SPEAKER_00 1:45

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. It's DJ and what with Skip. Excellent. And we are here today in beautiful Gastonia, North Carolina, at the Bradley Community Center and Park. We're hanging out with an event put on by the Honeycomb Experience and our man Reasons Brown. It is like a two-in-one good day type thing going on. So basically, there's stuff for wellness for both mom, for mind, body, and spirit, as well as a community give back. They're going to be giving out, what is it, my fault? School, supplies, book sacks. There's going to even be some hygiene kits and et cetera. They have food going on over here. We have an artist out here. We have chess. Man, there's places for you to go and do a darn workout if you want to get a workout in this way. It's the person sitting across from the already knows. You can go in here and get some breathing exercise done. They're playing basketball. You can plant seeds and start a garden, whatever you want to do. We got it out here today. So just before I get started, I want to let you know, of course, because of that, there's a bunch of cool vendors and artists out here. We want to try to speak with as many as that we can today so that way we can get the information out and let them know what's going on. Today, I am pleased to actually have across for me somebody that participated in that horrible, horrible physical activity event that we had to do earlier today, Miss Sabrina. And Miss Sabrina, she's going to introduce herself to our podcast audience. Please let them know what it is that you do and the reason for you being out here today.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

My name is Sabrina Stewart, and I am the owner of Aquamarine Brie Candles. I make candles and wax notes and read diffuses, home sense.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yes. Hey, excellent. Oh, we got us a business person out here today. So we always like speaking to people like you. Actually, you're one of the reasons why our podcast exists. So I must ask, where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Well, I was born in New York, but I was raised in Charleston, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Shut the front door.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah. Man, where'd you go to that school? I I grew up in West Ashley. I went to St. Andrews High School.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Oh my gosh, you're for real. Okay, so I went to college in Charleston, so then my brother's kid. Get out! Yo, we've been like I literally just moved, I moved up from there because of the pandemic. Okay. If not, I'd probably still be in Charleston. All right, so I know my Charleston folk. I love my Charleston. I live downtown. I know my people from Bat the Green. I know people from Squirrel. I know people on east side. For real, for real. We know I know.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yo, you make it my day. All right, so how did you get into candles and home sense?

SPEAKER_01 4:15

So I've always loved burning candles. You know, everybody says, I love candles, I love candles. Yeah. When I moved to Charlotte, one of my friends and I, we used to go different places in the city to learn our way around town. Okay. And we found a small business owner. He had opened a candle shop on the south side. And we went there like every two to three weeks. Like we were always there giving him our money. And one day we were leaving, and she said, she looked at me and she said, We can make our own candles. Let's let's find everything that we need. We can do this ourselves. So we went to the craft store, we bought a kit, went home. We each made candles and they were awful. They were horrible. I like that. They were horrible. But all of our friends, they were so supportive, like, oh, you did a good job. These are nice. Nice. Thank you. You know, and I'm sure they never got burned, you know. But like I just kept practicing. I just kept doing it because I really liked it, and I didn't want to give them this, give my money to somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

As I started learning about them, I was like, I want to do this myself. So and the more I started making them, I would give them out just to get feedback. Yeah, just give them out for free to my friends and give them as gifts to get their feedback. And I got really positive feedback a few years ago. I was like, it's time to start making money. It was during the pandemic, but it wasn't because I wasn't working or anything. My job had moved from in office to at home. So while I was at home, like during my breaks and things, I'll just start tinking around in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Making some candles.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

And making some candles. And then I said, now I need a website and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna sell these. And so I started selling them. What?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

So you actually became good at what you were doing before the pandemic. You were actually already doing it. Yeah, it was interesting to hear because a lot of folks that we talked to, business-wise entrepreneurs who started a business recently, all did it during the pandemic because of the pandemic, right? This is interesting to hear your side because basically you had already had a set plan. You were ready. The pandemic just offered opportunity. It did. Okay, so then you you capitalize on that opportunity, you started a site and you started selling them from that site?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

I started selling them, I sell them from the site, but I mostly sell them in person. I do more in-person sales than the site. The site is a backup so that when people get to know me, then they'll be able to go to the site, go directly to the site to get everything.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Wow. Do you all right? So do you sell at a market, at a home, car?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

At home, and I keep them in my car. So when I go places, I let people know, hey, I sell candles. You are candles. Whoa, whoa, that's true. I'm trying to be. I'm trying to be. I'm trying. You are. Appreciate it. Put it out there. Put it out there. Yes. Yes. Speak it out there. I'm trying.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Because what's so cool about that is, all right, I gotta ask this. This is a funny question, but I gotta ask this. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Do your candles melt ever when they're in the trunk? No, I don't keep them in the car, like when I leave the house. You take them with you. Yeah, but like they've been sitting out here in the sun today. We've been out here since about 10 o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, since early, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

So, and they're doing all right. Hey, so I'm impressed with the test.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Quality candles, y'all. Y'all heard that. Quality candles from the sister lady. She's not giving you any of that boo-boo-foo-foo stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

No, no. You're not gonna end up with a with a cup of liquid.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

No, no, no, no. No. Now, question how did you get into formulating your scents?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Just trial and error.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

So I have one, it's called the Blackerberry, and it's a blackberry and a clove and a vanilla mix. And I made that one from a suggestion from a friend of mine. She came to me with uh an air freshener, a car air freshener, and she said, make that. I want that. And I said, Okay, we'll try. And I tried on my own mixing. She came by my house, mixed up the scents until we found it that it worked to what she said matched that air freshener. She wanted exactly that. And I was able to match exactly that. It it took a few weeks of trial and error.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Just with using fragrance oils, et cetera, to get what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Fragrance oils. I get my fragrance oils from candle shops.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Official. Official candle shops. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

I support those businesses to grow my business.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

That's so cool. You're doing it the right way. Yeah. All right. So you know you're gonna get good results, right? Yeah, you're putting out good energy. You're gonna get it back. You're gonna get it back. Excellent. Now, how did you run into reasons and how did he get you out here today?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

I've ran into reasons of my neighbor, my neighbor's girlfriend knows is in this, is is in this community of these folks. Yeah. And she got a gift, got one of my candles as a gift. And she gave me the names of several of her friends. She said, reach out to these folks and let them know what you're doing. And when they have events, you'll be able to, you'll be able to hook up with them and possibly be a vendor. And Reasons was one of the folks I met through her. Whoa, there's some good folks.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

That's a good tribe you're around.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yes. Yeah. It's awesome. It's a good place to be. It just it just happened that way because I sold a candle to her boyfriend. And she she hooked me up with all these wonderful people. So it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Man, that's dope. Okay. Before we finish up, I must ask, please, please, do you have any shameless plugs you'd like to make before the end? Of course, you need to tell people where they can buy your candles, how they can find you online, and all that other good jazz.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yep. So my website is Aquamarine Brie Candles. So that's me. I'm a mbcandles.com. Thank you. Nice. Nice to succinct. And I am I am on Instagram. Okay. I'm I'm an old head, so Instagram isn't exactly my thing, but I'm I'm trying.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

You're trying. There we go. That's what matters. You're trying. You're trying.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

And I'm Aquamarine Brie on Instagram as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Could you spell out the Aquamarine Brie so that they can get that?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Absolutely. A-Q-U-A-M-A-R-I-N-E B-R-I. Excellent. Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Easy enough. Well, I know Reasons is yelling at everybody to come somewhere. So we're going to get ready to sign off. I'm going to do this first real quick. My name, DJ Ann What with Skip. And Aquamarine Brie. Excellent. We are having a great time here in Gastonia, North Carolina. And we are at the Bradley Community Center and Park. I want everybody to understand that this is an excellent happening event that was going on right now, put on by the Honeycomb Experience and our man Reasons Brown. Everybody's enjoying themselves. We're about to go ahead and run over here because he told us to, because we ain't got to listen. We got to see what's going on. But other than that, everybody, peace. Have a great Saturday. Sunday. It is a beautiful Sunday today. Almost feels like a Saturday, man. Excellent. And we will holler at you later. Peace.