7 minute read
In Profile: FYG
In Profile: FYG
PROGRESSIVE HOME FRAGRANCING
Memories Are Made Of This
Tapping into the current wellnesss/feelgood trend that’s taking the home fragrancing sector by storm, Find Your Glow (pronounced ‘fig’), founded by Demi Pendakis in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, is among the newest home fragrancing kids on the block.
PG&H asked Demi where his inspiration comes from and what gives the company its USP in a crowded marketplace.
Having grown up strongly influenced by his father’s successful fashion business, it was a natural progression for FYG’s founder, Demi Pendakis, to forge his own successful career in the fashion and design industry.
But when Covid hit in early 2020, Demi was among those who succumbed to the virus in February, before anyone was really aware of how serious it was. “Like so many others, I was extremely unwell, completely losing my sense of taste and smell, fortunately eventually regaining it when my wife offered me a bowl of figs,” he explains. “That moment transported back to my grandma’s house in Greece, and to her fig orchards. Having become disillusioned with the fashion industry, I thought, if a smell can have such a positive effect on me, maybe there’s a way I can create a fragrancing business where I can recreate feelgood memories for other people.”
The seed of an idea for Find Your Glow (FYG) was planted, growing during the long months of lockdowns, with Demi working on the idea of creating a mid-market home fragrancing brand that would be based on memories, as well as wellbeing, spanning candles, reed diffusers and essential oils and blends. “Many of the high end home fragrancing brands that people aspire to are often out of reach pricewise, so my objective was to create a brand that hit the same stride, but that was realistically affordable,” he highlights.
Ringing The Seasonal Changes
A fresh, exciting development for FYG is Seasons, a brand new candle duo launched at Spring Fair earlier this year, that change fragrances as they burn.
Explains Demi: “There are two three wick candles, each weighing a kilo, that burn for 120 hours – 60 hours per season. One candle reflects the fragrances of Spring/Summer, the other the fragrances of Autumn/Winter. Plus, each comes with a sustainable seeded dust card that can be planted in the garden to grow beautiful meadow flowers. Looking ahead, I’m also hoping to bring out seeded card boxes for our reed diffusers and for our candle and gift boxes too,” he adds. “Seasons was a year in the making and from a creative perspective, this range totally reflects me and what I’m all about.”
ABOVE: Demi Pendakis, founder of FYG.
However, in creating FYG, Demi didn’t want to create “just another fragranced product” but an immersive experience. “What started as a desire to re-capture my love of family holidays spent in Greece as a child subsequently developed into a project encapsulating a range of significant, beautiful experiences from the past.”
Five months later, Demi was ready to launch FYG’s debut, flagship collection, aptly named Memories, which has a gold inlay inside each candle container to create an ambient golden glow, along with a card explaining something about the fragrance.
“This collection is distinctly evocative, with the power to stimulate, calm, restore, excite and invigorate the senses,” explains Demi. “It really says who I am – romantic and nostalgic - and I’m inviting people to find the stories that speak to them.” Drawing on his own personal memories, there’s Grandma’s Garden, Amalfi, SW19 – a reference to the Wimbledon tennis tournament - Strawberries and Champagne, Cedar and Jasmine, Caribbean Waters and much else besides. “Every candle or reed
Far left: Evocative Caribbean Waters from The Memories collection. Left: Three of the candles in the Back To Basics range.
Inset: The newly launched Wellbeing pod. Inset: Essential oils and oil blends can be used on their own or diffused in the Wellbeing pod.
Above: Hand and body wash and hand and body lotions are an expanding sector.
diffuser takes you on a personal, nostalgic journey,” Demi underlines.
Back To Basics followed in October 2020, a collection of candles and reed diffusers featuring fragrances designed to enhance living spaces and boost the user’s mood. “Fragrances range from light and fresh to earthy, sweet and sensual, celebrating not only a key scent, but also a distinct character,” explains Demi. “They’ve been designed to either invigorate, calm, restore or indulge the senses, positively impacting on wellbeing as well as highlighting and complementing a room’s ambience.”
To complement the candles and reed diffusers, 12 of the 16 fragrances are also available in hand and body wash and hand and body lotion, a sector that Demi is actively looking to expand.
Meanwhile, an additional fragrancing format offered by FYG is a 100% pure, vegan-friendly, cruelty-free essential oils and oil blend collection, once again designed to enhance the mind and body. All have proven therapeutic qualities that are known to relieve stress, improve sleep, energise, balance or calm the mind, contributing to an overall improvement in relation to a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. Products can be bought individually as roll-ons, or diffused through the company’s newly launched ceramic Wellbeing pod, which doubles as a piece of minimalist home decor.
And on the subject of vessels, it’s been very important to Demi to create modern designs that will blend in with all types of home décor. With his designer background, he’s kept everything simple and sophisticated, with block colours and Scandi clean lines, coupled with strong, eyecatching FYG branding. “Aesthetically, FYG is a natural extension of my experience of, and love for, stylish, affordable, sustainable design,” he states. “It’s what I’m passionate about.”
Having spent his career in fashion, which isn’t always kind to the planet, FYG’s sustainability credentials are hugely important to him. “That’s why each product is 100% natural and recyclable as well as being designed, made and hand poured in the UK,” he emphasises. “We also plant a tree in Nicaragua for every candle we sell, and to date, we’re very proud to have planted over 6,500.” (Demi also donates 5% of FYG’s gross profit to a teenage suicide charity, the Oli Leigh Trust). “I believe in giving something back,” he says simply.
So, what else is in the pipeline this year? “Definitely expanding our range of hand and body wash and hand and body lotions, particularly in relation to the hospitality sector. I’m also looking at the possibility of bringing out a debut licensed range at some point in the future,” Demi confirms.
However, he admits that with the rise in inflation and the huge spike in the cost of living this year which is already beginning to bite, coupled with ongoing shipping costs and stock issues, there are going to be challenges ahead. “Currently, everything is going up in price, with the cost of a block of wax, for example, shooting up by some 40%,” he points out.
Nevertheless, plenty of exciting opportunities are on the horizon. “One is definitely seeing how we fare in the Gift of the Year Awards in May – our fingers are tightly crossed! - where we are among the finalists in the Home Fragrance category. Also, we will be making our debut at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Festival in July,” confirms Demi. “Although the home fragrancing sector is, admittedly a crowded marketplace, I truly believe that there’s room for everyone, with each company creating its own niche, its own USP. With FYG it’s very much about putting my own spin on things. For me, as in my fashion career, it’s always been about doing that something different.”
Emotional Connection
Of all the many nostalgic fragrances across the FYG collections, Demi says that the one he has the greatest emotional connection to is The Amalfi.
“A couple of years ago, I took my family on a cruise, and when we got off at Amalfi my reaction was ‘wow’! It’s such a stunning place, as is the Amalfi coastline. It’s very other worldly and very romantic too, with our fresh Amalfi fragrance capturing some of those wonderful memories.”
