There's a sweet reason Daniel Martin hadn't told Meghan Markle about his upcoming collaboration with Companion Candles—despite the Duchess of Sussex having taught him how to make candles. "I want to have the finished product to give her," the makeup artist explained to HELLO! in an exclusive interview. Daniel teamed up with Companion Candles, a woman-founded business that sells pet-safe and eco-friendly scented candles, to create a limited-edition, which he described as smelling "kind of like fall herb" and "a bit smokey because I was thinking fireplace and cozy." The beauty authority first tried his hand at candle-making in Season 1 of With Love, Meghan, making DIY beeswax candles with the Duchess of Sussex.
"What's funny about that was, I didn't realize this, but when, like, if you burn a honey wax candle, it attracts bees," he said, before hilariously recalling, "So when I took our candles home and I lit them, we had bees. I mean, I live in an apartment in Manhattan like it was the craziest thing."
Daniel returned for the second season of With Love, Meghan in an episode that also featured chefs David Chang and Christina Tosi. His experience on the Netflix lifestyle series has since sparked an appreciation for making things at home. "Truly. Honestly. Yeah, and it makes you appreciate how craftsmanship, like when Loren [Lewin, founder of Companion Candles] was telling me what she went through, to the wicks, to the vessel, to the wax and sizing. It just makes you appreciate things in a whole different way," Tatcha's global director of artistry and education said.
Having creative friends like Meghan has also inspired Daniel to think bigger and try new things. "I'm cooking a lot more because I learned so much from that experience. I'm more confident in knowing how to cut with a knife," he laughed. "I've learned so much about food and just being more comfortable in the kitchen now, too."
Back from a "truly an inspiring trip" to Paris, which included doing Meghan's radiant makeup for her first appearance at Paris Fashion Week, Daniel is now looking forward to continuing to think outside of the box. "I started a relationship with SCAD in Atlanta, and I'm going there next week to do a class with them, which I'm excited about," he shared on Oct. 6. "But I think, if anything, it's just how does a creative still create kind of, outside of their box of beauty? Because I feel like so much of my 20 plus years in this business [have] been so much about makeup, and I just feel like as a creative to kind of think outside the box and explore different things, like this partnership with the candle, it's opened me up in such a way, because I've learned and appreciated fragrance on a whole other level."
Daniel's collaboration with Companion Candles, "La Forêt Noire by Daniel Martin," launched on Oct. 23. A portion of proceeds will be donated to Mission Meow.