Welcome to our first feature in a series of community stories! In this series we will be handing the microphone over to our fantastic community, showcasing the amazing work found within our community and shining a light on the origin of their businesses; discussing their inspirations, challenges, goals and plans to achieve sustainability in a post pandemic UK.
If you’re like me, growing up candles were only ever used for one occasion, your birthday. They would sit glowing upon your freshly iced, Victoria sponge birthday cake waiting to receive a promised birthday wish before being extinguished.
However, the candle and wax market has grown enormously over the past decade, from simple birthday cake toppers into a market of beautifully scented, carefully crafted, bespoke luxury everyday must haves.
This booming market has grown from strength to strength and piqued the interest of small South Wales business, Kalian House of Wax. With a love for wax melts and nice smelling homes, Kalian House of Wax, originally launched as a lockdown hobby by family duo Kal and Sian. It's humble beginnings began as a distraction from the pandemic in the form of wax melts.
Realising their passion for the craft and upon the receipt of enthusiastic and positive feedback from family and friends, Kal and Sian decided to take the plunge and grow their unassuming hobby into a modest, flourishing business; venturing into reed diffusers, dried flower diffusers and room and linen sprays to date.
Currently selling locally, using their social media platforms to promote and sell their bespoke makes, the family duo make everything by hand, working hard to maintain a work life balance while growing their small, though loyal customer base as a result.
“We’re both artistic and I love DIY, so creating melts etc is fun for us.
We love hearing what people say about our home fragrances and how good our branding is. It makes us proud. We are good at what we do and people keep coming back.”
Focusing the business to be more environmentally friendly, Kalian House of Wax now use aluminium bottles as a more sustainable alternative to plastics, and use Simplelifeco mail bags for posting items. By using a stamp logo on the inner boxes, the business also reduces the use of non-recyclable stickers too.
“We still have a long way to go, but it’s important for our future generation to become as eco-friendly as possible, by reducing waste and repurposing packaging.”
This fabulous family duo have some very exciting ventures on the horizon. Having recently submitting 8 of their fragrance sprays for assessment, they have just received the amazing news that they have all passed! They are now awaiting completion of registration and the certifications to arrive, ready to launch them as perfumes - How exciting!
Kal and Sian’s advice for any budding entrepreneur is:
“Make sure you have a plan! Be organised and know what you want to achieve. Make sure you enjoy what you do before investing into it.”
Big thank you to Kal and Sian for being our first community feature!
To hear more about Kalian House of Wax and to check out their current product line, please click here.
Want to see more from Kalian House of Wax?
Instagram: @kalian_house_of_wax
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/418187852775047/