Meet Crystal Bong and Susan Shin | Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Crystal Bong and Susan Shin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Crystal and Susan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It’s kind of funny because our candle making business happened by chance. We had an acquaintance that was moving overseas and could not take her candle making equipment and materials with her so we asked her to teach us and bought out her materials.

With this newfound skill, we decided to run a small business and create candles that would cater to the Asian community. I think our thought process at the time was that there was a lack of Asian representation in the candle world so we wanted something that was different from usual scents such as teakwood, apple pie and snicker doodles. Although those scents are loved by many, we found that the Asian community gravitate towards scents that are clean, light and sweet. For that reason, a lot of our scents are light, fruity, floral and clean.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What set us apart from others, especially here in Twentynine Palms, CA, is that our candles have a soft pastel aesthetic. The colors of the candle design pop and give it a vibrant look, which is unique in the desert. You don’t think of a variety of colors when you think of the desert, so we feel it stands out. We also took our time to think of fun and cute names for each candle. Rather than listing the scents as our candle name, we wanted a name that would remind you of the notes you were smelling with each candle. We’ve had many people tell us how much they love the fun names we give our candles and it’s exciting to hear how much our candles bring them happiness simply because of how the scent, color, and name all ties together. A little bit of color in your life can never hurt!

It was not an easy process to get to where we are today. In the span of one year, we changed our branding three times! There were lots of doubts at first, especially when you see others around you with branding that fits the desert aesthetic. We were afraid that using such colorful labels will deter people from buying our candles, but fortunately, our customers love our colorful branding and most of all, they love our scents!

Some lessons we learned along the way is that nothing will ever be perfect. There will be lots of mistakes made, but we eventually learn from those trial and errors. We learned to patient. Candle making can not be rushed. There are lots of testing that goes into it, so we have to make sure that we test all of our candles and not every candle will come out successfully. Lastly, not everyone loves what you love. We have to take into consideration what our customers love, so we try hard to listen to their feedback and provide a variation of scents to cater to them. We sometimes find scents we absolutely love and had high hopes for, but those scents don’t do well and we have to pull them out of our line.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
What’s great about the city of Twentynine Palms is that we are right next to Joshua Tree National Park! There are many hiking trails for all levels; beginners to experts. It’s a nice place to come visit with your family and friends!

Twentynine Palms is a small town, but it’s currently still developing. There are cute little shops right in Downtown Twentynine Palms on this little strip on Twentynine Palms Hwy. I love shopping for home decor at a little shop called Habitat. We also have lot of small businesses here, so you can find many of their products in a shop called Hi-desert Daydream. They have an awesome bakery called Campbell Hills Bakery and you can get everything from bagels to cupcakes. They also have delicious vegetarian sandwiches and salads.

On Saturdays, we like to attend the 29 Palms Farmers Market at the Freedom Plaza. They always have awesome food/drinks and small business vendors that sell their arts and crafts!

We are only an hour drive from Palm Springs, so if we’re up for a short getaway, Palm Springs is not too far away.

Lastly, what I love most about this city is that since it’s a small community, we are all connected. I found that many people here are generally caring and nice people. There’s a feeling of community that you can’t get in larger cities.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our friends, Kevin and Portia, have been our biggest support. They have always taken interest in our business and given us a lot of love and encouragement. They also give us honest feedback, whether our products are good or bad, so we take those into great consideration.

Also, Crystal would like to thank her husband, Jonathan, who has been her biggest cheerleader and supporter throughout this journey. He is often there to help set up shop and keep her company during pop-ups and farmers markets. Whenever she’s in doubt or having second thoughts about continuing the business, he’s always there with words of encouragement.

Website: https://135-candle-co.myshopify.com/

Instagram: @135candlco

Facebook: 135 Degrees Candle Co

Image Credits
Alicia Kuester