INTERVIEW: Adventures In Making And Selling Scented Candles

In the journey towards setting up her scented candle business, candle artisan and entrepreneur Christina Loke Kit May took quite the winding route before quite suddenly finding herself running a retail business with a physical presence in an upscale shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur. On 17 May 2024, MayLeeLoves opened their “doors” to buyers at Pavilion Damansara Heights, taking up a kiosk lot on the fourth floor of the shopping centre.

You see, Christina had been a national rhythmic gymnast when she was in school, representing Malaysia at the 15^th Commonwealth Games and the 17^th SEA Games 1993 where the team won silver. After finishing the national examination to obtain the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (the Malaysian Certificate of Education) or SPM, she went on to study law at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and did her Bar Vocational Course at City, University of London.

Coming back to Malaysia, Christina practised at two different law firms before joining an asset management company for about 3 years. In 2011, she joined Hong Leong Bank Berhad as a Business Compliance Manager and is a Certified Anti- Money Laundering Compliance Officer from the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers. Currently, she is still at Hong Leong.

How, then, did Christina Loke get into the business of making and selling scented candles, and how does she balance her full-time job with what is now her full-time business? We caught up with Christina Loke of MayLeeLoves to learn about her entrepreneurship journey and what it takes to make it work.

From Hobby To Business

MWAH: Tell us how MayLeeLoves started and why you decided to sell handmade scented candles?

Christina Loke: It started off as a hobby, and then I decided to sell them online, on my social media. I was bored, frankly, and wanted something to do and I had a baking business that was just as fulfilling but more tiring than making candles. And with baking, you can only make it the day before, whereas with scented candles I can make them weeks in advance and it doesn’t go bad. And, you can continue marketing the same thing.

“With candles I can make them weeks in advance and it doesn’t go bad. And, you can continue marketing the same thing.”

MWAH: Did you like candles in particular before?

CL: I did but I wasn’t like a massive fan. Frankly, I only thought there were scented candles, I didn’t know there were so many types of candles that existed so when I went for a candle-making course, wow! It was quite an eye opener. I saw that there are so many types of wax, so many types of candles and moulds and I was just fascinated from Day 1.

How To Choose The Right Business To Do

MWAH: How do you decide what type of candles to sell? Do you research what people like or just make what you like?

CL: I attended that course on how to make candles because I wanted to learn everything from the basics and to understand how it works. So, I went for a 3-day course and I learned a lot from that so from there I just started to explore and decide what I wanted to sell. And I think a lot of people like scented stuff, and the cutesy stuff.

Christina decided on what she wanted to sell,
not on what she wanted to make.

MWAH: I also saw at the shop that you have the more “Luxe Decor” candle look?

CL: Well they call it the decorative candle, people don’t expect to actually burn it, and it makes a really nice centrepiece, like for a nice dinner. The long marble piece is my favourite.

MWAH: Was it easy making the ones like the Medusa one?

CL: Everything is in a mould, so you just pour it in and unmould it at the end of the day, but it takes some patience and practice to unmould because sometimes not everything is even, so you have to be really careful with some parts that stick out so you might just end up breaking it. And because everything is hand poured, air bubbles and slight imperfections from the moulds are expected. Then, what you do is: you reuse it. The good thing about making candles is, there’s no wastage. So if you break something, just remelt it and do it again!

So, that’s also one of the main reasons why I wanted to make candles, so I don’t waste. So if you have excess from making candles, you just pour in a paper cup and write down what it is, and next thing you know you can just make it again.

“If you break something, just remelt it and do it again!”

A life lesson to be learned from adventures in candle-making

MWAH: Why did you decide to go with soy candles?

CL: Because it’s natural and non-toxic and safe. I don’t use paraffin wax because it’s not good for the environment and it’s a bit toxic, so I try to go with soy, pillar and beeswax, so they’re the more natural and safe type of wax.

MWAH: As for branding, how did you come up with the name MayLeeLoves?

CL: Took me a while because the original name that I wanted was kinda hard to pronounce, so if you want to build your brand you want a name that people can easily remember and pronounce, so I kinda scraped the first suggestion. So MayLeeLoves is actually a combination of my name and my mom’s name. So, the word “Love” is just a nice word that is simple enough that people can remember.

Scaling Up The Business

MWAH: You had only been selling candles since August 2023, and only from your social media accounts. How did you go into a brick-and-mortar retail space and what made you decide to do it?

CL: How this kiosk got started was that someone who works for Pavilion bought my dragon candles through my Instagram, and she came back a few times. Then we met up for coffee and she just asked if I was interested in setting up this kiosk, in collaboration with Pavilion. So, here we are!

MWAH: So with the opening of the kiosk, you had to ramp up production. Did you have to hire someone to help make more candles?

CL: No, I didn’t hire anyone and until today, I still make everything myself. I invested in extra moulds and just kept at it diligently until opening day. My place started to look like a factory! It was definitely exhausting but so worthwhile. 

I have more than one mould, which I buy in bulk, like maybe ten moulds, so that I can make ten at one time but it also depends on how big the candles are. The bigger ones will take a longer time to cure but if you’re talking about the small ones like, I can get 10 done in 4 hours. For the bigger moulds, I have two at the most, as they’re not exactly the cheapest.

However, for running the kiosk, I do have someone helping me with the sales and Pavilion brought in their consultant to help build the space and advise on how to display the products.

MWAH: So you still have a full-time job. How do you balance that with what is now a full- time business?

CL: Yes I can’t afford to quit yet and frankly I don’t intend on quitting my full-time job unless this business really takes off. I am extremely grateful my job doesn’t require me to work overtime or on weekends so I can still go home, unwind and fulfill whatever orders I have. I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying, “Find your passion and you’ll never work a day in your life”.

MWAH: How do you see yourself going forward with this, are you going to expand, or see what happens?

CL: Probably go with the flow but this is also in anticipation of early retirement (laughs)… I don’t wanna work forever!

Check out MayLeeLoves at Lot P4.09.00, Level 4, Pavilion Damansara Heights, and follow them on Instagram at @mayleeloves