C'est La Vie Candles

That's life. Light it up.

A Nova Scotia candle brand built around personal scents and meaningful names, hand-poured by a business grad who started during university and never stopped.

Portfolio Folioblox

C'est La Vie Candles

That's life. Light it up.

A Nova Scotia candle brand built around personal scents and meaningful names, hand-poured by a business grad who started during university and never stopped.

Portfolio Folioblox

C'est La Vie Candles

That's life. Light it up.

A Nova Scotia candle brand built around personal scents and meaningful names, hand-poured by a business grad who started during university and never stopped.

Portfolio Folioblox
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready
Woman-Owned
Small Batch
Retailer-Ready

Our Rooted Tale

Started small, kept going anyway

Grace Munro was midway through her Business Administration degree at StFX University when she decided to do something with the extra time she had. Not rest. She had always known she wanted to own a business of her own, had carried that certainty for years without yet knowing what shape it would take.

Candle making answered the question. It was tactile, personal, and endlessly customisable. She could pour a scent that meant something specific to her and give it a name that told the story. She could make something that was genuinely hers, in a way that an essay or a spreadsheet exercise never quite was.

She called it C'est La Vie Candles. The name came from a real conviction: things do not always go the way you plan, and you simply have to live with the outcome. She chose to start a business in university for the same reason. Life is short. You never know what is next. So you begin.

A name chosen with conviction

A hobby that kept growing

Coming out of her shell

Candles for her best friend's wedding

Our Rooted Tale

Started small, kept going anyway

Grace Munro was midway through her Business Administration degree at StFX University when she decided to do something with the extra time she had. Not rest. She had always known she wanted to own a business of her own, had carried that certainty for years without yet knowing what shape it would take.

Candle making answered the question. It was tactile, personal, and endlessly customisable. She could pour a scent that meant something specific to her and give it a name that told the story. She could make something that was genuinely hers, in a way that an essay or a spreadsheet exercise never quite was.

She called it C'est La Vie Candles. The name came from a real conviction: things do not always go the way you plan, and you simply have to live with the outcome. She chose to start a business in university for the same reason. Life is short. You never know what is next. So you begin.

A name chosen with conviction

A hobby that kept growing

Coming out of her shell

Candles for her best friend's wedding

Our Rooted Tale

Started small, kept going anyway

Grace Munro was midway through her Business Administration degree at StFX University when she decided to do something with the extra time she had. Not rest. She had always known she wanted to own a business of her own, had carried that certainty for years without yet knowing what shape it would take.

Candle making answered the question. It was tactile, personal, and endlessly customisable. She could pour a scent that meant something specific to her and give it a name that told the story. She could make something that was genuinely hers, in a way that an essay or a spreadsheet exercise never quite was.

She called it C'est La Vie Candles. The name came from a real conviction: things do not always go the way you plan, and you simply have to live with the outcome. She chose to start a business in university for the same reason. Life is short. You never know what is next. So you begin.

A name chosen with conviction

A hobby that kept growing

Coming out of her shell

Candles for her best friend's wedding

Bestseller Spotlight

Scents with a story behind them

Family Over Everything

Family Over Everything is built around the Satsuma fragrance that many customers grew up encountering through The Body Shop: a scent so familiar it bypasses the nose and goes straight to memory. Grace chose it not because it was popular but because it meant something to her. The name and the fragrance arrived as a pair.

She made it because family is the reason she started this in the first place. The steadiness of home, the smell of something comforting nearby, the impulse to make something that gives other people that same feeling. The candle is personal before it is a product, and customers seem to sense that.

What Grace hears most at her market table is people going quiet for a moment after smelling it, then saying: I know this. Where do I know this from? That pause is the moment she makes candles for. Family Over Everything is also, she will admit freely, one of her own favourites.

Bestseller Spotlight

Scents with a story behind them

Family Over Everything

Family Over Everything is built around the Satsuma fragrance that many customers grew up encountering through The Body Shop: a scent so familiar it bypasses the nose and goes straight to memory. Grace chose it not because it was popular but because it meant something to her. The name and the fragrance arrived as a pair.

She made it because family is the reason she started this in the first place. The steadiness of home, the smell of something comforting nearby, the impulse to make something that gives other people that same feeling. The candle is personal before it is a product, and customers seem to sense that.

What Grace hears most at her market table is people going quiet for a moment after smelling it, then saying: I know this. Where do I know this from? That pause is the moment she makes candles for. Family Over Everything is also, she will admit freely, one of her own favourites.

Bestseller Spotlight

Scents with a story behind them

Family Over Everything

Family Over Everything is built around the Satsuma fragrance that many customers grew up encountering through The Body Shop: a scent so familiar it bypasses the nose and goes straight to memory. Grace chose it not because it was popular but because it meant something to her. The name and the fragrance arrived as a pair.

She made it because family is the reason she started this in the first place. The steadiness of home, the smell of something comforting nearby, the impulse to make something that gives other people that same feeling. The candle is personal before it is a product, and customers seem to sense that.

What Grace hears most at her market table is people going quiet for a moment after smelling it, then saying: I know this. Where do I know this from? That pause is the moment she makes candles for. Family Over Everything is also, she will admit freely, one of her own favourites.

More from the core

Every scent has a name and a meaning

More from the core

Every scent has a name and a meaning

More from the core

Every scent has a name and a meaning

Meet the Maker

Quietly ambitious, always building

Grace Munro

Grace Munro earned her Business Administration degree at StFX University while simultaneously learning what it actually takes to run a business from the inside. She pours candles while listening to podcasts. She catches up on reality TV while batches set. The production side of C'est La Vie has become, over time, genuinely one of her favourite ways to spend free time, not because it is efficient, but because it is hers.

She now holds down a full weekday career and runs C'est La Vie alongside it, because she decided early that choosing between the two was not a requirement. There is a particular satisfaction in working with your hands at the end of a day spent working with your head, and Grace has found that rhythm and kept it.

What she brings to every batch is the instinct that named this business: the belief that things do not always go to plan, and that is not a reason to wait. She started C'est La Vie because life is short and timing is never perfect, and she wanted to begin. That philosophy has not changed. It is baked into the name, which she chose carefully.

She is now opening C'est La Vie to retail: looking for stores that want to carry candles made with intention, priced honestly, backed by a founder who still answers her own messages. If you know a retailer who should be stocking these, she wants to hear from you.

Meet the Maker

Quietly ambitious, always building

Grace Munro

Grace Munro earned her Business Administration degree at StFX University while simultaneously learning what it actually takes to run a business from the inside. She pours candles while listening to podcasts. She catches up on reality TV while batches set. The production side of C'est La Vie has become, over time, genuinely one of her favourite ways to spend free time, not because it is efficient, but because it is hers.

She now holds down a full weekday career and runs C'est La Vie alongside it, because she decided early that choosing between the two was not a requirement. There is a particular satisfaction in working with your hands at the end of a day spent working with your head, and Grace has found that rhythm and kept it.

What she brings to every batch is the instinct that named this business: the belief that things do not always go to plan, and that is not a reason to wait. She started C'est La Vie because life is short and timing is never perfect, and she wanted to begin. That philosophy has not changed. It is baked into the name, which she chose carefully.

She is now opening C'est La Vie to retail: looking for stores that want to carry candles made with intention, priced honestly, backed by a founder who still answers her own messages. If you know a retailer who should be stocking these, she wants to hear from you.

Meet the Maker

Quietly ambitious, always building

Grace Munro

Grace Munro earned her Business Administration degree at StFX University while simultaneously learning what it actually takes to run a business from the inside. She pours candles while listening to podcasts. She catches up on reality TV while batches set. The production side of C'est La Vie has become, over time, genuinely one of her favourite ways to spend free time, not because it is efficient, but because it is hers.

She now holds down a full weekday career and runs C'est La Vie alongside it, because she decided early that choosing between the two was not a requirement. There is a particular satisfaction in working with your hands at the end of a day spent working with your head, and Grace has found that rhythm and kept it.

What she brings to every batch is the instinct that named this business: the belief that things do not always go to plan, and that is not a reason to wait. She started C'est La Vie because life is short and timing is never perfect, and she wanted to begin. That philosophy has not changed. It is baked into the name, which she chose carefully.

She is now opening C'est La Vie to retail: looking for stores that want to carry candles made with intention, priced honestly, backed by a founder who still answers her own messages. If you know a retailer who should be stocking these, she wants to hear from you.

Every candle in the core collection started as something personal: a scent that lived in my memory, a name that arrived before the fragrance did, a feeling I wanted to make tangible. When you pick one up, I want you to feel that. Not just a nice smell in a nice jar, but something with a reason behind it.

I named this business C'est La Vie because I believe it. Plans change. Things fall apart. Sometimes the best thing you can make comes out of a semester with extra time and a quiet sense that you should be building something. I did not know this would become what it has. I just knew I wanted to start.

If Family Over Everything makes you think of your mum's bathroom cabinet, or a Saturday afternoon at the mall when you were fifteen, that is not an accident. I made it because that memory lives in me too. The candles I make are not trying to be neutral. They are trying to be specific. I hope at least one of them is specific in a way that matters to you.

Thank you for coming to the market table, for buying online, for telling someone else about C'est La Vie. For every person who has come back a second time: that still gets me. It always will.

— Grace, C'est La Vie Candles

A heartfelt Note

Every candle in the core collection started as something personal: a scent that lived in my memory, a name that arrived before the fragrance did, a feeling I wanted to make tangible. When you pick one up, I want you to feel that. Not just a nice smell in a nice jar, but something with a reason behind it.

I named this business C'est La Vie because I believe it. Plans change. Things fall apart. Sometimes the best thing you can make comes out of a semester with extra time and a quiet sense that you should be building something. I did not know this would become what it has. I just knew I wanted to start.

If Family Over Everything makes you think of your mum's bathroom cabinet, or a Saturday afternoon at the mall when you were fifteen, that is not an accident. I made it because that memory lives in me too. The candles I make are not trying to be neutral. They are trying to be specific. I hope at least one of them is specific in a way that matters to you.

Thank you for coming to the market table, for buying online, for telling someone else about C'est La Vie. For every person who has come back a second time: that still gets me. It always will.

— Grace, C'est La Vie Candles

A heartfelt Note

Every candle in the core collection started as something personal: a scent that lived in my memory, a name that arrived before the fragrance did, a feeling I wanted to make tangible. When you pick one up, I want you to feel that. Not just a nice smell in a nice jar, but something with a reason behind it.

I named this business C'est La Vie because I believe it. Plans change. Things fall apart. Sometimes the best thing you can make comes out of a semester with extra time and a quiet sense that you should be building something. I did not know this would become what it has. I just knew I wanted to start.

If Family Over Everything makes you think of your mum's bathroom cabinet, or a Saturday afternoon at the mall when you were fifteen, that is not an accident. I made it because that memory lives in me too. The candles I make are not trying to be neutral. They are trying to be specific. I hope at least one of them is specific in a way that matters to you.

Thank you for coming to the market table, for buying online, for telling someone else about C'est La Vie. For every person who has come back a second time: that still gets me. It always will.

— Grace, C'est La Vie Candles

A heartfelt Note

Contact Us

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Join Rooted Tale

Ready to join Canada's Local Storytellers?

From immigrant bakers to craft brewers, candle makers to café owners—Halifax's most authentic local businesses are building their legacy on Rooted Tale.

Join Rooted Tale

Ready to join Canada's Local Storytellers?

From immigrant bakers to craft brewers, candle makers to café owners—Halifax's most authentic local businesses are building their legacy on Rooted Tale.

Join Rooted Tale

Ready to join Canada's Local Storytellers?

From immigrant bakers to craft brewers, candle makers to café owners—Halifax's most authentic local businesses are building their legacy on Rooted Tale.

Every local business has a unique journey. If you have built something meaningful, overcome challenges, or have stories that could inspire others, we want to feature you on Rooted Tale.

© Rooted Tale 2026 All Rights Reserved

Designed with ❤️ for local brands.

Every local business has a unique journey. If you have built something meaningful, overcome challenges, or have stories that could inspire others, we want to feature you on Rooted Tale.

© Rooted Tale 2026 All Rights Reserved

Designed with ❤️ for local brands.