Matthew Winston was thisclose to shutting down the candle-making business he’d recently started. The VCU grad had a degree in creative advertising, but couldn’t picture himself settling into a 9-5 job, so he turned his hobby into a business: The Win Candle. Hoping to drum up ome extra attention (“I would get a few orders here and there, but it just wasn’t enough,” he says), he turned to Tik Tok.
“I posted a video about my parents offering to buy me more inventory and how I wasn’t getting any sales or visitors on my website,” Winston says. “Not even an hour later I went viral.” From that video, more than 300 customers bought up the rest of his inventory.
Winston himself designs the labels, concocts the scents, and makes the candles—which have unique wooden wicks for a slower burn and wider fragrance throw—from his home with 100 percent virgin coconut soy. The Bonfire scent, with notes of spice, velvet woods, sugared vanilla bean, musk, and golden amber, is a bestseller (and his personal favorite). “It’s the perfect cozy candle,” he says. Bonus: The wooden wicks create a soft crackling sound similar to a fireplace.—CH
