We may be headed towards a one-dose summer and more time (hopefully) spent outside of our homes, but there’s one pandemic trend we’ll be holding onto: Our obsession with perfectly curating our spaces. Throughout the last year, sales and searches for home (and balcony!) decor rose astronomically, among them sales for candles. Because when the world is literally burning around you, why not light a scented candle?
Just ask Sundus, Suroor, and Sarah Aziz, sisters and co-founders of Toronto-based Blush Candles. Launched in February, their vegan, hand-poured, and eco-friendly candles took the internet by storm after the sisters started posting about the line to TikTok. Within a few days, their videos — showing the sisters styling and burning the cream-coloured, rose-shaped candles — went viral; a video of one of their first Etsy orders being packaged for shipment received 3.5 million views. “Sarah came running down the hallway saying, ‘Oh my God, our TikTok is going viral, we're gonna sell out,” Suroor recalls. With only 11,000 views on their account at the time, “it was such an exciting moment for us. It was crazy how big it got within 24 hours.”
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And sell out they did — all 1,000 candles in stock.
@blushcandles Packaging our first order from Etsy! 🤍 ##smallbusinesscheck ##packagingorders ##etsycandles
♬ Lofi - Domknowz
Blush Candle’s TikTok account now has millions of views and over 49,000 followers, with the sisters taking their marketing to new (and seriously inventive) heights, including a styling video in IKEA (filmed before the latest COVID-19 lockdown in Toronto), to show how well their candles fit into any space.
“Gifting roses is really romantic,” Sarah says of their decision to start out with their now-iconic rose shape. “Whether you're receiving a bouquet of roses from your boyfriend, best friend, or sister, it makes you feel special and appreciated.”
And as for why the candles took off? The sisters have a theory: “It’s unique [in the shape], and then tied in with the branding [of being sisters], it tells a story that a lot of people can connect with.” Especially during a time when a lot of people aren't surrounded by their loved ones, and haven’t been for an extended period of time. “That’s really what people are connected with, that message of feeling loved and appreciated, even from afar.”
The good news for people who were unable to score a candle in the first drop? The spring collection dropped on May 27, and includes the same staple rose shape, but in a myriad of colours and scents, including blush, powder blue, and lilac. In addition, they’re adding some candle accessories, like handmade trinket tray dishes and curated gift boxes.
In case they sell out before you can buy, here are a few more made-in Canada candle brands to shop now.
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