Noir finds bright moments

Newport Harbor High School graduate Lauren Bradburne has kindled a burning passion for candles since she was a little girl.

Bradburne wasn’t allowed to light them when she was a child, but she began buying scented candles in college. The 23-year-old was devastated when she found out that her favorite candle company was going out of business and scrambled to buy up leftover stock before her favorite scent, a jasmine and bamboo mixture, was gone forever.

Bradburne became obsessed with trying to recreate the scent of her favorite candle by mixing different scents in the kitchen of her Lido Isle home.

“I never did get it right, but I ended up finding ones I actually liked better,” she said.

Together with her boyfriend and business partner, Brian Peters, Bradburne has parlayed her love of candles into Lauren Noir, her own line of hand-crafted scented soaps, candles and perfumes.

“This all started out of Lauren’s love for fragrances , and we found she actually has an incredible ability to create new fragrances,” said Peters, 29.

The upstart company has already attracted the attention of Hollywood. Bradburne and Peters’ candles were featured at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards Celebrity Gift Lounge earlier this year. Celebs grabbed up samples of perfumes and candles at the event.

“We don’t watch a lot of TV, so we didn’t recognize a lot of the people there,” Bradburne said.

The company’s debut collection is called “Feather” and features Bradburne’s custom fragrances, all named after birds.

“The idea behind it is that the design of a feather is powerful and dynamic yet delicate at the same time,” Peters said.

The line features scents such as Mina Bird, a mixture of orange blossom and jasmine, and Seagull, a beach-like tropical fragrance.

Britney Spears is a big fan of the Crow fragrance, which has notes of water lily and gardenia, Bradburne said.

Lauren Noir has created a limited-edition black candle in the Crow fragrance in honor of an upcoming music video featuring Spears and Madonna in which Spears wears a black outfit. Customers also can buy matching black soap.

Bradburne and Peters are doing most of their business through direct orders on their website www.laurennoir.com, but the couple also wants to begin selling their products in local boutiques. Bradburne also has plans to create a men’s line of fragrances, she said.

Bradburne and Peters make all of their candles and soaps by hand in Bradburne’s kitchen and they use food-grade materials to make their products. Even if the business takes off, Bradburne said she is committed to keeping her candles hand-poured.

“When you go to something that is machine-made, you lose the quality,” she said. “Something that is hand-crafted is a labor of love.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].