About Smith & Co

Welcome to Smith & Co! My name is Tori and I sell handmade soy wax candles, wax melts and reed diffusers that I make at my home in Boxted, near Colchester, Essex.

I am originally from Canada and have lived in the UK for the last 12 years. I started making candles as a hobby in 2019 and when lockdown hit in 2020, I decided to open an Etsy page and see what happened! From the kitchen of our 2 bed flat in Brentwood, Smith & Co was born, with local deliveries making up a large part of our daily walks. For a couple of years, Smith & Co happened in the evenings and on weekends as I was working as a primary school music teacher and not much has changed as I’m now at home with two young children.

I have loved doing markets over the year and applied for my very first market with the Pop Up Club. I pitched my gazebo for the first time on Chelmsford High Street in August 2020. It just so happened that the market was 6 days after Lee and I got married and we spent much of that first week of being married staying up late, making candles on the stove and labelling them with the Dymo maker!

Since then, candle making has a been a wild ride. I have really enjoyed meeting clients and making friends across Essex and Suffolk and have done markets from Bury St Edmunds to Ipswich, and from Ingatestone to Dunmow! I’ve also made some incredible friends in other makers and really appreciate the community of small business girlies. Other candle highlights include popping up in John Lewis Bond Street the week before Christmas 2022. It was a wild ride and I can only hope we get to do some more of the same when mum life is a little less sleep deprived…

I also really enjoy being part of some beautifully curated Pop Up Shops including Thrive Collective in Suffolk and Love Local in Colchester where you can find my full range to shop in person!