A Childhood Dream
Aequill was a business I dreamt up when I was 10 years old. I’d always known I was going to start a business. As a child I watched my parents, both of whom are entrepreneurs, put different business ideas to the test. My dad was a market trader and bought and sold a variety of goods and my mum was involved with many little projects until her own business finally took off. I learnt a lot about hard work and endurance from watching 2 very determined people from a young age try to make an impact on the world.
The Role Model
My mum is a very glamorous lady who loved dressing up, the dress, the hair, the make up and finally the perfume! She has a huge collection of perfumes that ranges from the classics of Chanel number 5, Jean Paul Gaultier Classic Eau de Toilette and everything in between. For her birthday as a young teen, I would save my pocket money to buy her a bottle of her favourite perfume every year.
I really enjoyed giving gifts, and enjoyed choosing fragrances for her. I enjoyed interpreting fragrances and picking out smells that I thought would suit different occasions, dresses, and personalities.
I loved everything about perfume as a product. The packaging, the bottles were like gems on her dressing table, it was so beautiful watching them shine.
Turning A Dream Into Reality
It wasn’t until 2017 - aged 32 years old that I finally set out on this journey. I started Aequill on an idea that I wanted to make a positive impact at least in my own small way. And I didn't really know what it was or where it would lead to but strangely I knew it would start with a simple candle. And so that’s how I began my journey.
I launched Aequill's first range titled Mum’s Aromatherapy Shop with just 6 candles at Broadway Market. It’s based on the memories of making and blending oils with my mum for her therapy shop. The entrepreneur that showed me that a little bit of hard work can pay off.
From there I added our name, my story and a complete range of home fragrance products. A simple accomplishment which in the end took years due to supplier issues, new legislations, cash flow issues and the general ups and downs of starting something new and trying to find your feet.
A personal Intention
My biggest inspiration is people. I like to think that the products that we make are stories of people and the places they live.
I wanted Aequill to stand for something positive. A philosophy of living life in a way that’s not going to negatively impact the environment around you. To do no harm to yourself or others. To live peacefully.
The Transformation
Launching Aequill on my own was the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. The first year was a test of my mental, physical and emotional strength and by the end of the year I’d quickly burned out. Being an entrepreneur is a lonely place and I realised very quickly I needed help.
The next few years I dedicated myself to building our team, and one by one as if by magic, our founding team was born and I couldn’t be more proud. 1 year on and we are now a team of 6 people and like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, we’re slowly learning how spread our wings and fly.
The Team
I absolutely love working with the team to come up with ideas and ideating products as a team. More importantly our core value of beautiful craft and outstanding products are embedded into our thinking. All our creative process happens in our humble studio in East Ham. Brainstorming, prototyping and crafting our ideas until we have a product that we can be proud of.
For 6 months we've incubated our new product idea and this week I am happy to announce that we are working hard towards launching our first range of perfume created by our artist in residence Ecka Modecai. Ecka is our in house perfumer and sound artist and for this range she has created 3 perfumes inspired by Sound and deep listening. I am very much looking forward to sharing more news with you soon. In the meantime make sure you sign up to our newsletter and be the first to know of its release.
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