There is something funny about this.
Vice President Kamala Harris created her own signature candle scent with a Los Angeles candlemaker — and didn’t want her successor as California’s junior senator to copy it.
The veep’s jasmine-scented candles display his seal of office and have been given as gifts throughout his tenure, prompting others in Washington to desire them.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), impressed by the item, asked creator Melanie Apple Fields “to produce 125 candles using Harris’ scent for an event she’s hosting,” the Los Angeles Times reported in a profile of Harris.
“Harris’ office gave Padilla permission to produce similar candles but asked him to use a different scent,” the article said.
Apple Fields told The Post that Harris’ office waived a nondisclosure agreement to allow her to talk to the LA Times about the candles as part of a major story about Harris’ trip back to California that described her interest in cooking and growing herbs and kumquats.
“I have an NDA with him – I have an NDA with him. So I’m not allowed to publish anything until this article comes out,” said Apple Fields, owner of Voyage et Cie in Tinseltown’s Studio City neighborhood.
Vice President Kamala Harris hired a Los Angeles candle maker to create a special scent for candles given as gifts by her office. Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
“The reporter called me and I said, ‘I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about it.’ He said, ‘No, there is truth,’ and then the head of communications [for Harris] called me and they said it was OK.”
Apple Fields, who met Harris before he became vice president, said that early reports of what DC staffers now jokingly call Candlegate “made it more dramatic than it was,” but were generally accurate.
“[Harris’ office] said, ‘Fine, no problem, just change the scent,'” Apple Fields told The Post about interactions with Padilla’s people, adding “they weren’t mean” about it.
“They are exclusively hers and and they look very beautiful.”
Harris’ office gave his successor Sen. Alex Padilla permission to create a similar candle, but asked that it be a different scent. AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, Pool
Apple Fields said he had sold Harris “probably over 2,000” candles, though he wasn’t sure of the exact number and said it was probably more than 5,000.
The candle was given as a gift to the president of El Salvador and King Abdullah II of Jordan, the LA Times reported.
First lady Jill Biden’s office has also been buying special candles for nearly three years — again, inspired by Harris’ version.
The first lady’s candle has a golden image of the White House, Apple Fields said, and smells of gardenia.
Harris’s jasmine-scented candle displays his seal of office. ZUMAPRESS.com
Padilla, who was appointed to replace Harris after he becomes Vice President in January 2021, is more interested in how the candles look than how they smell, a spokeswoman for his office told The Post.
The representative shared with The Post a December 2022 email from Padilla’s staff to Apple Fields requesting 100 votive candles with boxes and ribbons. The email states that they are “flexible on scents (variety is fine).”
Apple Fields told The Post that she’s a Democrat but tries to keep her business apolitical and that she’s even willing to make personalized candles for some Republicans — not former President Donald Trump.
“I think he’s a bad guy. I’ll do it for [Utah Sen.] Mitt Romney, but I wouldn’t do it for Trump. I must like that person,” he said.
Harris, 59, is the country’s first woman and second non-white vice president and is seeking a second four-year term with Biden, 81, in this year’s election.
A spokesman for Harris did not respond to a request for comment.
The vice president’s policy portfolio includes addressing the root causes of illegal immigration and supporting voting and abortion rights.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
