Meadow Farm Lifestyle, Sheffield: The Yorkshire candle making business supported by Mel B and Spice Girls featured on Our Great Yorkshire Life
Pop icons Mel B and the Spice Girls are among the famous faces who have supported a Yorkshire candle-making business featured in Channel 5’s Our Great Yorkshire Life.
A Sheffield-based candle-making business - which was created ‘by accident’ after its owner was given a gift - is now supported by celebrity clients including Mel B.
Products from Meadow Farm Lifestyle are now sold in various shops including Harewood Farm shop and Hoopers in Harrogate and bought by big names.
The business was selected to feature in the current series of Our Great Yorkshire Life and has seen a positive reaction from the public.
“I’ve had a lot of support from very well-known people in the industry and they’ve got their hands on my candles and spoke really highly of them,” Rachel said.
“Now people like Mel B and the Spice Girls have had my candles. Caroline Hirons has bought my candles, she's also a well respected figure in the beauty industry.
“I've had a lot of support and that's really helped my brand, which is invaluable to have those people backing you.”
Our Great Yorkshire Life producer, Chloe, stumbled across the Meadow Farm Lifestyle Instagram account and approached Rachel.
“It got a massively loyal following on social media mainly instagram, it's actually how Chloe found us,” she said.
“She found my Instagram page where I mix candle making with the animal farmstead content.
“We filmed Our Great Yorkshire Life last spring; we filmed quite a lot of episodes and they were just showing farm life, beekeeping, behind the scenes of the candles.
“We did a few candle events, one was at a hotel at the barn in Harrogate. We went to the pig auction. That's where we got a couple of our pigs and we built a chicken house as well.
“We upgraded them from the small, scruffy chicken house on the field to a much nicer larger abode with wallpaper and disco balls and the whole shebang. It’s now called Cluckingham Palace.
“People think we're crazy for building that chicken house, but chickens do see in technicolor, so it's quite good for them visually to have a nice space and something of interest for them to look at.”
The filming helped with the exposure of Rachel’s business.
“It’s a real feel-good show, like a warm hug, I would say,” she said.
“They came to see what we do and then we got on the show and it was about three months of filming last spring.
“It was amazing, we really enjoyed it, they had a really good team and we had fun. It's just nice to get some exposure when you work really hard.
“It worked quite well because we could still tend to the animals, feed the animals, they might go off and do a few interviews with [my husband] Philip, I could come back into the candle room and they just filmed what I was doing.
“The reaction was really positive and everyone loved our segment and said they want to see more of us”
Rachel never expected her candle making hobby to turn into a successful business.
“I’m really shocked at how much people have loved our product,” she said.
“It started as a hobby in one of the spare bedrooms and I'm now moved out into a bigger space in the barn outside.
“I'm expanding again in a few weeks into the other side of the barn. The product speaks for itself, I've put a lot of effort and time and testing into the candles.
“I got them into a couple of small shops, including Harewood Farm shops, they kept growing and now they’re stocked in Hoopers in Harrogate.”
The Meadow Farm Lifestyle is collaborating with other brands.
“We've got a collaboration coming up with a well-known perfume brand called Olfactive O,” Rachel said.
“We're doing that in collaboration with a charity called Beauty Banks.
“Our newest candle is launching in a few weeks and its beauty bank is run by Sally Hughes and its hygiene for women, luxury beauty products for women who can't afford to buy them for themselves because they feel that nobody should go without those standard beauty products.”
Rachel and her husband spend their spare time helping causes.
“We really enjoy helping people who want to rehome their animals, we love to take in injured animals or cows that are maybe going to be going to slaughter,” she said.
“My husband works with a lot of charities as well. He does a lot of work with Ukraine Yorkshire Aid Charity; they go to Ukraine and Romania a few times a year.
“That’s why I thought this is a good thing to do the TV show; it raises awareness for things like that.
“He also works with another charity called Reusing It, where they recondition computers and give to children in the UK and all over who don't necessarily have those at hand.”