THE SMELL OF SUCCESS

Lilin+Co founders Marcus Khoo and Julie Yim on their scent-sational journey

- Lainey Loh

Like music, scents are timestamps in one's life and a reminder of a certain place or person, evoking feelings of nostalgia, and so, many people use scents to fill their bedrooms or homes with fond memories they hold dear. For Marcus Khoo and Julie Yim, the power couple behind Lilin+Co, making artisanal candles and scents has become a part of their DNA.

"The idea behind Lilin+Co was conceptualised in 2015. We saw a gap in the market where there were either premium soy candles or cheap brands that were mass and not eco-friendly. So, we wanted to bridge that gap by going into the market with an affordable yet quality product for Malaysians," Yim says. "We started Lilin+Co in 2016 after a lot of research and development. We participated in weekend markets, set up an online store and social media accounts, and grew organically through word-of-mouth." At the time, they had stable day jobs-Yim in publishing and Khoo in a corporate role. "Research and development was a big struggle. Back then, it was quite difficult to source materials we're using up until today.

What was available locally wasn't up to par with what we wanted to produce. There weren't many candlemakers, so we had to import materials, which took a lot of time and money as international shipping cost a lot, on top of the currency exchange rates which weren't favourable to us," Khoo explains.

He adds, "We also didn't have any background in candlemaking, certification, or manufacturing. We came from totally unrelated backgrounds, so we had to trial and error along the way and look up information on forums with other candlemakers."

Getting Lilin+Co off the ground was only half the battle because both Khoo and Yim were still attached to their day jobs. For the first couple of years, they struggled to juggle both their work and the side hustle.