Your Summer Solstice Invitation: Shine Without Apology

The Summer Solstice marks the longest, brightest day of the year, and this collection is your invitation to savor your own peace without apology, step into your joy, and connect with the parts of you that are ready to shine.

Every summer in Chicago, I’m transported back to a time in my life that changed me forever, the years I lived on Maui. I had moved there after braving another brutal Chicago winter and a season spent in Winter Park, Colorado, learning how to snowboard. I was ready for warmth, change, and adventure.

I moved into a tiny shack in Paia that I found on Craigslist, watched whales breach at sunset while cocktail waitressing off Keawakapu Beach, and was a tour guide for visitors, rappelling and jumping off waterfalls along the Road to Hana. It was wild, healing, and unexpectedly sacred.

But what makes Maui unforgettable isn’t just the adventure. It’s what Mother Maui gave me when I needed it most. After the sudden loss of my sister, Julia, a terrible break up, and a time where I had nowhere to live, the island held me and helped me find myself again.

It was there, in the unbelievable beauty and endless sunlight, that it finally dawned on me:

I didn’t have to wait for life to calm down to feel calm. I didn’t have to earn my way back to joy. Peace wasn’t a prize, it was a practice. The island showed me it was effortless.

That’s what this whole collection is about. It’s your reminder that you’re allowed to feel good without being perfect. You’re allowed to savor your own peace without crossing everything off your to-do list. You deserve to be joyful. To discover or reconnect with the parts of you that are so ready to shine brightly into the world.

This collection was created as a sensory journey, from the soft colors of sunrise at the summit of Haleakalā, to the lush, winding road to Hāna lined with flowers, fruit trees, and rain, to the ocean lapping at the shore on a Beach Day as if returning again and again to remind you: you deserve peace, and a life filled with beauty and love simply because you exist.

My hope is that these scents stir something in you. To take it a level deeper, I’ve created a few prompts below as an opportunity to tap into the energy of the solstice and connect the power of your mind and body. When you’re in alignment, your heart feels light and full, and you become the light for others, too.

Your Summer Solstice Reflection Ritual

Trim your wick, light your candle, take a deep breath, and journal your responses to the following:

1. What parts of me are ready to shine more brightly this season?
2. What does peace feel like in my body?
3. How can I practice joy without needing to earn it?
4. What moments of beauty am I ready to notice and celebrate more often?

Take your time. Let the scent, the warmth, and the moment guide you back to yourself.

xoxo big hugs, Anna 💜✨