Today on the blog we are chatting with Michelle and Joanne, the Co-Founders of Sent.studio, a 100% hand-poured soy candle company in Sydney and home to the first and only custom scent service in Australia. Click on the link in our bio to read our Q+A with them where we get right into the nitty gritty. All about the inspiration behind their business, how they got featured in Vogue and what can we expect from Sent Studio in 2024.
Q. Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself and your brand story
We’re sent studio, a 100% hand-poured soy candle company in Sydney and home to the first and only custom scent service in Australia.
Our candles focus on unique hard-to-find scents that bring you back to a place/memory in time. Alongside this, we also have a customised candle service called The Candle Bar, allowing customers to create their own one-of-a-kind scents that remind them of their most cherished memories; a wedding day, a person they love or simply somewhere they miss.
Q. How did you get started with Sent Studio and what's the inspiration behind it?
sent studio was born out of two problems: Michelle had been looking for the perfect candle blends for years (citrusy and fresh, not so floral and woody) but had never found any to her taste. Joanne thought it would be amazing if people could create their own unique scents out of memories, but couldn’t find a company that did just that. So, we combined our ideas together and sent studio was born!
We created our brand with only two missions in mind: to create the best-smelling candles and do good for our planet. Our brand ethos is to be committed to positive change for the planet - there’s only one Earth, so it would be devastating if we didn’t take good care of it.
Q. What are your strengths as Co-Founders?
We always say there isn’t another person we would run a business together with, because our strengths perfectly complement each other. Michelle comes from a design background so she has great eye for detail. She does all our branding, designs, graphics and launch styling. She is also organised and can crunch financials like a pro. Joanne comes from a marketing background, so she’s in charge of all the strategies, launches and social media accounts. She also handles all the copywriting and website development. We balance each other out!
Q. What is your most popular scent?
We have two scents that always alternate between #1 and #2 - Smooth Affogato is a creamy coffee-based scent that is just the right amount of bitter and sweet. Jasmine White Tea is our fresh scent that is the perfect background scent. Our customers love lighting it and letting it burn whilst they work/relax!
q. How did you get featured in Vogue?
When we launched, we didn’t have budget to hire a PR company, so we wrote our own press releases and sent them off to the media. We were so lucky to get replies back from publishers, which we then sent product to in hopes for a media feature! Since then it was all about building relationships and always sending them any new updates we have.
Q. What has been your greatest achievement / proudest moment since starting the business?
Moving from our home garage, to a shared space to our own independent warehouse in less than 2 years of starting the business would have to be a real ‘pinch me’ moment for us! We started off on our kitchen bench with a converted garage space, and would have never thought of owning our own space away from home. Taking the leap and being able to have a warehouse was honestly a dream come true and we are so excited to see where it takes us.
q. What’s your one sustainable switch?
We’re big coffee drinkers so in the past 2 years, we’ve switched to using reusable keep cups when we go to cafes or have coffee ourselves at home. It’s so much lighter on the planet and is just so much easier transporting it from one place to another!
Q. What does Self Care mean to you?
Self-care means about getting into YOUR own zone and whatever you need to do to relax and reset. For us, it’s about doing the things that you love at your own pace, in your own time. Jo loves to light a candle with a face mask and a movie on, whereas Michelle loves evening walks with her pup and coming home to relax on the couch.
Q. What can we expect from Sent Studio in 2024?
We have lots of exciting scents in the pipeline that we can’t wait to launch next year. Of course, our monthly subscription boxes are also a hit for those wanting to discover new scents and gifts. We’re really putting our focus into getting stocked in retail stores so our customers can smell our scents IRL, so hopefully next year we can keep adding to the list!