After nine months of “great” doctor visits and waiting for our bundle of joy, we were hit with quite the unexpected news. Our little lady was born, but with a condition no one saw coming.
In 2014 I gave birth to my first daughter, who was born with an opening in her back. I’d never seen that in my entire life, and even after seeing it, it still made no sense to me. I thought, hey, that will go away; I guess.
We later learned that the opening was not typical. We learned our daughter was born with Spina Bifida. She was rushed into surgery four hours after birth. Within days after having her spinal closure surgery, we were told that she was experiencing fluid build-up on her brain – hydrocephalus. She was again rushed into a surgical room for brain surgery to release the fluid build-up.
She now sports a shut on her brain that she doesn’t even know exists and is doing great!
But I still need to do everything possible to help my daughter. After going all out on ridding my home of all the chemical-infused products we had, I got hooked on natural remedies to help heal my daughters skin. When my kitchen concoction worked, I started to share it with friends and family, who then fell in love with my products. They later encouraged me to “put a label on these products,” so I did. 
I opened my first Etsy shop in 2015 and named it NaturalAnnie Essentials. The name came about because my name growing up was Annie, the products I was creating were natural, and I was also on a natural journey myself. I was going for natural hair, natural products, you name it, and they were infused with essential oils (hence: NaturalAnnie Essentials). When strangers on the internet started buying and rebuying my products AND leaving reviews, it was at that point that I noticed I had created something special. 
After gaining traction in the market by doing pop-up shops, partnerships, and other events, I later launched my very own website, naturalannieessentials.com; this was now home to all the bath, body, and skincare products I’d created.
NaturalAnnie Essentials started as a skincare company and later pivoted into the home fragrance space after our customers constantly asked for candles in the scents of the skincare products we offered. I tried this in 2018; within months, all I was selling were candles. 
It was a tough decision to make, but having an infant and a full-time job, all while working out of my home, I had to decide to pause the bath and body and skincare products and focus on the candle line as this was now selling more than anything else.
Today, NaturalAnnie Essentials is a family-owned and operated company popularly known for tropical-inspired scented soy candles. I moved my business out of my home during the pandemic in November 2020 into our current studio. NaturalAnnie Essentials soy candles currently can be found in over 600 independently owned boutique stores today in the USA, Canada, the Caribbean, and Ghana. 
In January 2022, as the restrictions of COVID-19 were lifted, I added a Candle Bar inside our studio where our manufacturing takes place. This allows guests to come in and make their very own candles on the weekends. We call it our Sip & Pour candle-making experience as the events are BYOB, and guests get to sip on their favorite beverage as they make candles and rock to some amazing tunes by our DJ. We also offer private events at the studio. You can rent the industrial-size studio; it has an open layout allowing you adequate space to fit all your guests! 
