Our wild journey began in our little kitchen during the thick of the pandemic. With a toddler under our feet, three cats, two dogs, and not a lot of spare time —or money— we started pouring a few candles each evening using the hob. We were posting every day across four different social media platforms and hitting markets across the UK every single week to help grow the brand from the ground up. We hand-delivered every local order ourselves and took IKEA bags full of parcels to the post office each evening. Slowly but surely, the word started to spread and then orders came flooding in fast. So we got imaginative. We built our own makeshift machinery from bits and bobs just to keep up. It was chaotic, exciting, and completely life-changing.

After five months of solid graft, Bee was able to quit her job in the NHS and go full-time self-employed with The Wandering Bee. Not long after, we caught the eye of the World of Wedgwood and were offered a dedicated warehouse space to create from. In October 2021, we moved out of our tiny kitchen and into a much bigger workshop — where Bee worked solo until January 2022, when we hired our very first team member.

After a year of making and growing in that space, Bee set her sights on something new: a physical shop. We opened our first little store down the charming Adies Alley in Stone and brought on our second staff member. Around this time, we launched The Wandering Bee Subs Club, which quickly gained momentum and helped us grow far beyond what our tiny shop could manage. So in 2024, we took the leap and moved into a much bigger three-story building on Stone High Street — where we are today. With the extra space, we introduced new product ranges like reed diffusers, hand creams, and even houseplants, we started running candle making workshops and welcomed our third team member to the hive.

Upstairs in TWB Shop, our small but mighty team works their magic, turning used beer bottles into sleek, signature candle vessels. Each one is hand-scored, split, and ground smooth (with help from some now-legit machinery), before being meticulously hand-poured with 100% soy wax. The result? Candles with a difference.

Since launching, we’ve been lucky to collaborate with some incredible businesses and take part in amazing opportunities. The Wandering Bee has been sold at John Lewis with the Curated Makers, at the Bullring in Birmingham with Design44, in Restaurant Lunar at the World of Wedgwood, and even at Chester Zoo. We’ve had two pop-up shops on Oxford Street and another in Shoreditch, East London with the Hellfire Collective.

We’re also proud to be stocked by some of our favourite independent businesses across the country — like Sandon Hall, Canalside Farm, Fond Shop, Little Seeds Restaurant, and Badu in Shrewsbury. Today, our candles can be found in over 40 shops, studios, and restaurants across the UK.

We’ve also been recognised with a ‘Sustainable Business’ award from Klarna and are proud to be one of their listed promotional brands. Along the way, we’ve launched some incredible collaborations, grown into a team of four (plus a very supportive partner), and expanded our hive at home too — welcoming our second baby, becoming a family of four, and bringing a tiny little shop dog into the mix. Let’s just say, it’s been a busy few years.

These past four years have been wild, wonderful, and way beyond what we ever imagined. And we’re only just getting started.