, takes 10 years off anyone's kisser, and, if scented, masks the most obnoxious odors.

Lacasse recently heard a 6-year-old girl ask Santa Claus for a candle. ``We all search for an inner peace,'' she says, ``whether we do it consciously or unconsciously.'' In Lacasse's opinion, candles help guide us in our quest.

Bathed in fragrance

Olfactory overload is the best way to describe Diane Bell's shop. Entire blocks bathe in the fragrance of her Fort Worth candle factories. After years of enduring scented candles that barely radiated a whiff of fragrance, Bell decided to make her own. ``I wanted it so that when you lit it, you could smell it all over your house,'' she says.

Nine years later, she distributes ``millions and millions'' of candles annually to stores across the country, all of them hand-poured by Bell's staff of 19. Dee Jay's candles, encompassing 157 scents, have assumed cult status with customers as far away as Virginia.

``You get people addicted to them,'' Bell says. ``I am not exaggerating. They are addicts. You get used to your home smelling like that.''

Take, for instance, the old woman who traveled daily to Dee Jay's for votives scented like the Estee Lauder perfume Knowing. ``She didn't look like she could afford it,'' Bell recalls. ``You just knew that she was probably using the kids' lunch money or something.''

One day, a relative of the woman appeared at the store with ``sacks and sacks of these candles - hundreds,'' Bells says. For years, apparently, the woman had hoarded her favorite scent, in lieu of paying her bills, in case Dee Jay's were to go belly up.

Bell theorizes that people buy more candles these days because ``they're getting something out of them,'' maybe a fragrance reminiscent of Grandma's house, or winter in Colorado or a springtime garden.

The growing popularity of aromatherapy hasn't hurt the business either, though Bell scoffs at the idea that scents can cure. ``I don't believe that there's any candle on the face of the earth that's going to heal your arthritis,'' she says. ``But there's tons of people who do. And that's fine. Buy 'em.''

Candles in cars

Decorative candles are unavoidable: Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, Eckerd - even Donna Karan sells designer candles that run a cool $58.

Pier 1 will double the number of scents it offers from four to eight this year, and company candle buyer Yvonne Rubenstein says the trend has yet to peak (Rubenstein is already buying for the 1998 holiday season). Consumers are nabbing pillar candles (tall, wide and usually cylindrical) at an increasing rate, she says, and people are lighting candles in bunches all over their homes, not just one here or there. Crowley, Texas, resident Janie Bailey and her daughter, Molly, even use them in their cars. ``In the beverage holder,'' Janie explains while perusing the shelves at Dee Jay's. ``But you've got to be careful.''

Pier 1 also sells the mother of all candles: a 6-inch-wide, 6-inch-tall, three-wick pillar that's flying out the door despite its heft.

At Wicky Wicks, Trapp brand's orange-vanilla, or ``Inspiration,'' candle and Yankee's hazelnut coffee draw the most fans. But every candle enthusiast has a different sense of smell or aesthetic preference.

And candle companies guard their formulas as if they were State secrets. Yankee Candle allows only its retailers to view its East Coast plant, and before the tour, Lacasse had to sign an agreement swearing she would keep silent about what she saw.

At Dee Jay's, not even Bell's factory workers, the ones who mix and pour her candles, know the ingredients that make up each scent. ``They couldn't tell you if they had to,'' she says proudly.

Not too many people care what goes into Yankee's or Dee Jay's candles. They just want to have them.

``Candles are so much more relaxing'' than ordinary illumination, Lacasse says. ``They make you see things in a different light.''

Get a handle on candles

Wax facts:

Americans bought 4 billion candles in 1997.

Women buy 96 percent of candles sold.

The holiday season accounts for 35 percent of yearly sales.

The Romans are credited with inventing the wick candle, made from animal fat.

Beeswax candles, first used in the Middle Ages, burn cleaner than tallow, and initially only the wealthy could afford them.

Candles that have been refrigerated burn more slowly and evenly. Wrap them in plastic first so their wicks do not absorb moisture.

Store candles in cool, dry places and lay them flat to prevent warping.

Place burning candles at least 3 inches apart so they do not melt one another.

When burning a pillar for the first time, allow the candle to burn long enough for a pool of wax to extend to the pillar's edges. It will burn more evenly each lighting thereafter.

Burn votive candles in tight holders that prevent the candles from spreading. They will last longer and smell stronger this way.

Blow out a candle by holding your finger in front of the flame and blowing at your finger. The air will extinguish the flame from both sides, preventing hot wax from splattering.

Never leave a burning candle unattended.

Sources: National Candle Association and B.J. Lacasse, owner of Wicky Wicks.

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