Simon Bell – My Australia

RICHMOND CANDLE COMPANY – MY AUSTRALIA

I first met Simon Bell when he was selling his stunning candles at my local shopping centre. From there, this tiny little business has expanded rapidly across Australia and launched a new range of products using wonderful (and sweet-smelling) Aussie natural ingredients from Mother Nature.

When you get a break from work, what do you love most about enjoying downtime in Australia?

My partner and I both work full-time in our day jobs and run our home fragrance business during evenings and weekends, so downtime is a rare luxury. That said, we enjoy the business so much that it never truly feels like work. When I do have the opportunity to step away, I value slowing right down. That might mean enjoying a great coffee and something delicious at a local café, browsing shops without an agenda or a list, or spending unhurried time outdoors with our two little dogs.

What is your Ideal Aussie weekend getaway?

Hamilton Island is one of my favourites for a weekender. With direct flights, a golf cart from the airport to where you’re staying, a well-stocked supermarket, restaurants close by,  and great weather all year round, what’s not to love?

How did The Richmond Candle Co. come about?

Back in 2020, I was working in travel and of course that all stopped so suddenly, and I found myself out of work. My partner gave me a candle making kit for something to pass the time while I wasn’t working. The first few were okay but through persistence and exploration I started to get better and better at it and before I knew it, I was making more candles than I knew what to do with14. As a way to move them on, I learnt about how to set up a business and worked on some simple branding then started selling them in local Facebook groups15. Soon I ran out of groups to sell them in because I wasn’t a ‘local’ 😃16. I then took it to shopping centres and hired little pop-up stands and that’s when things really took off17. Since then we’ve expanded into new ranges like plug-in diffusers (which are amazing!), room sprays, ceramic candles and reed diffusers.

How did you discover that you loved making candles? What was the process that you had to learn?

It was purely by accident. I had only ever bought cheap candles myself, as I didn’t know what difference a good candle made to the experience. When I got a candle making kit, it was quite a luxurious one, and that opened my eyes to the world of quality fragrance and how much better it is when you spend on good materials. In candle making, two factors are paramount: precise ratios and careful temperature control. The fragrance-to-wax ratio must be finely balanced to ensure the scent is refined and enjoyable, while temperature must be managed at every stage of the process.

What do you love most about running your own small business? I get the biggest kick out of people coming back and re-purchasing. There’s nothing more satisfying than someone showing they love your products so much that they come back and buy again. I also really enjoy the creative side. It’s really nice to channel our creativity into something that brings joy to other people and also allows us to express ourselves.

You relocated the business from Melbourne to regional Victoria – why the change?

My partner and I have lived together for 16 years and over time our priorities in life have shifted. In our earlier years we enjoyed the convenience and social aspect of being in the inner city. But as our lives have grown busier with work commitments, we’ve needed to find ways we can a) create more space for quiet downtime but also b) literally more space! A few years ago we moved from an apartment to a little house just a kilometre away and expected that the upgrade was enough to satisfy point (a) and (b) above, but we soon realised that it wasn’t, so we bought a block of land in Trentham about an hour out of Melbourne.  We thought it would be a weekender, but we made a snap decision and said, “What’s actually keeping us here? Why don’t we take a chance?” We’ve since built a house that has much more space for us to do what we love and continue making, packing and sending out home fragrance all over Australia.