Today we’d like to introduce you to Cantrece Huey.
After months of quarantine, losing her beloved grandmother in August 2020, forcing herself to continue showing up for a job aiding in her depression, and as a single mother to her then four years old daughter, Makailah, owner Cantrece Huey knew she needed a hobby that would keep her mind in a more positive space and restore peace back into her life. Something she could do with her daughter to keep her engaged as well. But she had no clue what to do.
While Cantrece had only acknowledged the lack of peace in her own life, she quickly acknowledged that literally everyone needed some sort of restoration of peace, and decided she’d choose a hobby that could potentially bring peace to those around her as well. Yet still, she had no clue where to start.
So she sent out a survey.
With this survey, Cantrece had participants describe peaceful settings and things in their lives that made their homes feel more peaceful. It was from these responses that the idea of supplying candles came to mind, thus initiating the research on how to make them by hand.
During her research, Cantrece learned about various candle waxed, some more natural and eco-friendly, some not so much. Wanting to be established as a supplier of peace through her candles, Cantrece was dedicated to using the most natural and health-conscious ingredients to become just that.
After months of testing and failing at making soy-based candles, Cantrece returned to her research for healthy, natural candle waxes and came across beeswax as a candle base. After just receiving her first delivery, she fell in love and began perfecting her craft of making scented and unscented beeswax candles with her daughter.
Once November hit, and Cantrece was ready to market the fruits of her and Makailah’s new hobby, she did a soft launch as SeReneEssentials offering essential oil-infused candles, air sprays and diffuser oils.
After months of success, Cantrece decided to revamp and make her business official as an early gift for her upcoming birthday in April.
Scentsationz By Renee, LLC became officially registered in March 2021 and officially launched in April 2021!
Over the past year as a registered business, Cantrece has taken Scentsationz to various local pop-up shops and markets, appeared on multiple podcasts advertising her business, and co-hosted her first annual Juneteenth pop-up shop. In December of 2021, Cantrece left her full-time corporate job to leap full term into her entrepreneurial journey. Now she continues to grow her market through in-person sales at local markets and through her social media communities on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The journey as an entrepreneur has not been a smooth road the whole journey, though some patches haven’t been as bumpy.
Dealing with random waves of depression, trying to balance motherhood, social life, self-care, and a job that transformed from a 9-5 to a 24-hour shift has been tough at times.
There were countless failed candles that were thrown away during the testing phases, and many mistakes that have been made.
I have faced rejection while trying to build my business credit and have been run in circles about business opportunities that we’re never actually going to take place.
But as each day passes, I learn from each opportunity, denial and mistake to come back stronger and better to tackle the next.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Scentsationz By Renee, LLC?
Scentsationz By Renee, LLC is a home fragrance company, specializing in handmade scented beeswax candles.
Handcrafted from a blend of organic beeswax pellets, organic unrefined coconut oil, and clean scented, phthalate and toxin-free fragrance, our candles are designed to enrich your senses the healthy home fragrance alternatives.
While there are many natural waxes, beeswax is derived straight from the honeycomb, making it one of the most natural waxes to use and providing a clean, slow-burning candle when completed. We then couple our natural wax with scents combined from various fragrance notes to entice sentiments of fellowship, peace, and uplifting within the homes of our community.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned through this journey is to have more faith in God and myself.
Leaving a secured corporate job to engage full-time as an entrepreneur was not only risky, scary and intimidating but took me a long time of self-doubt and sabotaging to finally take that leap.
As I continue to show up for myself and put my work and purpose out into the community, the fruits of my success have definitely been paying off and I’m glad I finally chose to invest more into myself and my home.
Contact Info:
- Email: Inquiries@ScentsationzByRenee.com
- Website: www.ScentsationzByRenee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scentsationzbyrenee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScentsationzByRenee
