David: So I worked in recruitment for a number of years and at the beginning of Covid, I was made redundant. I'm not one of those people who can sit at home and twiddle their thumbs, so I thought what will people be doing during Covid, while they're based at home. Burning candles - same as me! I watched about a thousand YouTube videos on how to make candles. I couldn't obviously go to any classes or do anything during lockdown. So I taught myself essentially, and spent a lot of time and money testing, making candles and going through the process of the best way to make sure the candle burns well, and they have a really nice finish - playing about with colours and different containers, etc. Homewick started from there, I began selling to a couple of my friends who kindly bought some of the candles, and then started my Instagram page, and it took off from there! It's now just over a year since I started the business.

 

BA: Wow, I can't believe it's only been a year! You seem so well established! 

David: Thank you! It's been a lot of long hours and late nights, but we're slowly getting there. You have my candles in the lovely Brand Academy store on the South Bank, and I'm just starting to do a number of markets across London, so you'll be able to come and smell some of the candles, and hopefully buy some if you like the smell.

The idea behind Homewick is that you can create your own essentially. I wanted to try something that other companies weren't doing. I found that often you go to stores, and you perhaps like the look of the candle or the smell, or the colour of it, but not all three you can often find together. So the idea behind Homewick was that you can basically customise it and make your own. To begin with on the website you'll be able to choose your container, and then you can select a wick. There's either the cotton wick, or the wooden wick, and then you can add your wax and have different wax colours, like the purple or pink here. Then you can choose your scent, so there's over 36 different scents that you can choose from. Then you mix it all together, and at the end you can add various text onto the candle, maybe 'Happy Birthday', or 'Thank You', 'New Home' or 'Get Well Soon' or whatever it might be, and really personalise it to exactly how you want that candle. The same goes with the diffuses - you can do exactly the same. You can choose the colour, the look, the different reeds, the caps. Wax melts you can design too, and I've just released some room sprays as well. So the same process: you can choose your own scents and make your own!

       

      

BA: So what's the difference between the cotton and the wooden wicks?    

David: Good question, I get asked this a lot. There's no difference in terms of burn time - I think that's the key thing people want to know. They want their candle to last! The cotton wick is a standard cotton wick, but it's not like ones you might buy in a store, because they burn very quickly. This is a very thorough cotton wick, which will keep your candle looking as good as possible. The wooden wick has a slight crackle as it burns, which is nice especially in winter and colder months. You can have your candle on the side and you can just hear that crackle, as well as obviously having a nice scent burning as well.