The Empress Emporium is a delightful Tea and Parfumerie shop in downtown Wheeling, located on 1908 Market St. They specialize in decadence, and hand craft the experience for visitors.
As you walk in the door, you are greeted by owner Cindy Hotlosz, and you feel a warm, cozy, friendly atmosphere, filled with aromas from all over the world. You are sent on a journey to different cultures, places in nature, and world sites. They are sporting hundreds of different oils and create custom samples on the spot.
They offer scents by the bottle, and have a variety of crystal cut atomizers for you to create a signature scent for yourself, or someone you love. Customers come from all over to have a custom scent made during one of their alchemy sessions, where they take you through the perfume-making process start to finish. The best part is their scents are made with natural essential oils that come from real plants; in fact, Cindy travels all over the world in search of many of these exotic scents and brings them back to Wheeling. Â It’s here where they create some truly unique combinations.
The Empress offers a variety of teas including more common teas like green, white, black, peppermint, and ginger. They also offer unique blends we’d never heard of, like gunpowder or jasmine pearls. They take the time to ensure quality, as they are very conscious of where the teas they stock are being sourced from. They also make sure they know whether it’s organic or fair trade. Cindy told us about the journey their signature black tea embarked on, starting from a hilltop farm in Sri Lanka and making it’s way to Wheeling. Not only that, she also personally knows the family growing it.
This quickly became one of our favorite spots downtown; the proof is the  daily engagement of essential oils and tea while in our lab. We would highly recommend the visit, especially to treat your loved ones this Holiday Season.
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