A Butler County woman is looking to light up customer’s lives during the holiday shopping season and beyond.

Pam Dennis, who started Pamela’s Bonafide Candle Company in 2008 from her home, is opening a storefront today at 8 Monroe St. in Middletown.

“I make all my candles from soy wax right in my own kitchen,” said Dennis, a lifelong Middletown resident. “Soy wax burns slower, which gives you more of a candle than a paraffin candle does.”

Soy candles also are clean burning, giving off little smoke and dispersing scent further, she said.

Dennis first sold her products at area markets and festivals, then via her website, www.pamelasbonafideco.com.

Over the years, she added homemade lotions, lip balm, soaps, shower gels, candle wax tarts and cupcake bath bombs to her product line.

Dennis said her products contain vitamin E and shea butter that leave a person’s skin feeling silky smooth, including those with severe dry skin. While candles comes in a wide array of scents, other products feature names like Cranberry Fig, Spice Mahogany, Ocean, Lavender, Lemon Verbena, Steel Magnolias and Spice Pumpkin.

Dennis launched Pamela’s Bonafide Candle Company on days off from her job as a nurse at an area nursing home.

“It started in the winter time when I was bored,” she said of her initial candle-making endeavors. “I would just do it all day long. It’s so much fun.”

Eventually the hobby-turned-business grew by leaps and bounds, to the point that Dennis had soap-making equipment everywhere in her home, including a drying rack in her living room.

“I just wanted to get a store and get out,” she said.

Locating the business on Monroe Street, just north of Central Avenue next to a salon and a licensed massage therapist and across the street from Stefano’s Italian Cafe, seemed like a good choice.

“It’s a very busy corner,” Dennis said.

Her handiwork received exposure — and a share of the profits — when Tufts of Hair Beauty Salon in downtown Middletown and other shops sold Pamela’s Bonafide Candle Company products in their storefronts. Now Dennis plans to do the same for business owners she meets at festivals by offering their goods on consignment.

“I want to give them a chance,” she said.