Frostbeard candles put the 'lit' in 'literature'

Cherry wood, tobacco and a hint of fresh rain. Can you smell it?

That's Sherlock Holmes' office, with its overflowing bookshelves and a pipe still smoking on the table. London's constant drizzle splashes at the window.

Now think of The Shire, homeland of Hobbits: There's oakmoss and clover in the air — deep, earthy tones.

This is how Roxie and Tom Lubanovic spend their days: They distill books down to the perfect scent combination and mix it into candles.

"It's a little bit like cooking," Roxie said. "It's just a matter of mixing scents together and finding the right ratio."

Their company, Frostbeard Studio, boasts more than 20 different book-inspired candles — perfect for "bibilophiles and literary nerds." ("Nerds" has never been used in a more loving context.)

The Lubanovics' inspiration comes straight from their bookshelves: Both are big readers. Roxie gravitates toward literary fiction and romance, Tom to science fiction. Their bookish candles have been such a success that the husband-and-wife pair moved the operation from their kitchen stovetop to a workshop space in the arts district of northeast Minneapolis.

In the Frostbeard Studio workshop, you can catch the scent of Winterfell from the "Game of Thrones" series — that would be Scotch pine and firewood — or even light the fuse on a Trashy Romance Novel — a peachy, floral combination.

Then there's the candle that kicked off the craze: Old Books.

"There's a million types of old books," said Roxie. "There's soggy rotten ones and ones that smell sweet. That's the one we chose to go after."

Two years ago, Buzzfeed included their Old Books candle on its list of "24 Insanely Clever Gifts for Book Lovers."

The orders poured in faster than Roxie and Tom could melt the wax. Frostbeard Studio went from being an online Etsy shop to a full-blown occupation for the both of them. Candles took over their lives — and their apartment.

"We spent two solid weeks working 14-hour days, seven days a week," said Roxie. "Tom was making 300 to 400 candles a day."

At one point, just days before the Christmas shipping deadline, they ran into what might have been the world's first candle scent emergency.

"Oh god, we need more Dusty Attic!" Tom said, remembering the time they ran short on ingredients. "We need, like, eight gallons!"

They were forced to tweak the recipe with another appropriately dusty scent, and kept on crafting.

Frostbeard gets its scented ingredients from companies who specialize in the smell of just about anything.

"Anything from bacon to dirt to basement," Roxie said. "There's people whose job it is to create these oils."

The Frostbeard ingredient wall is packed with different scent possibilities, all arranged in alphabetical order: Basement, bergamot, black currant tea, buttered rum, butterscotch...

The trick is finding the right combination. Their classic Oxford library? That's sandalwood, leather and teak.

The gardens at Pemberley? Roses with a hint of lilac and hyacinth.

Smell, of course, is subjective, and the Lubanovics readily admit that each of their scents takes artistic license with the source material. Should Sherlock's office have had hints of opium instead of tobacco? It's up for debate.

"People have their own opinions, for sure," said Roxie. "It's funny reading the reviews online because 99 percent of them are like: 'This is great, it smells exactly as described.' But other people will be like: 'This smells like stale, soggy Doritos.'"

Frostbeard continues to add new candles to its catalog, bringing the scents of the Lubanovics' favorite books to life.

"You wanted to do a 'Ulysses' candle that smelled like farts," Roxie said to Tom. "But I don't know about that."

The questionable scents of James Joyce aside, Frostbeard's success is still sinking in, Roxie said.

"Once a week I'll just think: 'Whoa, I'm a candlemaker.' It's the weirdest thing in the world."

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