Summer of Creativity: How Demilee found the sweet smell of success during the pandemic

We’re celebrating Oldham’s creativity with our ‘Summer of Creativity’ campaign with Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre and Oldham Council.  We’re looking to uncover your secret talents, or learn about your inspiration during lockdown.

When Demilee Morgan was forced to give up work as a beautician because of the pandemic, little did she know that it would lead to her setting up a limited company with global online success.

The Waxxy Warehouse specialises in handcrafted scented wax melts, candles, and bath products, and opened the doors to the new store in Market Street, Shaw, earlier this month.

Incredibly, Demilee’s career change started out as child’s play.

“I was a beautician, but in June 2020, I had to give it up because of Covid. I was getting fed up and the kids were bored stuck at home. I just ordered a wax melting kit for me and my daughter. It was fun. I posted pictures of our melts on Facebook and people wanted to buy them. I didn’t sell them then but gave them to family and friends and got fantastic feedback.”

But before long, Demilee found her melts were proving so popular that she took the plunge and turned her new-found hobby into a business, and her kitchen into a wax-melt production line.

Demilee, 27, was pregnant with her fourth child as she entered her new venture and gave birth to Via in August, but demand was so high that just one week later, she was back working on her orders.

“I was breast-feeding and holding the baby in one hand and working on my orders with the other. I just looked around my living room, piled high with boxes for shipping and just knew that this was no longer a hobby, but a full-time career.”

Orders were flooding in too quickly for her to process manually, so she set up her website, and now Waxxy Warehouse ships to customers around the world.

 “It’s been a dream come true. Waxxy Warehouse is officially global with customers ordering in from Australia, America and Europe.”

Demilee puts her success down to her sheer hard work and determination but is grateful to her family for all their help.

“Family is really important to me, and the whole family has been really supportive.” Demilee now employs her mum and sister, and refers to her dad, Lee as her storage manager, “He’s literally been storing all my stuff.”

Husband Daniel decorated the store and helped with the branding – even designing the logo – and her brother Dom built the website.  It’s no exaggeration when she says, “It’s a proper family business.”

Demilee is also keen to continue her support with mental health charity, Mind, through her range of ‘Relaxxy Waxxy’ boxes.

“Mind is a charity that means a lot to me, so for each box sold, I donate 10% to the charity.”

Demilee is proud of her Oldham heritage too and is already cooking up plans to unveil a new range of products named after local mills.

Each melt is individually handcrafted and made from 100% clean-burning soy wax. Soy wax is vegan friendly and biodegradable.

You can find The Waxxy Warehouse store on Market Street in Shaw.

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