Hi! My name is Guillaume and I founded Ma Lumière in May 2019.
It started in 2010
As you can tell, my name isn't really common and that's because I was not born in the UK. I am originally from Normandy in France and I moved to Manchester on August 30th 2010.
I first moved to the UK when I was 18 years old as au-pair (live in childminder) and my original plan was to stay for one year and go back home to study. However, like my plans in life, they rapidly changed: As I fell in love with this city straight away, I decided to stay a second year.
At the end of my second year, I felt like I hadn't had enough, and by that point, I decided to get my first flat and job. I started working in a contact centre as a French Customer Service Advisor for an online broker and worked my way up to becoming a Learning & Brand Specialist.
In the mean time, I also discover a love for the Zumba® Fitness program. I started taking classes regularly as a participant and decided to become an Instructor in December 2011. Since then, I have taught hundreds of classes and I have loved every minute of it!
Did I mention that "Guillaume" was the French equivalent of William?
How it all started
Now, to the main part: Ma Lumière
I have always loved candles and one day I realised that I ran out. I also love crafty things so I thought I would give candle making a go. I did some research online on how to make candles and I ordered everything I needed.
As you can see, my first candles turned out great. Well, that's what I thought... Until I realised that I got the wrong wax:
I used Pillar wax, which is used to make pillar candles and not container candles. When I tilted the candles upside down, they fell out of their containers.
I went back to doing more research and I realised that there was so many waxes to choose from, so many fragrances to choose from, so many wicks to choose from and so on.
After months of testing, I finally was happy with my 6 initial products.
Ma Lumière was born: I introduced 3 initial Fragrances (Black Orchid, Paradise Beach and Pink Fizz & Pomelo) in a candle, reed diffuser, room spray, wax melt, hand wash and hand & body lotion version.
I was (and still am) extremely proud of what I created and I shared it straight away with the World. My friends and family became extremely supportive by being the first ones to purchase my products and I can't thank them enough for that. I created my social media channels (Instagram & Facebook) and my website, and off I went...
After a while, I realised that it would take way more to spread the word, so I started attending artisan markets (which I will talk about more in details in another blog) and visiting offices where I set up my stall for employees to shop on their lunch break. I went through the madness of Christmas and then 2020 came. I guess this is a good point to finish on and you will have to come back for part II...
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