Mum Ella’s baby blues melted away with sweet smell of success
AMUM who began making fragrances as a hobby while pregnant is now celebrating the sweet smell of success after two years in business.
Ella Wright, 24, started playing around with scents in her terrace house on Coronation Street, Macclesfield, in 2017 while waiting to give birth to son Arthur.
She returned to work at Macclesfield Hospital but such was her talent for fragrances she left this role later the same year to launch her company Cheshire Melts full time.
Ella, who lives with Arthur’s dad Karl, also credits her hobby-cum
business as playing a vital role in her overcoming post-natal depression following her son’s birth.
She said: “Having a newborn baby it was something I could do for myself, I loved being able to go to the kitchen (which was then my workshop) when my partner arrived home from work and do something that I loved and other people loved.
“I battled with postnatal depression and anxiety after returning to my day job, leaving the house and socialising became very difficult, and Cheshire melts became my release.
“It was something I could do on my own in the comfort of my own home and really, really enjoy.”
Ella tested and tweaked her fragrance recipe until she found something she liked. When it turned out family and friends were also fans she branded her hobby as Cheshire Melts in July 2017.
With Karl’s help orders grew until it became too much balancing them with 12-hour NHS shifts and she decided to take the plunge.
The business moved into a small workshop in Zurich House but orders came in from all over the UK and Ella moved into a bigger base in the same building in December last year.
Having outgrown even this location, Ella moved to another, larger place in Adelphi Mill, this month.
She held a party and open evening to mark the move - and the second anniversary of her company.
On the night £450 was raised for charity Ollie’s Army.
Ella said: “The business has taught me a lot, but the one thing it has taught me is to follow your wildest dream.
“When I was struggling with mental health I would have never imagined I would be stepping out my door to socialising with the general public at markets.
“But it has given me so much confidence and I absolutely adore going to work, we live and breath Cheshire Melts and it has taken a lot of hard work, a lot of late nights and we definitely couldn’t have got to where we are now without the help of family, friends and a huge support network.”