Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Luxury eco-friendly candle business is the light of entrepreneur mum’s life
When the brother of Lanarkshire mum Laura Paterson won £1million on the National Lottery, it brought her crashing down to earth – quite literally.
It was seven years ago when Bryan Falloon, who had fallen on hard times, flipped a coin that decided the fate of the only other change in his pocket. Rather than a sandwich, he bought a Lotto ticket – and, against the odds, his numbers came up.
Philanthropist Bryan showered his good fortune on his wife, Jennifer, and kids Jessica and Sean, as well as on their extended families.
The generosity of her bighearted brother allowed mumof-two Laura to take a six-month career break from the job she loved with Training Initiatives.
The opportunity gave her time to breathe, to be at one with nature in the great outdoors with daughters, Antonia and Laurena, now aged 18 and nine, and to reflect and ponder the next path her career would take her on.
“It completely and utterly changed my life,” said Laura, of Cumbernauld.
“I took the children out, and we spent so much time outdoors, going for walks, getting the wind in our hair and appreciating nature. We packed picnics. We have lots of lovely forests in Cumbernauld, and that is when I fell in love with nature. It set me up for going back to work.”
Laura, who’d endured eczema and psoriasis for as long as she could remember, discovered that as her stress levels diminished, so too did the troublesome patches on her skin.
The only itching an empowered Laura had now was for a new challenge.
She resigned from Training Initiatives and accepted a job as SQA manager with Sphort Training.
There, she set up the organisation’s SQA accreditations to enable it to deliver Modern Apprenticeships to football players alongside their sporting careers. The role she relished saw her meeting footballing elite on a near-daily basis.
Sadly, the boss of Laura’s dental technician husband, Mark, passed away, leaving the couple with the opportunity to buy the dental lab and launch a family business.
She handed in her notice at
Sphort and immersed herself in supporting Mark in expanding the business, which together they grew by more than 50 per cent in just six months.
When her gran Meighan died, leaving her a Readers’ Digest guide to herbal medicine, Laura saw it as a sign.
“I used herbal medicine advice from the book on myself, and cured my eczema completely,” she said.
“I was hooked from there. Having had six months off, I thought how amazing it would be if this was my job. As well as running the dental lab business, I started herbal medicine qualifications and thought I’d see where it took me.”
Her studies at the School of Herbal Medicine gave her access to a degree course in plant biochemistry and the medicinal benefits of plants.
“That completely blew my mind,” said Laura. “The medicinal benefits of simple things like dandelions are crazy! They act like a liver tonic if you are bloating. I thought, ‘how do I start a wee business from this?’”
With a ravenous hunger for more knowledge, she experimented with natural remedies for her own skin ailments, by melting shea butter and coconut oil.
Her extensive reading materials revealed that it was the paraffin content in the candles she’d always loved to burn throughout her home that was responsible for blackening the walls.
And when lockdown came, it gave her the impetus to turn her focus on what she loved doing most – creating vegan, climatefriendly and responsibly sourced, hand-poured candles.
Laura invested in online courses run by leading Scottish chandler Jo Macfarlane, who has, since Covid, equipped 500 students from 12 countries with an expert, wick-by-wick guide to the art of making luxury, fragranced candles.
Smitten by the entrepreneur’s infectious enthusiasm, Laura, over an eight-month period, acquired a wealth of knowledge from East Neuk of Fife-based beekeeper, author and artist Jo, who also works with luxury hotels, event managers and high-end clients like Porsche to create private label candles.
When, in October, a North Lanarkshire Council-owned unit became available in the Cumbernauld cul de sac occupied by the dental lab, Laura was quick to sign the lease, and she and her family rolled up their sleeves to gut, clean and fit-out the nearderelict space and turn it into a bespoke studio.
In April, grafter Laura began moving in, juggling the new venture with the management responsibilities of the dental lab, while continuing to visit the 25 dental surgeries in Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Stirling and Falkirk that are on its books.
Then, on June 1, the marriage of Laura’s two great loves, nature and candles, became officially binding with the launch of her business, Earth, Mother & Soul.
“We invested heavily in the business. We have no savings left,” said Laura, who also makes hand-poured rocksalt and driftwood “mandles” – because, she insists, candles aren’t just for girls.
“The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and makes a plan before they hit the bottom. That is just me.”
An animal activist who is a long-time member of Greenpeace, PETA and her favourite charity See Shepherd, Laura crafts her candles from the oil of the sustainable soya bean.
“When I was building the business, I wanted to make sure that everything I used, every company I used, must follow my ethos – vegan friendly, climate-friendly – or I won’t
touch them,” explained Laura, 43, who devoted an entire year to studying a nature plot and the insects that thrived within – an asignment that give wings to her fascination with bees.
“It has taken me two years to build, to make the candles perfect. I have taken my time.
“It was important my candles did not contain paraffin. Soya beans are sustainable because they grow every year. There is a complete science to making your own candles. It has taken time to get the blends right.
You have to heat it to a certain temperature to make sure the fragranced oil you are adding blends with the molecules in the wax.”
During the development phase, members of Laura’s family would be given imperfect candles she called her “waxidents”.
Astute businesswoman Laura has always surrounded herself by suppliers whose keen eye for quality and customer service is uncompromising.
The digital partner of Earth, Mother & Soul is Eirmis Solutions of Motherwell, whose team went the extra mile by conducting their own research into candles while designing the business’s online presence.
Laura’s also proud to have partnered with Packhelp, the supplier of her products’ ecofriendly, biodegradable and recyclable packaging and the firm that introduced her to One Tree Planted – the reforestation project that has become an integral part of her business model.
By becoming proud partners of One Tree Planted, Earth, Mother & Soul offers its customers the chance to “support the lungs of our
planet” by helping to restore forests, create habitat for biodiversity, and make a positive social impact around the globe.
With every order placed, Laura’s customers can plant a tree at the checkout and receive a certificate that acknowledges the difference they are making to the world.
If there’s one thing that gets on Laura’s wick, it’s cheap, mass-produced candles and melts – which is why her products are high-end luxuries that have been designed to complement the decor statements of her clients’ homes.
As well as a sprinkling of rose petals, Laura’s products come with a pouch of complimentary Scottish wild flower seeds that customers can plant in their gardens or window boxes to help our endangered species of bees.
Signature candles in her collection, which retail at £18.50, include: ‘Bee Midge Free’; cashmere vanilla and sea salted caramel; fiery orange and bergamot; and Tuscan herbs.
So what’s next for the insatiable Laura Paterson – the woman described by Go Radio broadcaster Gina Mckie as “mother earth’s soul sister?”
“People private message me once or twice a week asking my advice on crystals,” said Laura, who, during lockdown, added crystal healing to her clutch of qualifications.
“I deal in raw crystals, only those that come completely from the earth – natural formations that have been scientifically proven to carry the earth’s energy.”
It’s abundantly clear that Laura is a woman whose drive and passion will never burn out. She’s one to watch.
Visit www.earthmotherandso ul.com to find out more.
I deal in raw crystals, only those that come completely from the earth – natural formations