The pandemic brought about a lot of change for many people. Industries like hospitality and aviation were decimated leaving hundreds of thousands of people unemployed.
After years of working in the hospitality industry, Gaby Jones was left unemployed and questioning what she wanted to do with her life. The 26-year-old from Chiswick had £300 in her account at the time but had a genius idea that would lead her to making 6 figures and selling to celebrities.
Speaking to MyLondon, she said: "My boyfriend and I were sat in Wagamamas in Parsons Green and weren't sure what was next for us. 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 said he will give me £300 and help me figure out what needs to be done."
With £600 in her pocket she got to work in her boyfriends aunt's kitchen created the first ever Caïa Candle mould.
She bought the raw materials, melted the wax on the aunt's oven and destroyed countless frying pans and pots in the process. The name, Caïa, comes from the Roman goddess of fire and women and celebrates the female form and all it's glory.
Gaby continued: "We wanted to make a massive candle that no one's done. Arguably, people would really say you should start smaller as that would be cheaper to make but we wanted to make a statement. We got our first mould made which took all of the £600, it was really expensive.
"It was a big risk. After we sent them out, the reaction was amazing. Within three days we made our money back and were actually profitable.
"Then, two weeks later, we got an email from Selfridges. I remember telling my boyfriend 'oh my goodness!'. We did our first order from my boyfriend's aunt's kitchen, it was chaos."
The business quickly took off and within three months she was taking boxes down to the warehouse to send off to Selfridges worth around £7,000.
Dubbed the 'big bum' candle, Gaby said they are now sold around the world such as Selfridges, Harrods, Flannels and many more.
And it's not just big brands that have lapped the product up, celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, Ferne McCann and Rochelle Humes have all shared photos of their Caïa Candles.
Gaby said it got to the point where her boyfriend's aunt's kitchen couldn't cope.
She said: "I was broke. It was such a big risk setting this up and taking these big risks right at the beginning is quite a big deal but it paid off.
"Opening our own studio here was a proud accomplishment after seeing where we started. After a year we wanted to get into the US market and my boyfriend has a green card, so we just went for it again.
"When I lost my job I thought it was the end of the world. It sounds philosophical but it's knowing that there is something better out there for you. Life is crazy like that. Never in a million years did I think I would make a living selling bum candles."
"When we first started we thought we just wanted to make sure we could get Christmas presents. To be in these stores (Nordstorm, Harrods, Saks to name a few) is crazy and to be honest, we thought the candles were cool more than anything."
Since starting the business in 2020, Gaby has made nearly £500,000 with the business. They've recently raised a seed investment of £220,000 to redesign their website and improve the relationship with the customer.
"Making big bum candles is a statement piece every time someone walks into my flat they always ask "what's that?"
"We wanted to do something we hadn't seen before and I'm proud we did. I think there's something timeless about body shapes and we are constantly evolving which I think is important.
"I'm thankful we never needed to take out any loans. We constantly emptied our accounts at the start to do something different and luckily it paid off. it was scary having to do that especially as you never learn to run a business at school, you have to learn on the job."
