where have seven years gone!?
Amanda Robinson
In spring of 2018, I was finishing up graduate school and it was the beginning of peak subscription box season. I had seen really cool themes on social media, but none of them were giving me the exact items that I wanted. So, I had the idea - what if I started my own!? I noodled over the idea during the last finals season of grad school, coming up with themes and potential business names. And then I moved to a big city, got my first job, had zero disposable income to speak of and still thought huh, maybe I can pull this off before Christmas!?
With a vision in mind and a ton of coffee, Books & Baths Co was born. Marketed as a monthly book subscription service with items that gave you time to #ReadAndRelax every month. I remember early on being asked - "so what else is going to go in the box?" and I said "candles!!" (Naturally, especially given I'd never made a candle in my life).
Books & Baths had a 2.5 year run that I was very proud of. At its peak I had close to 75 monthly subscribers and dozens of one-off box purchases. However, that model had some serious flaws. I wasn't a bookstore, so I was paying full price for books. I hadn't hacked where to get candle jars yet, so I was using my fragrance supplier and way overpaying. And, I prided myself on using other small businesses (mostly found on Etsy) for the additional themed bath products in like bath bombs, soaps, a daring couple of months I attempted to mail actual bubble bath, and the like. Unfortunately for me, the pandemic exposed the issues in my supply chain in ways that were unavoidable and the result became by mid-2020 a very unreliable product.
Small makers I used to fill the items I didn't make myself were waiting on supplies to get to them which were often stuck on ships in the ocean moving at a snails pace. Same for the wax I was buying which was the best but turns out was sourced from somewhere in Europe. It was too much, it felt like the world was ending & it
wasn't the calm, relaxing experience I wanted customers to have with me. So, it ended. RIP Books & Baths Co. I pulled out one last great holiday box and closed down the orders for the rest of 2020. Except... during the experience of making the boxes, I really fell in love with candle making. I thought, what if that's the next thing!? Could I design multiple candles at once rather than one scent/design a month? So, alongside the end of Books & Baths began... Scented Stories Co. A bookish candle brand with themed candles for old classics and buzzy new books. (I was big into bookstagram! It felt like a natural market!).
And it could have been, but I also knew I'd want to do more than that. Make pop culture themed candles, classic ones, maybe even branch into ceramic jars without labels some day. That first year as Scented Stories Co, I learned a lot.
I didn't sell a ton, but I gathered a few loyal shoppers, friends and just played with it. I tried different colored candles, labels that were different and felt different for every single candle with the only unifier being the logo. I thought it would make me unique! Turns out, that system is terrible for brand awareness and made everything feel too kitsch for me. I sat with the brand for a while, not wanting to leave behind the name but knowing that it ultimately was not right. 
I thought I had made it!! But, it was a big lesson in what happens when you rely on other companies platforms and content for your products. Just as quickly as there was buzz, the buzz disappeared after the holidays. What was left was a much more sustainable pace for a small candle maker who still had a full-time job for a nonprofit. I let it churn along in 2022, where I finally got into rhythms and patterns. Candles would go dead after the holidays, orders pick up for mother's day and graduation, then slow again in the hot summer months before coming back full force for halloween and the holidays.
To be honest, I didn't spend as much time on Isle & Wild in 2023 and the start of this year. I was doing a lot with my full time job, was grappling if my heart was still in this product based business and wondering if I had what it took to be successful in a really crowded market with not-so-great margins and seeing big retailers like Target and Amazon sell candles larger than mine with half the price. How do you create a product that's affordable and healthy but still profitable? Should I switch to custom candles and just make branded products for other businesses? How do you convince people to want your candles when there's about a million makers to choose from? These were questions I had (and still have) sometimes.
Today, Isle & Wild finally has its own website. I still post my products on Etsy, but love having the space to control my branding and marketing a bit better. I'm dreaming of ways to make Isle & Wild more than just candles in 2025 and beyond. I hope you'll join me in shopping small this holiday season, and look forward to sharing more with you all soon on where Isle & Wild is heading! Thank you for being here and joining me on this journey down memory lane this Small Business Saturday on where it all began seven years ago.
