CENTERBURG – The idea to start a candle and essential oil business didn’t come to Michelle Johnson until she was laid off from her electrical engineering job in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She was 30 weeks pregnant, and no one was looking to hire a soon-to-be mother.
Then a thought arrived in her mind: What’s going to make you happy? What do you actually want to do with your life?
Johnson didn’t know how to start a small business. Then she thought about her love for essential oils and multi-level marketing.
She went online, asking internet search engines how to make a living with essential oils. She found a career field in aromatherapy, similar to a clinical counselor but using essential oils as therapy.
Johnson eventually left the clinical essential oil business and saw interest from friends wanting to buy her candles and oils just as gifts.
That’s where Ampersand Essential Oils was born. Created in June 2020, the business brings direct-to-consumer oils and candles straight from the farms where they’re grown.
In those nearly three years, Johnson is ready to open her own storefront in Centerburg right next to Kolacheez Coffee Bar.
Though the opening date isn’t set, Johnson hopes to open between April and May.
“It’s going to be a place where you can come in and where the community can hang out,” Johnson said. “You can get your coffee, and hang out with friends but also create an actual experience for people.”
Customers will be able to create their own candles, diffuser blends with essential oils and lotions. Johnson’s candles range in price depending on what’s in the candle.
Johnson’s products are also USDA organic with the candle’s labels being designed in house.
The end goal, Johnson said, is to create a space that serves her local community and to change the entire face of aromas. She would like aroma companies to share more about where their products are sourced and how they’re produced.
Starting out, burnout weighed heavily on Johnson, having the pressure to keep up with other essential oil companies.
“I think about all the things we’ve been through, and changes, I think to myself I can keep going,” Johnson said.
Her passion and mindset of changing the industry have kept Ampersand alive.
“I think that I’m not nearly as worried as I once was,” Johnson said. “Definitely, I expanded way too fast in the beginning. We used to offer 20 different products. At one point we had 200 products in our shop.”
Johnson realized it wasn’t a sustainable way to run her business. She started to decrease her products and thought differently about candle production.
That’s where Johnson’s “farm-to-shelf” method was born. Johnson was contacted by a lavender farmer out of Bulgaria. They were originally set to have an hour-long meeting via Zoom. It ended up being three and a half hours. The duo became great friends and started supplying Ampersand’s lavender.
“It really encouraged us to become an essential oils company,” Johnson said.
Ampersand has six partners all over the world, ranging from Canada, India, Australia and more.
“As I was starting to get through all this stuff, I thought ‘How could we be different from any other essential oil companies?’ ” Johnson asked herself. “What their selling point is — everybody wants to know where their oils are from.”
It started by building relationships with the farmers before Johnson partnered with them, linking farmer’s websites with the products.
“We work with the farmers directly – not consumer reps,” Johnson said.
Typically, in big essential oil chains there’s a six- to seven-step process. The farmer will produce, sell to a producer, producer to distiller, distiller to middle man whole seller, etc.
“With us, our pricing is about three times less than store brands because we have none of that, no middle man, no producers, no distillers,” Johnson said. “I pride myself in that, having full control of the purity of their oils.”
