From Michigan With Love: Dearborn Women 'Kickstart' New Business

What started as a dream for residents Kelly Gheesling and Sarah Bryan has quickly turned into a budding business, bringing jobs back to Metro Detroit.

The two friends operate Michigan Scents, an online business that specializes in natural soy-based candles. In the spring, the company announced that it was planning to expand its offerings by creating the first ever "Made in USA" petal warmer, a popular wickless candle warming accessory.

In order to do that, Gheesling and Bryan took to Kickstarter, a popular crowd-funding platform where companies and artists can raise funding for grassroots efforts. During a month-long campaign, the project garnered 96 backers, who pledged $12,747.

"We were just amazed with how many people wanted to support this project," Gheesling said.

Response has been so overwhelming in fact that Gheesling decided to move operations out of her home, where the soy candles are made, and open up a store in Dearborn.

Michigan Scents, LLC. recently received approval from the Dearborn City Council to have an open house at 21759 Tenny St. on Sept. 18 from 5 to 10 p.m.

"Since April, we've been working on production, designing of the packaging, and testing of the petal warmer," Bryan said. "They work beautifully, and we're eager to get them out to the consumers."

The hand-poured ceramic petal warmers are produced by Lori Dow, owner of The Bees Knees in Northville.

"Lori has been fantastic to work with," Bryan said. "She believes in this product and has dedicated some of her staff to work on the warmers so that we are able to fill our orders."

The warmer retails at $42 and comes in natural slate or neutral colors, and includes the warmer top, electric base, and 25-watt lightbulb.

"We have a universal base and interchangeable cylinder to put the wax in, so if you want to change holidays or themes in your house, you don't have to change the whole warmer," Bryan said. "There's nothing like that out there on the market."

Wax petal packs retail at $8.50 and can be designed with any of the 21 soy scents.

All of the Michigan Scents products will be available online as well as at the store's new location.

"We're excited that we can stay in our hometown. We're supporting Dearborn, and we're actually starting to create jobs, too. We hired our first employee at the beginning of August," Gheesling said. "We're looking to grow a team."

That fact alone, Gheesling said, brings the two friends to tears.

"Six months ago we were baking a prototype out of Polymer clay in our oven and wondering if we could make this work. Now here we are on the way to launching our product and we're slowly seeing things come together," she said. "We took what was in our heads and made it a reality, and it just progressed from there."

For budding entrepreneurs, Bryan offered a word of advice: 

"You have to believe in yourself and you have to have perseverance," she said. "If we would've given up when people told us 'no,' this project would have never happened. It's hard work, but it's worth it if you are passionate about something."

The Michigan Scents petal warmer, and all Michigan Scents products can be purchased online at www.petalwarmer.com.