At 50, This Homemaker Started an Eco-Friendly Soy Candle Business

After turning 50, Seema Arora borrowed her skills as a homemaker and started a venture called Rad Living, an eco-friendly soy wax candle business along with her son Vineet.

Seema Arora was born and brought up in Agra. She moved to Delhi after her marriage. For 30 years she had dedicated her full time to her family only. But after turning 50, she felt the need of having space of her own where her ideas and opinions were valued. That is how she, along with her son Vineet, established Rad Living in 2020. Rad Living is a start-up that makes hand-poured, natural soy wax candles backed by premium hand-picked fragrances.

It was Vineet’s idea to start a scented candle business. He approached his mother with the idea, and she was a bit clueless about the process. But Vineet gave her confidence and when they started the production of the candles, Seema realized that she had a knack for it. She had an in-built understanding of flavors, fragrances and taste palettes.

While Vineet spent time sourcing raw materials and building an online store, Seema and her daughter Radhika spent evenings testing fragrances and creating blends.

“Candle making isn’t as easy as YouTube videos show. It needs precision, accuracy, and experimentation to understand the nature of wax you’re dealing with and how it blends with fragrances. Nevertheless, I found the process therapeutic. We started it as a family project, but the response was phenomenal.” Seema told in an interview with The Better India. “Through our testing, we derived a formulation which is a blend of soy wax with other vegetable waxes and essential oils to bring it to the right melting temperatures and keep the fragrance flow consistent and pleasant,” she adds.

They use eco-friendly soy wax to make candles, instead of paraffin wax. Although soy wax is costlier than paraffin wax, they did not want to use anything that will harm the environment. They hand-pour the wax to make the candles. Their pillar candles start from about Rs 380 and go up to Rs 1400 for combos, while their container candles begin from Rs 699 and then go up to Rs 2500.

However for Seema, it is not about the money, Rad Living has provided her with a second life which she is thankful for. 

-Staff Reporter