Our Story

The first time I visited New York, I looked up at the apartment buildings and thought about all the lives inside them. I wanted to make something that lived inside each one of those apartments, something the owner would present to a guest and tell the story behind. 
That is how URU started. Not as a candle. As the idea of an object people are proud to own.

I work on Wall Street and my background is in data Management. But I really did not want my job to define me. I wanted to build something with that I could point at and say, I made this.

I designed URU based on what I wanted in my own apartment. Matte black. Raw concrete. Nothing shiny. Honest materials. I didn't know there was a name for this. When I showed the first design to an architect friend, she said: you're a brutalist. That's when I learned the word for what I had been doing. Brutalism comes from honesty and rawness, and honesty is the value I care about most in life.

The scents are all smoky. I tried hundreds of combinations and kept coming back to smoke, Tobacco, Ashwood, Amber, and Sandalwood. Something warm that stays in the room after you leave it.

The name is You Are You. It means: you are the only person who truly knows yourself. The world sees pieces of you. You hold the complete picture. Don't let anyone else define you.

Every URU candle is hand-finished before it ships. We heat the top of every candle to make it even. We place the cards in the envelope. We tie the ribbon. Every single order. We could automate it. We won't.

Af
Founder, URU