From homemade to high-growth how user feedback, brand story and repeat systems laid the foundation for everything

The First Flame

It began with a feeling, not a business plan and product strategy just a quiet need to create something meaningful by hand. I wanted to pour my intention into experiencing the atmosphere of Sussex in England, through the physical and tangible, that’s how my first Sussex inspired candle came to life. I didn’t know then that it would light the path for everything that followed.

When that first candle sold back in 2017, I felt something deeper than validation, I felt resonance. I had handcrafted something out of pure presence and someone else had felt that presence too, that was the moment I realised I wasn’t just making candles, I was creating a feeling and that emotional experience was real enough for someone to buy into.

It wasn’t about scents, wax and wicks, for me it was about what my brand represented.

Listening Between the Lines

In the early days, I thought I was selling a product, but my customers showed me something else. They showed me, without saying it directly, that they were lighting something more than a candle, they were lighting memories, experience, celebration and relaxation.

Every review, message and photo they tagged me in was feedback dressed up as gratitude and I started to listen deeply, I didn’t just read their words, I decoded them, their emotions became my roadmap and their preferences became my sketches.

One review would say, “It made my house feel like home again.” Another, “I gifted it to my sister after a hard year and she loved it.” These weren’t testimonials they were truth transmissions.

I created a system just to capture their feedback, not in a corporate sense, but as a sacred archive. I colour-coded themes, tracked patterns and let those insights inform everything: scent blends, packaging, website language, even the handwritten note inside the box. I wasn’t designing for customers, I was designing with them.

From Craft to Coherence

Orders had grown beyond what I could manage, I was still pouring, labelling, packing, writing notes, each one filled with care, but the chaos was creeping in, I knew I had to make a decision: either let the overwhelm erode the experience or build a system that would protect it.

That’s when everything shifted. I stopped seeing each task as separate, I started seeing the structure behind the experience. I mapped out the candle journey from first click to final flicker and I built a repeatable process to deliver it without burning myself out.

I wasn’t scaling production, I was scaling peace and that peace required structure.

The Power of Emotional Gifting

What surprised me most was discovering how often people bought my candles not for themselves, but as gifts not for birthdays or Christmas, necessarily, but for moments that were harder to name: get well, housewarming, forgiveness and hope.

I realised the candle wasn’t a personal ritual, it was an emotional offering a way to say, “I’m thinking of you.” and to send warmth when words are just not enough.

That insight completely transformed how I designed the unboxing experience, the packaging became part of the message, it had to feel like a hug, I wanted every parcel to arrive as a quiet gesture of love not just a product, but a moment of emotional care beautifully delivered.

Scaling Without Losing the Spark

Growth can be seductive, but it can also be risky if you chase it without a framework.

At one point, I made the mistake of launching too many options too quickly, it diluted the clarity of the brand and confused the customer journey. More choice didn’t mean more sales, it meant more noise.

That’s when I came back to the core, I simplified, and I created repeatable systems: batch production, streamlined stock, fulfilment checklists and even templated customer communication that still felt personal. The goal wasn’t to be bigger, the goal was to be clearer to protect the feeling people came for in the first place.

What I learned is that structures don’t restrict creativity, they preserve it and they give it room to breathe. I could still experiment and create, but inside an architecture that held everything with integrity.

The Brand Is the Memory

People came back because of how the candle made them feel not just in the moment, but in memory. The scent, texture, delivery, unboxing, all of it created a sensory imprint, a candle might burn for forty hours, but the emotion it creates lingers much longer.

That’s what branding really is, not a logo or a colour palette, it’s the memory you leave behind in someone’s mind.

That realisation changed the way I approached everything. Every visual element, word on my website, texture in the packaging was designed to leave a feeling.

Balancing the Muse and the Market

There’s always a tension between what you want to create and what your audience asks for. At first, I tried to serve both in the same space, but it didn’t work, it created confusion for me and for the customers.

Eventually, I gave each part of myself its own lane, I kept a creative lab for creating and play, where I followed inspiration and tried new ideas without pressure, and I let the market dictate what went into full production, what had data behind it and people were actually coming back for.

That division gave me freedom, I didn’t lose my creative spark, I just learned where to channel it.

Building With Emotional Flow

Sussex Special wasn’t just my first business, it was my first real training ground in systems thinking, I didn’t realise at the time that I was learning to build frameworks. I was mapping flows, creating architecture and building a product experience that could hold someone from the moment they clicked “Buy” to the moment they lit the last flicker.

Everything was intentional and every step was part of a bigger whole, the feedback loop never stopped. Every customer interaction was data, message or map. I learned to think not just in candles, but in ecosystems.

One Message That Changed Everything

There’s one moment I’ll never forget, a customer reached out to tell me that one of my Sussex candles reminded them of their late mother, they said the scent unlocked a memory they thought they’d lost.

That message reminded me why I started, that I wasn’t in the candle business. I was in the memory, emotional and resonance business.

You can’t plan for those moments, but if you build something with enough care, they come.

If I Had to Sum It All Up

From that first handmade candle to the ten-thousandth sale, I’ve learned that product ownership is not about controlling the outcome, it’s about structuring the experience and listening so deeply that your customers become your co-creators. It’s about knowing when to protect the creative spark and when to let systems carry the flame.