What effectively began as a hobby and a way to earn a little extra pocket money, has turned into a full-time job with benefits for Beloved Scents owner Amie Gibson.

In 2013, the recently single mum of one, had a corporate job and started making candles as a side project.

“I took them to work and the girls just fell in love,” she said. Amie began giving her creations to friends and family as Christmas gifts, but realised people wanted to buy them.

“I thought, I’ll have to name it,” she said. “So it comes from my name, Amie, which means ‘dearly beloved’.”

Moving into Kinghorne Traders’ shared space in early 2014, Amie continued to make and sell her 100 per cent soy candles as well as other products, including melts, reed diffusers and one of her most popular items, car diffusers. 

Twelve months ago she took over the entire lease of the building and around this time last year had 12 stockists, mostly from the Shoalhaven.

Today, Amie has 200 stockists from all over Australia and six in New Zealand. 

“I’m looking to expand into New Zealand and do a gift fair there soon,” she said.

Despite the geographical expansion, Amie’s fragrances are all based on smells from home – the Shoalhaven.

“I grew up in the Shoalhaven, near the beach and on rural properties, so most of my scents are inspired by that,” she said.

Scent is of course, deeply connected to memory, and Amie said that is what she hopes to give her customers – fond memories. 

“I hope to make people smile and feel happy. Most of my products are bought as gifts, so they are handmade with love and bought with love,” she said.

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“I was at a restaurant recently and someone on the table behind me was opening a present and it was one of my candles. It was nice to see how excited they got.”

Amie also loves the flexibility her business allows her.

“I spent 15 years in the corporate world, which was not very flexible. So it’s nice to have found more of a work life balance,” she said.

The future looks bright too, with a couple of gift fairs planned. Amie is also looking at hiring staff and making use of some new machines to make production more efficient. 

Only the best wax will do

A candle’s a candle right? Wrong. There’s a number of reasons soy is a better choice than paraffin.

Soy wax is non-toxic and burns cleaner than paraffin, with no petrol carbon soot which can blacken walls, ceilings and furniture, contaminate ventilation and duct-work in your home, as well as add toxic carcinogens into the air.

Soy candles burn slower and cooler than paraffin wax, creating a longer burning candle.

Soybeans are a renewable source, unlike paraffin which consists of petroleum.

Since soybeans are vegetables, soy wax (which is basically made of hydrogenated soybean oil) is naturally biodegradable. Soy wax is also easier to remove from materials and other surfaces than paraffin wax.