Straight off the bat, I have to confess I have huge dreams for NŌLA. Through the process of creating products and building the brand, I have become so excited to see NŌLA expand and grow. I cannot wait to offer employment opportunities to others, continue to raise funds for The Neonatal Trust (and other charities) and offer clean products that people can love (or give to loved ones) without costing an arm and a leg. With all of my crazy ambitious goals and dreams, I understand that building up a brand presence across New Zealand (and the world!) is best done through physical presence in retail stores. 

And so what does this all have to do with retail packaging?

Well, when browsing in stores, retail packaging actually does quite a lot.

Retail packaging offer credibility, education to brand ethos, aesthetic and style as well as something that differentiates my product from my competitors. I think people would laugh at me if I confessed just how many hours I have spent obsessing over my branding - but all of those hours might make someone pick up one of my products, read a little bit about the how and why behind the brand and decide to support my small business over a mass produced one. 

With all of this being said, NŌLA remains strong on our environmental focus.

We understand that packaging requires resources to make, and once our products have been opened, generally that packaging is discarded as waste. So we are offering an option to receive our candles with packaging, boxed with scent information and a candle card, OR just as a stand alone candle.

We ideally want to incentivise people to reduce this waste. 

So we have decided to offer our customers a $2 discount for those who would rather not receive packaging in our effort to reduce our contribution. Packaging costs money - and as we are all experiencing, the cost of living is going up, up and up.

If I can save a couple of dollars by excluding packaging, so should you. 

So if you love a good candle but hate the packaging waste, don’t stress - we have you covered!