Two friends’ Mid Sussex candle company goes from strength to strength: Sassy & Lolla has Brighton i360 as clients

Sassy & Lolla was founded in 2021 by friends Holly Biggs from Burgess Hill and Sara Martin from Pease Pottage.

Sara told the Middy that they came up with the idea during dinner when Sara bought Holly a candle with an underwhelming scent. The friends felt they could do a better job.

Sara said: “By this time we'd probably had several gin and tonics more than we should have done and the idea grew very quickly. We started Googling what it took to make candles.”

Sara said they spent ‘a lot of money’ over the next few weeks, doing research, testing products and seeing if their business plan was viable.

“We launched at Spring Live! at Ardingly,” she said. “We just made, tested, sorted out all of our packaging and then literally went to market and launched the website on the same day. It was was terrifying but we did much better than we thought we would. Some of those customer's still come back and find us now.”

Sara said they then ‘tinkered along’ for a few months before getting an email from the i360 in Brighton who wanted to stock their products.

She said: “We walked outside after that meeting and the two of us were like two ten year old children. We squealed and jumped up and down and then went and had a very nice glass of prosecco to congratulate ourselves.”

Sara added: “They’re probably our biggest stockist now and they’ve been incredible, supportive and just lovely.”

The business is still based at Sara’s home and they sell their products online, but Sara said they prefer to sell in person. The company has partly grown by word-of-mouth and their appearances at big markets like Edenbridge and Leonardslee at Christmas.

Sara is thrilled by their success but said the speed Sassy & Lolla grew was somewhat ‘overwhelming’ and difficult sometimes to find time for. She said: “We’re trying to do something a little bit different, trying to keep our personality in it and trying to keep it real. We’re not a big company with a massive staff.”

She added: “It was something that we thought we’d like to do for a bit of fun and it took off way more than we thought it would.”

The friends had a practical reason for using their nicknames for the brand too. Sara said: "Instead of trying to find a name for a company that was kind of ‘candley’ or a bit ‘floofy’ we thought we’d come up with a company name that we could use for other things. So as we grow and expand it’s not just tying it into home fragrances.”

The duo currently sell candles, diffusers, melts, melt warmers, car diffusers and gift cards. But Sara said: “We'd like to branch into scenting for big hotels or boutiques or spas or beauty salons and do something original for them.” She added that they are also thinking about pushing their products out to Kent and Surrey. Visit www.sassyandlolla.com.