Barrie's Gone Off The List!

Hi I’m Barrie, co-owner of S&S and I thought it was about time I gave you a little insight in to what I get up to on a daily basis! 

After the huge success and shenanigans of The S&S 2024 Pie week it’s a good time to reflect on where we are so far this year from a wax making/pouring perspective.

I tend to pour most of the wax melts here at S&S. Because the demand for our products has grown so much over the last year or so, I’ve had some much needed help. Since 2022, we’ve had to employ more staff to help with this, as the volume of what we’re pouring is certainly increasing year on year. It's a great problem to have.

Since the launch of our new, updated website in January 2021, we’ve shipped and packed almost 25,000 orders to homes across the world. It’s a hugely satisfying achievement to know that I've played a part in fragrance people’s homes and workplaces.

I especially like getting creative. If you would have asked me six years ago if I was a creative person I would have laughed and said that I don't have a creative bone in my body and the only thing I'm likely to create is a mess!!

When I met Clare in 2017, she was making wax melts in her conservatory and she showed me how it all worked. I think she taught me as a way to keep me out of trouble, however now I realise she was training me up for something which changed our lives. (You can read more about our story here.)

Back then, we had a slow cooker to melt the wax and a basic pouring jug. I would maybe pour ten pots in one sitting. It was fun but things progressed and we outgrew the home/garage and we needed to find a larger space.

After searching for a while, post lock-down, we located some local premises. Now we have a huge pouring table with a massive wax melter called an iMelt. It holds about 90 litres of wax - it's a beast.

I was taught very well by Clare who is of course the True Queen of Wax but I wanted to put my own spin on things a little and started getting creative.

Yeah me, creative! 😂

Most days, I can usually be found trying new ideas, some come to me in dreams, some come to me as I'm pouring, I don't always get it right and have made some right old messes. 

What I have in my head that drives me, is the need to be different. I don't really pay much attention to what others are doing, I think it clouds my judgement. I want my ideas to be totally original and authentic to make our customers feel delighted when they open their orders.

There's two things we concentrate on above everything: the fragrance strength and the visual appearance. I've rejected a lot of my pours, sometimes maybe being too hard on myself. Some customers say 'I'll have it anyway, I don't mind' That doesn't sit well with me it has to be 100% or I don't sleep at night 😲 (True story!)

There's a long standing joke that myself and Clare have with our customers over in our Facebook community. It's about when ‘Barrie 'Goes off the list' (at least, I think it’s a joke anyway 😂) This is where Clare gives me a list of items to pour for our website restock and proceed to make everything but what's on the list! Oops!

One of my favourite parts of the job is filming wax, creating content and sharing it with our customers across all of our social media platforms, especially when it's one of our customer bespoke/custom creations. This is where our customers can create their own blends, they choose the oil, colours and I create their dream blend. How cool is that?

I love it when a great blend comes together in the pouring jug even before the wax is added. Sometimes it can hit you in the face and I can be heard shouting 'Wow!'

One thing that's very frustrating is that you would think after years of pouring that heavy wax, I would have much stronger muscly arms, but unfortunately I don't 😂, although I do have a callous on my finger which I joke about with Clare, reminding her how hard I work. She says that all the heroes in her books have calloused fingers, so apparently that is a good thing!

My favourite fragrances to work with have to be the American oils, of which we have a huge selection. They really have amazing fragrances and you can really smell the quality. They’re so unique and different. 

There's a process that takes place when it comes to wax pouring. It's very important we get the weights and the ratios spot on. Sometimes we can make a blend that might consist of 5 different oils and each oil is a different percentage. Fortunately, we've invested thousands of pounds into CLP calculating software to ensure the correct safety information is on every wax melt and is tailor-made to each individual blend or scent.

We've got lots of ideas for the future and looking forward to sharing it all with you.

I love my job. Wax pouring is just one portion of my job, but I would be quite happy doing that all day, every day.