For Kathleen Roderick, candles and self-care go together like wick and wax.

Roderick, who suffered through cancer treatments last year and is now in remission, said candlemaking helped her through the worst of it. Working at her home studio, she makes hundreds of multi-colored candles every month, a great distraction for anyone going through a health scare but also a sensory pleasure as she often mixes oils together to create scintillating new scents.

“Four years ago I made so many candles my husband threatened to divorce me,” Roderick joked. “So I started a business.”

And now, after four years of making and selling candles online or at local fairs and farmers markets, she has opened a new retail business called Brimstone Candle Company at a 900-square-foot Salem Four Corners space sandwiched between Subway and the Salem Liquor store.

The space includes a wide range of candle types, from pillar shapes to wax melt warmers to scented varietals and more. She recently started working on an artist series that pays homage to some of her favorite painters, including Van Gogh, Degas and Pierre Bonnard, Impressionists all.

But Brimstone’s top selling candles are the scented tins that have names like Sequoia & English Oak, Citrus Teakwood and Midnight Orchid. All of them are created (and many of them are named) by Roderick in her home studio, where she tinkers with scent combinations from essential oils.

“My goal is to create our candles right on site,” she said in an email. “There are currently some zoning challenges that I am going to work through as our business grows.”

Roderick admitted that it might have been easier to open in a retail-heavy environment such as Old Saybrook or Mystic, but as a member of the Salem Economic Development Commission she wanted to establish a business in her hometown. The shop opened May 14 and held an official ribbon cutting last month.

It’s not easy making the artsier candles, Roderick pointed out, saying she has to use a heat gun to move around the liquid dye she uses as part of the process for her Impressionist creations. Sometimes she has to rework the candles two or three times if bubbles are created.

“It’s an art form, or it can be,” she said.

Roderick was introduced to candle making as a girl. Her mother made Christmas candles to hand out as personalized gifts.

She went on to learn the art of sculpture at Lyme Academy in Old Lyme, studying under the late founders Elisabeth Gordon Chandler and her husband Laci de Gerenday as well as instructor Dan Edwards, a nationally recognized sculptor in his own right. But until recently her main job has been work at an oil company, a full-time position she has retained even as she embarked on her new venture.

Her shop certainly demonstrates an artist’s eye for color and balance, not to mention the olfactory delights of multiple scented candles. Small bags of coffee beans are available to clean customers’ palates as they sample the different varieties.

She has created her own unique blend of soy and palm wax for her container candles, with the soy providing stability and palm wax helping the scent permeate a room more efficiently. Pillar candles are created with either beeswax or palm wax, and she says her creations burn cleaner than the more commercial ones with which people are familiar.

In addition to candles, which generally range in price from $6.95 to $20.95, Brimstone stocks a wide selection of bath and body products (most from artisan companies), loose teas, confections, jewelry and handmade journals.

Brimstone relates to a type of butterfly that Broderick connects to the various stages of life and to her Irish heritage.

“Our entire shop revolves around self care,” she said. “Ninety-five percent of our products are sourced from woman-owned businesses or women's cooperatives. If any of our products are being sourced overseas, we make sure that it is fair trade.”

She has a gift section featuring charcuterie boards made through the Adult Teen Challenge program in Moodus that helps addicts in recovery.

Roderick, who also had a long stint as a chef at a former Moroccan restaurant in Old Saybrook, said she doesn’t see candles as being trendy today. They have been around for hundreds of years, she pointed out, and are great for creating an ambiance, a feeling of serenity, a place of relaxation or a little romance.

She has created candles for bridal showers, baby showers and anniversaries.

Her sales and social media manager, Lorelei Phillips, helps out at the store and is in charge of taking pictures and posting on Facebook and Instagram, while a niece helps with a lot of the prep work for creating candles.

“This is a dream job,” said Phillips. “Just smelling the candles calms me down when I come in.”

Roderick said her biggest challenge has been to get people to check out the shop, because the plaza where she is located has largely been a place to grab and go. But she recently did a Christmas in July event in Salem that exposed her candles to local people, and she plans to do other similar events, including a fundraiser Sept. 16 for Mitchell Farm, the equine rescue nonprofit, at which she will unveil a new candle.

The shop is open 11-6 on weekdays, 10-5 on Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday. For more information, visit www.brimstone.shop.

“This is my transition into retirement,” Roderick said.

And what a sweet-smelling one it will be.

This is the opinion of Lee Howard, The Day’s business editor. He can be reached at l.howard@theday.com.