Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Pittsburgh. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Leila Carter helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Is your business serving the residents of Pittsburgh? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpPittsburgh.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
E30: Crafting Clean Candles: Aria Bella Candle is Pittsburgh's Non-Toxic Candle Co.
What makes Arianna Posa with Aria Bella Candles a good neighbor?
Discover the aromatic world of Aria Bella Candles as founder Arianna Posa shares her entrepreneurial journey from college sophomore to successful candle maker. What began as an alternative to traditional career paths blossomed into a thriving business specializing in non-toxic, personalized soy candles for weddings, special events, and home décor.
Arianna takes us behind the scenes of her craft, debunking common misconceptions about candle toxicity that might surprise even the most discerning consumers. She reveals why clean-certified fragrance oils are actually preferable to essential oils when it comes to candle making – essential oils aren't meant to be burned and can become toxic at high temperatures. This commitment to truly clean ingredients allows Aria Bella Candles to deliver on their promise that customers can "breathe a breath of fresh air."
From marketing strategies centered on Instagram Stories and word-of-mouth referrals to balancing business with new motherhood, Arianna offers valuable insights for entrepreneurs and candle enthusiasts alike. Whether you're planning a wedding, corporate event, or simply looking to enhance your home with non-toxic fragrances, Aria Bella Candles offers customization options limited only by your imagination. Connect with them through their website ariabellacandles.com or on social media @ariabellacandle to transform your next celebration with personalized scents crafted with care.
To learn more about Aria Bella Candles go to:
Aria Bella Candles
(412)781 2706
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.
Speaker 2:The Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a candle company? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Ariana Poza, with Aria Bella Candles.
Speaker 3:Ariana, how's it going? Great Thanks for having me on, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:We're excited to learn all about you and your business, so tell us about your company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I own Aria Bella Candles. It's a candle company that specializes in personalized soy candles. Candles. It's a candle company that specializes in personalized soy candles. We primarily sell gifts such as wedding favors, different event favors for bridal showers, birthdays, anniversaries. We also do corporate event gifting and we sell a home decor line of candles as well. All of our candles are non-toxic, so we use clean, certified fragrance oils, cotton wicks and a hundred percent soy wax.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:So I was in college. I was a sophomore in college. This was back in 2015. And I was an integrated marketing communications major and the work in that field typically goes towards agency work. And I thought to myself I don't know that I really want to go into agency work, and I was starting to spiral a bit the closer I got to graduation. So I decided let me try my hand at starting my own Etsy shop. And so I decided on candles, because I loved Yankee Candle. As a kid. We always used to go on our way down to North Carolina. There was a store in Williamsburg. It was this big store and I loved smelling all the candles and I thought to myself well, I think I can make candles, I can learn. And so that's what I did and I started an Etsy store. And in 2019, I started to pick up some traction when I added wedding favors. And in 2020, during the pandemic, things really kicked off and it's been good going ever since.
Speaker 2:Brilliant. So what are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:I think a huge one is about the toxicity of candles. So absolutely the big box brands. They use fragrance oils that do have really harmful chemicals in them, like there's organ toxins, reproductive toxins, there are carcinogens and those types of fragrances. But I make sure that all of my candles are sourced we use clean, certified fragrance oils. So we source all clean fragrance oils. So a lot of people think that they have to buy essential oil candles to get 100% natural sort of burn. But the misconception really is that essential oil candles aren't actually better than fragrance oil candles in the sense that essential oils aren't meant to be burned, they're meant to be diffused. So when you do burn essential oils at a certain temperature they become actually toxic. So I prefer to use fragrance oils in my products, but I make sure that I source the cleanest fragrance oils possible so that you could breathe the breath of fresh air which is our tagline.
Speaker 2:Wow, what great insight. And so we know that marketing is the heart of every business. How are you attracting your target customers, and who?
Speaker 3:are they business? How are you attracting your target customers and who are they? Yeah, absolutely so. We mainly advertise just on social media. We don't do a lot of paid advertising. The only sort of paid advertising currently that we utilize are Etsy ads, and that's just native to the Etsy platform. We do use Instagram primarily on stories. I don't do a whole bunch of feed posts Instagram primarily on stories. I don't do a whole bunch of feed posts.
Speaker 3:I like to communicate with my customers to show different orders. Something new I've been doing is adding every order that I get for wedding favors and tagging the customer and sharing that with all of my Instagram followers. And my customers are primarily brides or maids of honor, matrons of honor that are hosting events. We're mainly targeting women that are in their late twenties to mid to late thirties, I would say. And also I would say a huge way that I get customers is word of mouth. I have, like I said, wedding favors and so people buy these in large quantities and as they get these little gifts, they can flip it over and they have my website. A lot of new customers from that, and then also repeat customers that have bought my candles for different events and whatnot they come back for their next event.
Speaker 2:I know that a lot of people are interested in product formulation or maybe interested in how your story speaks, so have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, it's not something I have thought of doing, but maybe down the line that is something I could consider for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, so outside of work, what else do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Right now I'm just hanging with my baby. She's six months old, so that's really my life right now is just being a mom. But we have a ton of fun. We go to the pool, we go to the zoo, you know just the little family life stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh, congratulations, thank you. Please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember or that should stick with them, about Aria Bella candles.
Speaker 3:Well, I would say, aside from us having non-toxic candles, we can personalize anything. So if you have a logo that you'd like to put on a candle or you want to do a custom line of candles, we offer wholesale, we offer private label, we offer personalization, so we can really do anything with our candles. So just reach out to us and we'd be happy to chat.
Speaker 2:Excellent, and how can our listeners learn more about Aria Bella?
Speaker 3:Candles. You can go to our website, which is ariabellacandlescom. You can also find us on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, pinterest at Aria Bella Candle, and you can always send us an email. Pinterest at ariabellacandle. And you can always send us an email at hello at ariabellacandlescom, and we would be happy to chat.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Well, Ariana, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me on. It was a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Pittsburghcom. That's GNP Pittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.