Made in Scotland: Kindness & Co
Welcome back to our Made in Scotland blog! We love a monthly dip into the other small businesses who make all of their products in Scotland like we do at Bill Baber Knitwear. Scotland has such a wealth of talented people who create gorgeous products on our home shores. This month we had a wonderful chat with Nicola from Kindness & Co which is a community interest company that creates beautiful candles, wax melts and soaps with the aim of donating money to several charitable causes. We were intrigued by her idea of #candleswithacause and wanted to find out more.
Can you tell us how your business got started?
Kindness & Co is a social enterprise, established to help fundraise for a charity I started in 2017, South Ayrshire School Clothing Bank. I work within our family business LPS Ltd and fundraising was the biggest challenge for the charity. I had been making candles in my kitchen for friends and family for a while and was getting more and more requests so thought I’d give it a go and in 2019 set up Kindness & Co as a non profit – with the hope to raise enough funds to cover purchased of uniforms for South Ayrshire School Clothing Bank. Business has gone from strength to strength and K&Co now fully funds the charity and other charities too! Meaning I can make candles instead of filling out grant applications.
Nicola at Kindness & Co
Where do you look for inspiration when you are designing new products?
During lockdown I completely changed the labels on my candles, I was much more conscious of the messaging on the candles, really most of them are subliminal messages to my daughters, friends and family!
Made in Scotland: Kindness & Co candles
Can you tell us a bit more about how you make your products?
I make the candles at home, in a little candle hut in the garden. Luckily my day job within our family business allows me some additional storage so I make my candles at home and store them at work.
The Kindness & Co candle hut!
What are your most popular products and which are your own favourites?
I would say the most popular candle is Happy Place, profits from this candle go to Whiteleys Retreat who are a wonderful charity providing free therapeutic short breaks and extended support for children, young people, and their families, with cancer and life altering illnesses.
KINDNESS & CO
If you had to pick one place in Scotland to recommend that people visit, where would it be?
Last summer we visited Harris, in fact we loved it so much we booked our return trip on the way home and can’t wait to go back this summer!
The Isle of Harris
Which other Scottish Makers do you love to recommend?
Copeland Walker Art are artists from Dumfries & Galloway, gorgeous original artwork and I have some of their beautiful cushions too!
COPELAND WALKER ART
Thanks so much to Nicola at Kindness & Co for chatting with us about their wonderful products and social enterprise. Make sure to check out their website, Facebook and Instagram pages to find out more about their beautiful range of candles, subscription boxes, hand washes and wax melts. And remember, the candles fund a variety of fabulous charities so you can feel good while buying!