Meet Zvestly Plantin | Candle Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zvestly Plantin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zvestly, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Candle making started out as hobby while dealing with different aspects of my mental health, a global pandemic, post-grad difficulties, and other personal struggles. It quickly became an outlet for me which helped me deal with my anxiety. Despite the frustrations during the learning process, I really enjoyed making each candle. I was happy to have found something that helps me ease my anxiety and that was still fun for me. I would make candles and give them to my friends and family. After positive feedback and words of encouragement, I decided to turn this hobby into a business. Each candle is carefully crafted with love. My goal with my brand is to promote self-care, healing, and resilience. Three words that reflect the steps of my internal journey through candle-making.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I specialize in candle making, our candles are carefully measured, colored, and fragranced by hand. XYZee Candles uses enhancers and essential oils in our candles with the goal of aiding our customers with self-care, healing and resilience. I would say my brand is known for how potent the candles are. That is the thing that I get the most feedback on. Customers often comment on how good the candles smell and how the scents easily and quickly take over the room. I think the thing that sets me apart the most is that I do everything myself. I designed my own product labels, I designed my website, I take my product pictures, I make and package everything myself. However, I recently started to reach out to people that are professionals in what they do (other black-owned businesses). It is not easy at all, especially during a pandemic. I try to keep consistent with things such as posting on social media to promote my business. That is something I think has helped a lot with getting my brand out there. I think I still have a long way to go and have so much room for growth. I make sure to just take things one step at a time because it can easily get overwhelming and even a little scary because you want your business to do well.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The thing about Florida, the fun things are located a little bit everywhere. I would definitely make sure to take them to Wynwood Art District. There are fun things to do multiple restaurants to choose from and none of it is too expensive. Otherwise, I would definitely visit the beach. It is a tourist hotspot in Miami. Once again, lots of food options and there is always fun things happening.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shoutout my friends, I have a small group of friends that I go to for advice, suggestions, ideas etc. and they are always so willing to help. I call them my “business consultants”, they were they first to purchase my candles, leave reviews, etc. They have been supportive since the beginning. Thank you!

Website: xyzeecandles.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xyzeecandles/?igshid=1avb8f2ht1ng5

Twitter: https://twitter.com/xyzeecandles?s=21

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xyzeecandles/