The Scentsy Story - Where Did Scentsy Come From?

Scentsy began with a powerfully simply idea—a safe, wickless alternative to traditional candles—and quickly grew into one of the most successful direct selling companies in the industry. Orville Thompson encountered Scentsy at a home show in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2004. He immediately saw huge potential. Sensing there was something special about the wickless candle concept, he brought a handful of testers home to his wife, Heidi, and her mother and sister. After introducing them to the testers, he left them alone. When he returned an hour later, the women were still smelling the testers, laughing and sharing memories.

Orville was intrigued by how smelling different scents brought powerful emotions and memories to the surface, and how natural it was to share those feelings and memories with others. Within months, Orville and Heidi purchased Scentsy from Kara Egan and Colette Gunnell, Scentsy's founders, bringing the company to Idaho where its first home was literally a metal box. Orville had a 40-foot ocean shipping container on his small sheep farm, which housed Scentsy’s manufacturing and shipping operations for several months.

Orville and Heidi decided to market and sell Scentsy products directly to consumers through home parties. On July 1, 2004, Scentsy signed its first consultant and officially became a direct selling “Party Plan” company. Now celebrating its sixth anniversary, Scentsy has received numerous awards for its growth and ethical business practices, including the Inc. 500 list for rapidly growing privately held companies, the 2010 Direct Selling News Global 100 list of top direct selling companies, and the Direct Selling Association's 2010 Success Award and 2009 Rising Star Award.

With more than 70,000 Independent Scentsy Consultants in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, Guam, United Kingdom & Germany Scentsy is poised to lead the industry for the next six years—and beyond. What began in 2004 as a simple idea has truly grown into something extraordinary, as Scentsy continues to touch thousands of lives in profound ways.