about us

Hello!

Welcome to Auburn Aroma!

My name is Aleisha (she/her) and I am the sole founder and owner of Auburn Aroma.

I personally love knowing the history behind how a small business started and adore getting to know the person in charge of all the chaos and madness that goes on behind the scenes, so I thought it was only fitting I gave you a little run down on who we are as a brand and how we came to be!

Auburn Aroma is a small, eco-friendly candle and homewares business located in the heart of the north-eastern suburbs of South Australia. We strive to create and provide simple but funky products fit for everyone and every home, while also remaining completely vegan, non-toxic, sustainable & pet friendly!

Formally known as Salty Ginger, I first launched my business back in 2020 – in the midst of a pandemic. On top of that, I was only 6-months post my high school graduation and still figuring out if I wanted to head down the path of studying Speech Pathology at university, or to continue my Diploma of Beauty Therapy.

For those that don’t know me well, I happen to be the WORST procrastinator, but somehow also the most organised person you will ever come across. Little bit of an odd combination... but I make it work!

With the procrastination side of me taking charge and delaying the process of applying for university I ended up continuing down the path of beauty therapy – only for my work to come to a halt when face-to-face interactions were ultimately “banned” when lockdowns began and the heavy COVID-19 restrictions were implemented during the peak of the pandemic.

I made my first candle during Adelaide’s first COVID-19 lockdown in March, 2020 as something new and different to do that could keep me entertained and busy. I purchased a few candle starter kits online & eagerly dived straight into playing around with different waxes and fragrances for hours on end. Mum’s little kitchen was always an odd mix of a bunch of different smells.

I have always been a sucker for a candle! Growing up, you could always count on Mum to have some type of fragrance burning throughout the house. Whether it was a candle, melts or incense sticks, the house would always smell amazing. A core memory of mine is how Mum would always let me blow out the candle once she was finished burning it – I still sometimes find myself asking to do it, except now it’s a race between who can get to it first... me or my sister! I absolutely adore how certain scents can affect someone’s mood and emotions, or how specific smells can instantly trigger memories.

I absolutely fell in love with the process of candle making! I found/find it to be incredibly therapeutic & love(d) the creative freedom of being able to create my own custom fragrance blends that were/are completely unique. I started making an insane number of candles, way too many for our own personal use – and in Mum’s little kitchen you can only imagine how chaotic it looked with a mini candle studio taking over the dining room table!

Somewhere in between gifting the overflow of candles to close family & friends and quietly taking orders through Instagram DM’s (shhh) came the idea of kick-starting my own business, now popping up at local markets around South Australia almost every weekend, getting the chance to meet all you lovely people – and I have loved every second of owning Auburn Aroma since.

Side note: Still to this day I use that same dining room table to package up all of your amazing orders before they are sent off to their new homes!