Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Furnari.
Brittany, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Nose Best started in the height of the 2020 pandemic. My best friend Cristian Abbrancati and I were living blocks away from each other in New York City during the pandemic. We weren’t expert candle makers to begin with; in fact, we really had no idea what we were doing.
We were in our early twenties and just lost both of our jobs, so without anything to lose, we decided to take our stimulus checks and invest in an idea we always talked about: owning our own business and creating a true “brand” that was creative, fun, and inclusive of our identities. We watched hours of YouTube videos and purchased an LLC online, a couple of pounds of wax, five cases of jars, wicks, and fragrance oils.
We both had backgrounds in fragrance and branding from my experience at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Cristian’s previous job at Lush. We loved self-care products and also saw there was a gap in the market for a soy wax nontoxic candle that wasn’t minimalist or super expensive. In our first batch of candles, we created “Send Nudes”, “Big Spoon”, and “Mountain Daddy”. If these names weren’t enough to sell our product online we knew we needed to really start connecting with our generation’s wants and needs. It wasn’t enough to just have a quality product and some fun marketing. We needed this to be as creative and fun as we were.
Prior to the pandemic, I was working as a Direct of Events and Marketing for a hospitality group. I was tasked with throwing elaborate events from drag shows to coordinating DJs and performers for weekend brunch parties. Obviously due to Covid, the hospitality industry was decimated and my creative admin energy had nowhere to go but into Nose Best. The next step of our creative process in the candle launch was developing a multisensory experience that separated us from the competition. As an homage to my previous career and to celebrating the senses during a time where people were actively afraid to lose their sense of taste and smell, we created a “Digital Speakeasy” on our website. The Digital Speakeasy is where every customer can access a customized Spotify Playlist and cocktail recipe for each specific scent. We also designed our candle labels to include a QR code that brought customers straight to the Speakeasy so they could set their space up with music, drinks, and of course a lovely scent. When we created this feature we had no idea how powerful it’s potential to captivate audiences and the collaborations we would be able to access. We have TikTok to thank for the majority of our success. Our candles went viral multiple times when we were purely an e-commerce brand and it translated into selling out our entire inventory. We saw the biggest influx of orders from the West Coast and of course our first home New York!
Once we realized our business was starting to generate profit and we were seeing more and more orders from around the country we were able to raise enough money to open a storefront in December of 2021. The storefront’s success moved us from e-commerce to brick and mortar and it made it possible for us to quit our jobs and pursue our small business full time. In 2022, we started our wholesale business and landed iconic accounts like the Museum of Sex, Circus of Books in LA, and most recently, Urban Outfitters in 2023. We’ve also moved our production from the store front into a separate studio which has helped us with our efficiency and ability to grow.
Now that our New York small business is thriving- I am personally making the move to LA in January 2024 to start doing outdoor markets, connecting with local boutiques, and presenting at trade shows there. I am so proud of how far we’ve come in the last three years. I know LA is going to really push us in this 4th year of business to grow and adapt. I am just as excited as when we unpacked our first box of supplies and could barely glue a wick to the bottom of a jar.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I will say that every year we’ve been in business has had its own set of struggles and moments of doubt. In year one we simply just didn’t know how to file our sales tax and so by 2021, we knew we needed to get an accountant on our team. The accountant is a must for any small business owner.
Year 2 had upped the anti for us. I think there’s a lot of risk-taking in entrepreneurship in general but when we went from side hustle vibes to full-on storefront there was a lot to learn and not a lot of time to do it. Upon signing our lease- the storefront had beautiful vintage wood doors. We didn’t really inspect the space quite enough to realize that the door also had splinters and was cracked in multiple places. The wind was whipping through the door and we opened in the dead of winter so it was COLD. Not only that, but New York snow is no joke, and there would be snow coming in through the door and soaking the floors we just renovated. Not having experience in commercial real estate, we hit a huge bump in the road, realizing that our landlord wasn’t required to fix it and, therefore we’d need to come out of pocket with even more money than expected. We opened our store for the holiday regardless and had to wait until April to have enough money to make the fix to the double-paned glass doors you see at most storefronts. It wasn’t ideal and in the moment we were stressed but I chalk it up to inexperience and I had never dealt with commercial real estate prior. Sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know until you don’t know it.
I think our best lessons have come from making mistakes and just taking it with a grain of salt and as a redirection.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Nose Best Candles?
We are a proudly Latina, Queer, and Woman-led candle start-up born in NYC during quarantine and opened a store in Brooklyn in 2021. Our mission is to “remix your senses” by providing you a multi-sensory experience with each handcrafted candle. Every fragrance blend is paired with a curated Spotify playlist and cocktail recipe. So whether you’re having a few friends over, or having an evening to yourself, we provide the vibe so that you can sit back, relax, and burn at your own enjoyment. Our candles are non-toxic, 100% soy wax, led-free, and will make you smile, laugh, and feel cheeky!
Nose Best will be coming to LA in 2024! We are so proud of how far this company has come from just two best friends and their sense of humor to an entire community that keeps growing online, in person, and across the coast!
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Follow us on tiktok @nosebestcandles.
Pricing:
- $22 8oz candles
- $11 4oz candles
Contact Info:
- Website: nosebestcandles.com
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nosebestcandles?lang=en
