Former IT Couple Quit To Travel and Make Candles

We chatted with Moitri and Saurabh, an erstwhile corporate couple who are now spontaneous travellers and run a candle-making business from their home in Noida. Their candles are inspired by nature and their travels “are here to spread warmth, glow and serenity in your life.”

1. When did you guys start your home business? What did you do before that? 

Eliora began in 2016, right after we quit our corporate IT jobs after 8 long years and went on our first backpacking tour across the country. We realized that the constant chase of career-oriented dreams and having our happiness being anchored to salary day, made us disconnected with ourselves.

So we had to put a stop to it and restart. We packed our bags and got out with no plans, roamed for almost half a year, made some amazing friends, saw the most beautiful things in nature, studied Yoga and also incorporated all this into our lives. 

2. What does Eliora mean? Any particular reason why you chose the candle making business?

The soft flickering flame of a glowing candle somehow brings us closer to the basic instinct of human nature, to Exist. Eliora in Hebrew means “God is Light.” True to its name and form, our candles are here to spread warmth, glow and serenity in your life. It’s here to soothe your olfactory senses with unique exotic fragrances.

3. What is the best thing about running a home-based business? And, what are some of its challenges?

No limitations to when to pee or eat or sleep! What to wear, when to take a break and when to work. If we feel like it, we work all day and night and come up with business strategies even in our dreams. And if we don’t feel like, we lie in the bed all day watching Friends or motorcycle videos.

Positive challenges – as Saurabh calls them – are the customers’ demands and us wondering how efficiently we can fulfil them. Sometimes, we do crave for helping hands. We are looking to expand and get some help soon as its getting harder to meet the pouring orders.

4. Do you miss your job sometimes?

Yeah, we miss the fact that we do not have a huge airconditioned workplace (our home is just 3 rooms and UP has power outages all the time). But apart from that, we are grateful for our situations and the decisions that have brought us till here.

5. What do you think makes your products different from others out there.

Use of pure vegetable wax and no mixture of paraffin results in a clean, even, healthy and smokeless burn in an enclosed room. The amount of fragrance used in the candles is 7 to 10% of the wax used, which is nowhere in the market. The smell stays even after the wax is burnt out. The packing is simple yet elegant hence goes well with all settings.

Check out their Instagram page: @eliora_store
Their products can be bought from their online store here and on Amazon.