Our Story
Oro Lume didn’t begin in a shop. It began in our kitchen, with a little bit of curiosity, a lot of experimenting, and a dream we weren’t quite sure where it would take us.
Before we ever made our first candle, we tested everything. Different waxes, fragrances, wicks, combinations and techniques. We poured, waited, tested, changed things, and started again. We wanted to create something that wasn’t simply beautiful, but something we could be genuinely proud to put our name on.
Two people, one dream, and a journey we never imagined would bring us this far.
Eventually, after all the testing, we made our first four candles.
All four were the same scent: Sweet Caramel & Vanilla.
We still remember those four candles sitting in our kitchen. They were the beginning of something we couldn’t yet see the size of.
Four candles, one kitchen, and the very beginning of Oro Lume.
We sold the first one to a friend.
Then, before we knew it, the next one sold too.
And that was enough to make us think: maybe we really have something here.
So we created three more scents and, with our little collection ready, took a leap of faith and signed up for our very first local market in Middelburg.
We arrived with just 16 candles.
To us, those 16 candles felt like an entire business.
The very first person to believe in what we were creating.
When four candles sold that day, we were over the moon.
It may not sound like much, but to us, it was proof that people connected with what we had created. Someone we didn’t know had chosen something we had made with our own hands.
So we kept going.
We added wax melts, room and linen mists and reed diffusers to our collection. We did more markets around Middelburg, often waking up at 04h30 in the morning to load the car and set up our little stall — sometimes in the middle of winter, when getting out of a warm bed felt like the hardest part of the day.
16 candles, a little table, a lot of nerves — and four candles sold. We were absolutely thrilled.
But every market brought something new.
More people discovered Oro Lume. More candles found their way into homes. Customers came back looking for their favourite scents. Faces we once saw for the first time became familiar faces.
And some of those customers eventually became friends.
Slowly, something beautiful was happening.
People weren’t just buying our products. They were becoming part of our journey.
And then we started hearing the same question again and again:
“Do you have a shop?”
For a long time, the answer was no.
We had the dream, but we didn’t know when the right time would come.
Then life changed.
We lost my mother.
Her passing was one of the most difficult moments of our lives. But she left us something that would ultimately give us the opportunity to take a step we had been dreaming about.
She left us some money, and we looked at each other and knew.
This was our opportunity.
This was the moment to take everything we had built from those four little candles in our kitchen and give it a home.
Forever part of our story, and forever part of the reason we found the courage to take the next step.
And so, Oro Lume found its home.
Opening our shop is more than a business milestone for us. It carries every early morning, every market, every candle we poured, every customer who supported us, every friend we made along the way — and a little piece of my mother with us.
From four candles in our kitchen to a shop filled with products we have poured, blended and created by hand, this journey has become so much more than we ever imagined.
Oro Lume is our dream, built one candle at a time.
And if you walk through our doors, we hope you feel what we have felt from the very beginning:
that you’re not just stepping into a shop.
You’re stepping into our story.