We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Niyyah Ruscher-Haqq a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Niyyah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I’d been making and gifting candles, soap, and skin care for years… even decades… before I made my first sale. A friend of my sister’s had tried some of my soap, and was super passionate about handmade soap. She asked if I could design an oat milk soap, and we planned it out together! Getting cash in hand for those bars was the true catalyst for my small business. It may seem strange, but it was the first time I’d considered that I could be paid for my work. Many friends, family members, and co-workers had said things in the past like “your stuff is so good, you should sell this!” But it wasn’t until I had actually been paid that I realized what could be possible. I started to dream rapidly, envisioning myself at craft fairs, and within two months I was selling at my first marketplace. Even though my first customer has moved out of the country, I still make sure she has plenty of my products… her other favorite was our coffee and brown sugar scrub. Our oat milk soap will forever remain “Aiyanna’s Oats” in her honor.

Niyyah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Crafting is spiritual. I sometimes joke that I pour my anxiety into a candle, sell it to you, and you go home and light it on fire. And wow, does my anxiety smell great.

You will notice that my branding is part woo-woo and part dad joke. I will pour a candle with the intention that it burns safely, smells wonderful and brings contentment and calm to the home it is burned in, which will ripple out into the family and community. And I’ll call it something like “Orange you glad you found this candle?” If I’ve had a particularly rough day working in my field of providing healthcare to people living on Portland’s streets, I come home and craft candles and soaps. Crafting helps my rapid ADHD brain to focus while I calculate fragrance percentages… it reminds me that I am capable of creating beauty. When I hear that someone had a good experience burning my candle or using my soaps, it’s such an amazing feeling.

I was a pretty depressed teen, and crafting was one thing that helped me through the dark days. One day, I picked up a candle kit from a craft store, and I really loved it, and continued this craft off and on since 1995. At that time, I really didn’t understand the difference between paraffin and plant waxes, and so my candle making has really evolved, eventually landing on my unique blend of coconut, soy, and sustainably sourced organic palm wax.

I started making skin care in the 2000s, and I worked for several beauty brands while putting myself through nursing school. I was extremely fortunate in that I encountered “difficult customers” who wanted to know everything about their products: what preservatives were being used, if animal testing or animal products were included in their skin care, and the labor practices of harvesting our lotions and potions. As a vegetarian and Muslim, it is against my ethos to consume certain products or use them for beauty. Soapmakers are not required to list ingredients used in their soap, which meant I had unknowingly bought products that I would never stand behind. I had purchased products that were damaging our water supply, and at best, using products with ingredients that could easily be replaced with more sustainable options. For example, we select sunflower oil because it is grown in the U.S., has a higher yield than other plants with similar fatty acid profiles, and is readily available in organic form.

Great quality products can be vegetarian, free of harsh chemicals, and high quality.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am so new to social media, I made all of the mistakes. I started my Instagram page one month before I launched my business. I had no idea what a reel was, and didn’t really understand how to engage with others and what kind of content to post. (But let’s be ‘reel,’ I still don’t get it,)

A friend of mine advised early on that I needed to get my face in more pictures – that people wanted to see the maker. I’ve always hated being on camera, if you’ve grown up in a big body you may understand what I’m talking about… but I remember just having a talk with myself and being like… “You make candles. You make soap, you make lotion… it doesn’t matter that you don’t look like a model. It matters that you show people that you make this and you love doing it and there’s a real human behind this product. And that human is you.” I noticed much more growth after getting more comfortable showing my face.

Please do not compare yourself to other businesses! You are not likely to get out of the gate with tens of thousands of followers right away. It’s easy to see another candlemaker and their amazing shots and photos and think “I’ll never do that” or to look at another soap makers page and see their thousands of followers. But I have learned over many, many years of working on my brain to challenge it when I’m down that rabbit hole. Remind yourself that they have their journey and you have yours. I also remind myself, I’ve only been doing this 18 months, and I’m not paying for ads or boosts or doing “follow for follow,” and so my growth is slow. And that’s ok. Because my engagement is usually very high.

I built traction slowly, and that was because I promised myself I’d post every day. I soon found that I kind of liked making silly reels that could show my personality. I am a bit awkward to overcome an introverted nature, but I think that is kinda my superpower. If you don’t like lip syncing or doing comedy, then don’t do that,.. if it’s not what you authentically like it will become really hard to put out that content.

Some other unfortunate lessons is that you will need to have a thick skin when you’re putting yourself out there. Daily, I have someone in my inbox asking if I want to be their sugar baby or if I want a personal message from my ancestors. I have had people comment that I talk to much, or what I’m saying is stupid. I’ve had emails in my business email telling me that as a Muslim woman I shouldn’t have makeup on, or have music on my page. The hard truth is that the more followers and attention you get, the higher your statistical probability of attracting the wrong sort of attention. My best advice is to use the block button.

Finally, I stopped following everyone that followed me back. Often, I found people would follow me just to unfollow a few days or weeks after. Now, for new followers I go to their page, and if you have a post introducing yourself or I see you making your product, I’m much more interested in what you have to say.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I manufacture all of my own products. When I first started making candles, it was truly trial and error (and error, and error). I just melted the candles and added a drop or two of fragrance and wonder why it didn’t smell good. I didn’t realize until I was older that temperature matters, wax type matters, and about quality candle making supplies. (So if you have any candle from me prior to 2015, I sincerely apologize).

I made the switch to my own skin care in 2015, after I stopped working for a “green beauty” company that wasn’t so green. Some of the mistakes I made were thinking things like “all preservatives are bad” and not knowing that certain products, like soap, could contain pork, which as a vegetarian and Muslim I can’t use. I learned so many great formulations and about better, natural preservatives that don’t hurt our skin or the environment from Marie Rayma at Humblebee and Me, and YouTubers like “Yaya’s DIY” and “Whole Elise.” I learned how to make soap mostly from the Soap Queen herself, Anne-Marie at Brambleberry and Elly at Elly’s everyday.

All of these adventures were under the radar until COVID. I was devastated by the losses we were experiencing in the early days in healthcare. I didn’t feel protected in my practice, nurses and family I loved were dying, and we couldn’t travel back to New York for Eid like we always did. So that year, I went manufacturing nuts and sent care packages to all my family and friends we couldn’t see – I sent soap, body butters, bath bombs and candles. (And I have a LOT of family). That project helped me learn about scaling and making in large batches, how to properly label and play with Canva and Avery. Even though I wasn’t in business yet, and that wasn’t even on my radar at the time, it really helped develop my skill set and prepped me for my first market, and eventually, how to package a lovely box to ship.

One lesson I’ve learned, and had to learn the hard way… not because no one told me. Actually, everyone told me.. “Start with small batches.” There’s nothing worse than having to use up five tubs of body butter because the texture is off, or the scent blend didn’t work like you thought it would. My creative brain gets too excited with new projects, but I talk myself down by remembering that I still have product from 2020 that was the result of impatience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.niyyah-handcrafted.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niyyah.handcrafted/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/niyyahhandcrafted/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@niyyahhandcrafted

Image Credits
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