A SAVVY businesswoman who used her last £300 to make bum boulds has turned the investment into half a million pounds.
Gaby Jones, 26, faced financial ruin after losing her job in hospitality as the pandemic hit.
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But contemplating her future over a Wagamama’s, she told her boyfriend of a businesses idea she had.
Gaby, from Chiswick, West London, told MyLondon: “I had £300 in my account and said to him, ‘I want to make candles’.
“But not basic candles, I wanted to make a statement.”
He agreed to match her £300 to pay for a mould in the shape of a bottom which she would use to make her candles.
Gaby then started work in her boyfriend’s aunt’s kitchen in June 2020 producing her Caïa Candle, named after the Roman goddess of fire and women.
She trashed endless pots and pans melting the wax over a cooker.
As well as the bum, she made candles shaped like the lower and upper halves of the female body – inspired by Greco-Roman sculptures.
Male body forms are also available.
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Incredibly, within three days of sending the candles out to retailers they had made their money back.
It wasn’t long before they were raking in profits, and then Gaby received an order from department store Selfridges.
They managed to successfully make the entire order in the kitchen before taking on whopping £7,000 orders only three months into the business.
The big bum candles then exploded onto the international stage with 14 department stores, including Harrods and Flannels stocking the cheeky wax figures.
The cheapest of the 100 percent vegan candles comes in at £24 and goes up to a whopping £240 for the big 4.5kg bum candle.
And they have got a celebrity following, too, with the likes of Teigen, Ferne McCann and Rochelle Humes raving about their bum candles.
Four months after launching, they opened up their own studio and are now a well known brand.
In just two years, Gaby has made nearly £500,000.
And recently Caïa Candle raised a seed investment of £220,000 to redesign their website and improve the relationship with the customer.
“Never in a million years did I think I would make a living selling bum candles”, Gaby joked.
Find out more here.
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