How did Astro Panda Scents Start?

So, I think the title explains what this blog will be about!

I guess every first blog should be about how something came to be - and here is mine.

In 2018 I found myself jobless, self conscious and in a deep depression - and my boyfriend (now husband) bought me some tools which I still use to this day!

I loved (and still love) watching soap makers on YouTube, my favourite is Katie Carson who is the owner of Royalty Soaps, and Mr Beach knew this and also knew that I love making things.

My first soap batch which was a layered sandalwood loaf soap was gifted to friends and family and it turned out to be a hit!  

So armed with my new soap base, mica powders and fragrance oils I set about making a ton of different soaps which I had in my brain and wanted to release into the world!

I also made crocheted items as well as scent pouches along with trying my hand at bath bombs. I tried all sorts of different things, but I enjoyed making the soap the most and it is what I always came back to. At this point in time, my little enterprise was called Astro Panda Crafts, and I set up an Etsy storefront to sell the items online as well as at car boots, and craft fairs. I still use this store as people tend to buy my soap from Etsy for some reason!

In 2019 I moved to a new home and there was no real place for me to create the soaps as I wanted to which made me a little sad - however I still had stock for people to buy from luckily.

When COVID-19 hit and there was the great soap and sanitiser shortage of 2020 I sold a lot of my soap to colleagues at work which was really helpful as I had the soap available and people could stock up! 

During the lockdown break of 2020 a friend of mine gave me some soy wax that they were not going to use and I decided to take the plunge into wax melts, I had been planning to do so for a while as I had a few moulds which were too small for soap unless I was using it for embeds - so as I could use some of the ingredients I already had for my soap making I thought why the heck not?

I really enjoyed making the melts and so I decided to focus on both the soap and the melts as these were the things that my customers wanted the most of - and because I wasn’t planning on making all sorts anymore I switched out the ‘crafts’ for the more appropriate ‘scents’ in my company name and now that’s where I am!

My little biz has gotten me through some really REALLY tough times, and I like that my friends and family see me as the ‘go to’ person for their wax melts / soap needs - the soap requests are my favourite as I can get my creative juices flowing! 

So there you have it, a brief overview of where I started and how I got to where I am now!

Thank you for reading.

Pan x