Amanda Collier works hard in her Yorktown basement creating sweet smells and seasonal scents for her shop "Collier’s Candle Co."

"I tell people it's a lot like baking," she said. "A lot of my new scents that I bring in are based on customer feedback and just trial and error... So, a lot of the scents that I have are blends unique to Collier's Candle Co."

As a former firefighter, her candle-making journey began as a way to help her friends who were experiencing issues with the candles they were burning.

"They were finding soot throughout their home," she explained. "People were experiencing headaches [and] exacerbation of asthma issues… So, knowing fire science and how things burn, [I know] soot is the byproduct of incomplete combustion. So I thought, 'Why is something that's designed to burn in your home, not burning cleanly and completely?'"

After years of experimenting, Collier found the perfect list of ingredients to make sure her candles were toxin-free.

"They're free from carcinogens, mutagens, acute toxins, organ toxins, reproductive toxins, and phthalates," she said. "All those harmful ingredients that we don't need burning in our homes."

As the years go by, Collier has received a vast amount of positivity from customers, who claim her candles are the perfect kind to cozy up near.

"The feedback blows me away. The feedback keeps me going," she said. "People tell me that since burning my candles they don't have headaches; they feel comfortable burning them around their pets [and] around their children...and that is the reason that I started making candles. "

Candles from "Collier's Candle Co." can be purchased either in person at local farmers' markets or on the shop's website.