We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Oyindamola Apanpa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Oyindamola, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Honey’s Scented company is a candle and fragrance company and the decision to make Wickless Candle instead of the common wick candle, was because I became more conscious of my health and from my research, I found out that what I feed my body with, the types of products I use could affect my health and as a woman, ultimately my hormones. Instead of buying largely produced products that could potentially harm me, I decided to start making my own toxins & phthalate free, safe, clean & long-lasting products for me & my family. Our brand mission is to make & sell clean, safe & long-lasting products. From my research (according to National Fire Protection Association) about 15% of household fires starts from candle burning, amounting to about $291 million damages in properties, 670 injuries & about 90 deaths annually around the US, not forgetting the health hazards of breathing in smoke & toxins from candle flames. After becoming more conscious of my health & switched to making wickless candles, I ensure all the ingredients (which I source locally from women owned businesses to support them) I use in making my products are clean & safe. I have been making impact in not only my community but also everywhere my products are used, as I believe I am saving their health from toxins & their homes & properties from fire. I have started looking into ways to work with my local fire departments & city council in creating more awareness, letting people know there is a safer candle option for them. By doing this, I believe I’m helping the fire department reduce their workload & making our environment a safer & cleaner place. I believe my mission is bigger than my community alone, it is all about saving our planet. I teach kids & adults in my community, how to make decorative wickless candles & the joy I see in them, especially the kids, gives me so much joy to do more in my community. Last October, I created a Breast Cancer Wickless Candle Collection (which we now sell yearly), a percentage of the proceeds from the sale goes to a breast cancer NGO to support their cause. I also create more awareness on my social media platforms to educate people most especially within my black community as we have about 40% higher breast cancer death rate. I would love to share more about my story, and what my small business is doing to contribute to the betterment of our planet.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am Oyindamola, my name means Honey mixed with Wealth, but I am popularly called Honey and that is where the Honey part of my business name came from. I have always been an entrepreneur from a young age of 19. I have successfully started and ran a few businesses in the past, ranging from fashion boutique, gift servicing, event planning to food/catering business and now to candle & scented company. I started Honey’s Scented in 2020 around the time the pandemic struck. It started as a hobby and after a long search for a job, I decided to turn my hobby into a business so I could support myself & my family. My decision to make Wickless Candle (my flagship product) instead of the common wicked candle, was because I became more conscious of my health and from my research, I found out that what I feed my body with, the types of products I use could affect my health.
Honey’s Scented Company is a candle & fragrance company specialized in handcrafted, clean, safe, long-lasting scented products, such as Decorative Wickless Candle, Air Fresheners, Room/Linen & Toilet Sprays, Body & Massage Oils, Bath Bombs/Fizzers & Bath Teas, Curated Gift Boxes & I also offer Candle Making Classes for kids & adults. My flagship product is the Wickless Candle, which is a candle without wicks, no flame, hence, no fire, soot, or toxins. I created this type of candle when I noticed the fire hazard & health danger associated with traditional wicked candles. About 30% of household fires starts from candle burning, & I wanted to help reduce and solve this problem. With a Wickless Candle, you won’t have to worry about trimming wicks, breathing in smokes/toxins and fire. To use a Wickless Candle, all you need is a Wax Warmer to melt the candle & release a clean unburnt scent.
What makes me proud of my business is the fact that my business solves a very tangible problem, household fires. My business offers safe, clean & long-lasting products & with my products & gift boxes, people can give lovely scented & unique gifts to their loved ones, without breaking the bank. Whenever I am amid people or at events, talking to them about my business, my products & brand mission, I love the smiles on their faces, especially when they tell me I am doing a great job & they support my mission. I remember talking to a police officer at a City of Dallas Texas vendor event, he asked me what my business was all about & after I took him through my products display, he mentioned he had never seen or heard of a wickless candle before. He thanked me for choosing to make this type of candle, making safe & clean products to help reduce household fires & health hazard. My biggest accomplishment for myself is that I have been able to create something meaningful for myself, providing a source of income for myself & I hope that soon I can do same for my community, provide jobs & contribute financially. My business has made it possible for me to start supporting the causes I had always wanted to support, for example, in few months, I’ll be working with a new NGO that provides listening ears & support to abused & raped women. I will be creating a product collection to sell at the fund-raising event we plan to organize to support them. Last year, I was approached by the City of Mesquite, Texas to make Wickless Candles, Car Air Fresheners & Soaps that shows the beauty of Texas, which are displayed & sold at the Visitors Bureau
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
It started as a hobby and after a long search for a job, I decided to turn my hobby into a business so I could support myself & my family. My decision to make Wickless Candle instead of wick candle, was because I became more conscious of my health. I had recently moved to Dallas from Boston and was out of job due to the pandemic outbreak. So while I was applying for jobs and waiting to get a job, I decided to keep myself busy with trying my hands on candle making, most especially because I love scented products and I couldn’t afford to buy them. I would make candles and share amongst friends and families and they all loved them. So one day, a family member advised me to start selling them, so I could start making some money. That was how I turned my hobby into a money making small business that I now work at, full time lol.
And as time went by, I started making more researches about the products I was making and selling to people and from that I found out how dangerous burning candles are. I found out that when you burn candles, you release toxins and carcinogens into your space and then breathe all those toxins into your lungs, which may cause health problems like respiratory problems, cancer, just to mention a few. I also found out that candle burning causes about 15% of household fires, which is about 20 household fires daily, that is HUGE and I didn’t want to contribute to that problem!.
As time went by, my customers realized I was on a mission to help them prevent household fires and health hazards and would ask me about body products like body butters, soaps, lip balms, bath salts, body and massage oils etc., and my customers’ requests (and the fact that I was already making bath & body products for my family) have led me into selling those products to my customers as well. Honey’s Scented Company is on a mission to make & sell clean, safe & long-lasting products.
We have also scaled into holding candle making classes for kids and adults, as family and corporate team bonding gatherings. We are currently working on opening our first brick and mortar store, which we intend to use as a production space, a gift shop to sell our products and carry other local artisans’ products. We also intend to use our space to host our candle making classes and people can rent the dedicated event space for small events whenever we do not have workshops. Honey’s Scented Company has also been able to reach some milestones, last year we made some customized candles and soaps for the visitor’s bureau of the city of Mesquite, Texas, to show the beauty of Texas and our gift boxes are now sold in their office. Walmart also reached out to us earlier this year, they were looking for unique local makers to have on their local market place and we now sell on Walmart platform.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
What has been working for us in acquiring customers, is attending vending events, farmers markets and networking events. We go to events where we know we would find out target audiences. We take our products to these events to sell and create awareness, especially for our flagship products, Wickless Candles. We have realized that our customers love to experience our products by seeing, feeling, touching, smelling and getting to know our products.
We love to create and give our customers a unique and lovely experience that makes them want to have & use our products. We also social media to create awareness and reach our target audience. We are currently working on hiring a PR to assist us in creating marketing campaigns to reach more of our target audience.
And positive reviews from customers has also helped us in spreading words to reach more customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://honeysscentedco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeysscentedcompany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Honeys-Scented-Company/100075546742924/?view_public_for=105859388546996
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@honeysscentedcompany
- Other: Pinterest ~ https://www.pinterest.com/HoneysScentedCompany/ Linktr.ee ~ https://linktr.ee/honeysscentedcompany
Image Credits
All pictures were taken by me with my phone and camera.