The first thing I want to say here is that I TRULY love what I do! I am often asked how I got started in candlemaking and I feel a bit like "listen with Mother" but ... get comfy and I'll tell you!!!
Think back to when you were growing up - as a child and teenager you had something you were good at? Something that you could always look at and think, "yeah, that's my THING!" whether it was sports, numbers, language or whatever - there was something that you excelled at. Well see, for me I was kinda okay at everything! I did very well at school because I studied hard, but I never really found my "thing".
Back in 1997 there wasn't as much information on the website as there is these days. I had no choice but to TEST, TEST, TEST to come up with my formulas and recipes of waxes and different additives. I eventually stumbled across a terrific wax formula that made my candles burn for a superbly long time, and ... it's the exact same recipe that I still use today!! I then started looking outside of the UK for fragrances and began importing fragrance oils from the USA and by this time I had more candles in my home than I could ever expect to burn!
By this time I was pregnant with Nathan (22 months between them) and I'd given away tons of my candles as gifts to friends and family etc. It was was suggested to me that maybe I should take some of my candles to a craft fair, and after the initial shock of being parted from some of "my babies", I booked my first show!!! I wasn't sure whether selling out of almost everything at that first show scared me more than the potential I realised at that time!! I still wasn't really even thinking about a business at that point - I was just excited that I had made enough money to book my next few shows AND buy a big sack of wax and some more fragrances! Hehheee.
By the time Nathan was born in May 2000. I'd been to enough craft shows and had enough repeat customers to know that I had a seriously good product! I held my hand up and said "Hello Mr Tax Man" and registered DeeLights as a business in August 2000 when Nathan was just three months old.
I specialise in unique candles for unique people!! My custom colour and fragrance option means the world literally IS your oyster!
So over a decade later DeeLights is one of the TOP THREE websites in google for "scented candles" and I work HARD to keep it that way. At the time of writing this (Feb '08) I'm aiming to have a shop in the Lanes in Brighton by the end of this year - read my blog and watch this space for updates on that!!!
CLICK HERE to buy yummy scented hand poured candles :-) (opens in a new window)
