We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cristian Abbrancati a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cristian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

When we were beginning to launch our candle company during the pandemic, we noticed that everyone was having zoom birthday parties. People would even have different themed parties too. So we decided to not only have cheeky soy wax candles, but also allow the customer to “remix their senses.”

Every candle comes with its own Spotify playlist and curated cocktail recipe so that you can have a little party in a jar. So if people were having a zoom party they could all experience the same scent, taste and sound. Our mission quickly became about creating community and connection no matter how far away your loved ones were. We just decided that vehicle would be a synesthesia-like experience.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m originally from Long Island NY and have lived in Manhattan for a little over 9 years now. I met my best friend, and now business partner Brittany, in 2006 in middle school.

Before becoming a candle maker I was in operations for the fitness industry. I’ve worked with giant businesses who trail-blazed the boutique fitness industry, all the way to opening the doors with up-and-coming start-ups. After doing that for 5 years the pandemic put my entire career to a halt. Brittany and I had already started discussing starting a business together and quarantine allowed us to do just that.

Once we finally got onto unemployment we took our first stimulus checks to fund the initial costs for the launch. While people were buying Nintendo switches, couches and puppies… we purchased an LLC. After months of creating the website and our first products we launched on July 10th 2020. We sold out of everything in 2 hours and immediately went straight into production for round 2.

Those first few months were extremely busy for us and we’ve learned a lot about starting a new e-commerce business during a time where TikTok was on the rise. I also had a lot to learn about candle making because I didn’t start teaching myself until 2 months before launching the company. I learned everything I know from Youtube academy.

That’s one of things I pride myself on the most. That I was able to take all of my professional experience and a newly learned craft to launch a business with my friend of 15+ years. We’ve worked extremely hard to differentiate ourselves from a sea of candles with funny names.

We provide our customers with candles that each have their own personality and mood. So if people need a work from home candle they can try out our Hazelnut cold brew candle, “Afternoon Delight”, and listen to its Acoustic/Live music playlist to get a coffee shop feel in their home office. Or if they had a long day they can light our lavender sage candle, “Big Spoon”, and make its lavender infused cocktail (or mocktail) to chill out.

How did you build your audience on social media?

The tone for social media has luckily changed. Where people are looking for a more authentic, transparent, and a real personality. Especially if that personality is trying to sell something.

We built our social media presence in 3 ways. When we launched I created an IG story graphic for all of my friends and family to share across their platforms. This helped get eyes on us immediately. Then we started doing giveaways with influencers and friends. That helped us a lot, but also keep in mind that this was way before TikTok started going wild. This effort gave us about 1,200 followers on Instagram.

Having an in-person experience helps a lot. So doing outdoor markets to get to know potential customers and get customer feedback was super crucial. Having positive interactions in-person enticed people to follow us and share our company with their friends. Whether they got them a gift or they were simply excited to share our story.

TikTok was the platform that really took over. 85,000 followers didn’t just come from no where. I spent a lot of time posting 3 videos a day and finding out what worked and what didn’t. I pushed myself to get comfortable in front of a camera because it was crucial for the business to grow. My biggest piece of advice is to not make all of your content about your product/service.

Follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of your content it about you/doing fun trends/and general life. The other 20% is about your business. But make that 20% about packing an order and shout out a customer. Maybe you’re getting your products into a store so you vlog dropping off the first order.

And if you still feel stuck on content creation, then educate. All I say nowadays is “I learned this thing on TikTok that…” You want to be that source of education for your consumer. So position yourself as a voice in the industry that you decide to start a business in.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

At this point I want to get the word pivot tattooed on me because that’s all we talk about is pivoting. If you’re not comfortable with making quick decisions and making sharp turns away from your original yearly, monthly and week plans… then you better get used to it.

Theres too many examples I have on pivoting in every aspect of my life. The most biggest pivot we recently did was rebranding. Specifically changing the labels for all of the candles. We realized that all of the candles looked the same and didn’t have their own personality. You could only get the Spotify playlists on the candle and had to go out of your way to get the cocktail recipe on the website. We only had 2 products pictures per scent. It was all over the place.

So we needed to change everything quickly because we were eager to start reaching out to stores to purchase wholesale.

So in a month we…

1: Made new front labels that were a perfect marriage between our first 2 designs.
2: New back labels that showcased the products features
3: New QR codes that took you to a “Digital Speakeasy” on our website
4: New gloss labels instead of the original matte.
5: Each candle got its own unique color
6: Shot new images for the website and created a “scent clock” so the customer can see every note in the candle fragrance.

Ever since the rebrand we have had a massive uptick in sales. Plus people don’t get the candles confused in-store anymore because they all look different. Most days can be very unpredictable. But that’s not to say you should always have a plan to keep you on track. You just need to understand balance and time-management.

Contact Info:

• Website: nosebestcandles.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nosebestcandles_/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nosebestcandles
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG03EOUAaSWxfyG9OqeMTag
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nosebestcandles?lang=en Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nosebestcandles_/?invite_code=3ac3e836038f43629bf0aad8cd20abcd&sender=852165698150233735

Image Credits
Photographers: Ali Marconi and Cristian Abbrancati