[Indie Interview] Tara Carlile-Swift of Freckleface

Freckleface is known for luxury home fragrances and partnerships with independent shops and garden centres.

Their products include wax melts, candles, diffusers, oils, and botanical bath bombs with nature-inspired scents. The brand is eco-conscious, avoiding plastics and using local, sustainable materials.

We talk to founder Tara Carlile-Swift to find out more.

What is your background

Freckleface is a family run business that started in 2017 by Mother and Son duo, Tara and Noah. The business started when Noah was just 14. He always had an entrepreneurial spirit and Tara was keen to nurture this, so when they started making wax melts and candles for family and friends from the kitchen table, Tara showed him how to run the hobby as a business. As interest in the products grew, so did the business and five years on, Freckleface is now proud to have three retail stores and work with over 750 stockists across the UK, as well as retailing online too.

What does the business do including number of people/stores

Freckleface provides luxury home fragrance products, which are handcrafted in our workshop in Lincolnshire. We provide ourselves on our products being vegan, plastic free and our ingredients are sourced ethically and locally where possible.

Our workshop and head office in Lincolnshire employs just over 20 people, and we have retail stores in Stamford, Cambridge and York, with another store in York due to open soon. We also have a Freckleface Coffee Shop in Stamford too.

We work with over 750 stockists across the UK too, including Blue Diamond, British Garden Centres, Hillier and Nottcuts.

What is unique or different about your brand

Our products are all handmade, vegan and plastic free. Our soya wax melts are individually poured and topped with botanicals. They can be purchased in pre-picked collections or individually as a pick and mix collection. The pick and mix wax melts recently won the Gift of the Year award in the home fragrance category.

What sits at the heart of your business?

1. To build a brand we are proud of that is ethical, inclusive, sustainable
2. To build a family business to hand down the generations
3. To offer training, support entrepreneurs and create opportunities
4. To build our business around kindness; be kind to the environment, build lasting relationships and to support our community.

What have you got planned for the future

We recently opened a new store in York which will become a hub for workshops as well as stocking our gorgeous products. We are always on the lookout for new retail space too, so watch this space for other store openings. We are soon going to be launching a new product range too which will give us access to a new audience (details to follow when we can announce it!).

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