Last month I started working with Hunters Moon Candles, a home fragrance company based in the Oxfordshire countryside. Run by two sisters, their scented candles are hand poured in England in simple apothecary jars, made from recycled glass and formed using a plant base. The message behind their sumptuous vegan candles is to enjoy “a moment for me” to re-balance and re-set after a long day - exactly what Seventeen Minutes is all about. 

Now let's find out more about Hunters Moon Candles. 

1. Tell us a bit about yourselves.

We are sisters; Alice and Lucy. Lucy lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband Mike and sons Henry and Ben, Alice lives a stone's throw to where we grew up in Oxfordshire with her husband Richard and children George and Ella.

2. How did you come up with the idea for Hunters Moon?

We are both obsessive candle lovers and feel passionately that whilst candles make beautiful decorations for your home they are for burning, enjoying and escaping the everyday.
When we started our research it became very apparent very quickly that everyone loves a Jo Malone or a Dyptique candle, (often received as a gift) however they don't often or regularly burn them as they like to have them on the shelf or mantlepiece and don't want them to run out.  - The exact opposite of what a scented candle should do!
This amongst other things led us to launch Hunters Moon. Our products are plant based, the candles are made from a soy wax meaning no paraffin is used in the making of them. As well as wanting to create a quality luxury product we also wanted it to beat an affordable price so our customers wouldn't feel guilty burning them and could justify treating themselves or someone else to another.

3. How did you know you were on to a good thing? 

We launched in November 2018 with 8 fragrances and 3 sizes and what we thought was a good quantity of candles to launch out first quarter with, we started by selling at local markets and pop ups and quickly seemed to get the positive feedback we were looking for and were delighted to receive comments about the lovely branding and fragrance selection. We started to see repeat customers and receiving lovely comments comparing us to some brands we certainly aspire to.

4. How do you juggle the business with real life? 

Juggle is probably the perfect world to describe the whirlwind of running your own business around a young family. We now know lots of women running businesses around their families. We know we are all in the same boat with what we are all trying to achieve, learn and juggle. We have a continuously edited to do list and we know what we need to achieve each day and between us do our best to do it. We feel incredibly fortunate to have each other to bat things to when we get stuck! We think it's all about being realistic despite having high standards & aspirations. We have to remember not to put too much pressure on ourselves, we are only human! 

5. What does a typical day for you look like? 

Nothing seems typical about 2020! Even before this with 4 children between us typical days were hard to come by.....Everyday is pretty different. But Monday - Wednesday we get up and do all things children until 9am when we do the school and nursery run. Then our working day starts with packing orders, sending emails, keeping up on our emails and admin and posting on social media! Thursday and Friday we have the children so there is a lot of juggling and team work that happens between us on these days around children napping and playing and we have the evenings to catch up too on the day's events.

Weekends are then spent catching up or at markets selling our products to wonderful customers new and old, we try desperately to get the family balance in too. It's safe to say we are generally pretty busy with lots of plates spinning wildly.

6. How did you choose the name Hunters Moon?

When thinking of a name Hunters Moon seemed the obvious choice - In childhood our grandfather’s home provided lifelong happy memories and a wonderful fragrance. Hunters Moon, was the name of our grandfather’s house and is the inspiration behind our brand and collection.