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Be your own boss: A local woman starts a candle business following the loss of her mother

A local woman who lost her mother to cancer learned how to transform her grief into a glowing business. Her sales grew so quickly online that she just opened a store.

“Candles are a symbol of hope,” said Christina Goldsmith, owner of Intentions by Christina.

Christina Goldsmith needed that glimmer of hope in December of 2019 after her mother passed away from lung cancer.

“I went through a lot of grief at that time,” said Goldsmith. “It was literally months later and covid hit and we were all locked down. So I was plastered to my couch with grief, it was awful.”

But then something magical happened. Christina said her mother started popping up in her dreams, showing her different objects. Growing up, the revere native enjoyed making candles. So she decided to revisit her childhood hobby as a path toward healing.

“So I ended up just keeping busy with something that I enjoyed and brought happy into my life and that’s how the crystal candles were born,” said Goldsmith.

Each candle has a theme, a signature six-prong crystal, and includes a little bit of magic to help ease the stress out of our everyday lives.

“It’s not just a bunch of rocks thrown in a jar,” said Goldsmith. “They’re executed to where they drive good energy and they clean out the negative energy.”

Christina first posted a picture on Facebook just to show everyone what she created. She had no intention of selling it, but people kept asking to buy them. She said demand grew so quickly that she went from Facebook to a website, to now a store in Rumford, Rhode Island.

“There’s nothing like seeing them in person, how they glitter, how they shimmer, and that’s the reason we did the store and our customers wanted a store,” said Goldsmith.

Christina has since expanded her booming business to include body lotions and sprays. For now, she’s manufacturing all of her products out of her home.

“We’ve sacrificed a portion of our home we are working on getting some sort of factory lab, or some sort of thing way long term, not right now,” said Goldsmith.

The realtor had prior experience in the hospitality business. But says she had no business plan for her candle creations. She just knew she was going to make it happen because there was love—and hope behind it.

“Start small, watch it grow,” said Goldsmith. “Baby step it. I think sometimes when we look at this elaborate business plan that we need to do it seems like so much and a lot all at once and that’s when we tend to shy away from reaching our dreams.”

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