For BLK ROSE, their company’s mission is about more than producing candles with a pleasant fragrance — it’s a gateway to history, the start of a conversation, and a chance to share those stories with a global audience.
The founder of BLK ROSE, Kejina Robinson-Rose began her business with the mission to raise awareness of historic Black women through beautifully crafted candles. For each candle that’s crafted in their Edmonton studio, the scent is uniquely crafted to reflect the woman for whom the candle is named.
“I really reflect on the person: their impact on history, what they did, what scents might connect to that, and the mood that I want to create,” Robinson-Rose said. “For example, Toni Morrison is an author, so when I was working on the scent for that candle, I tried to create something that was very calming to burn as you’re reading.”
With their candles, BLK ROSE candles aim to start conversations.
“We wanted to create scents to fill your space and prompt someone to ask the question, ‘what are you burning?’” Robinson-Rose explained. “It becomes an opportunity to start a conversation and share about women that maybe you didn’t know about.”
In addition to the conversations her company hopes to start, BLK ROSE donates 15% of their profits to other BIPOC-owned charities and non-profits.
The company has been so successful that in the last couple years, BLK Rose has been able to expand into new markets.
“We had a really strong presence in the Edmonton Region, and so we began thinking about how we could take this story and cross borders with it,” said Robinson-Rose.
Rather than jumping into large-scale distribution, the company took a measured approach, selling directly to U.S. customers through social media and their online store.
Beginning their export journey by selling directly to consumers allowed the company to test the waters, learning about U.S. consumer preferences and the logistical hurdles of cross-border trade.
Robinson-Rose also explained that when they started exporting there was a lot of learning about customs and taking the correct steps to avoid increased duties or taxes on their customers.
“We’ve actually been quite fortunate that it’s been smaller orders so we can take our time to understand what we need to think about as we export,” Robinson-Rose said.
While the direct-to-consumer model worked well, BLK ROSE Candles faced some challenged when looking at expanding into wholesale and retail in the U.S.
Despite strong interest from individual U.S. customers, BLK ROSE found that breaking into the wholesale space was a different story. The perception of Canadian brands in the U.S. created unexpected roadblocks.
“I think a lot of U.S. companies don’t think about Canadian companies in the same way that Canadian companies think about U.S. companies,” Robinson-Rose explained. “The U.S. can sometimes think about Canada as ‘those little Canadians.’”
To challenge those conceptions, Robinson-Rose is focusing on strengthening BLK ROSE’s presence in Canada first, building credibility, and proving market success before expanding their wholesale efforts in the U.S.
While looking at expanding their business, Robinson-Rose emphasised the importance of “really understanding the different markets,” especially in big countries with so many different ones.
BLK ROSE’s journey into international trade is still unfolding. What started as a passion for storytelling through scent has since evolved into a growing business. But with that growth comes challenges, from navigating customs to overcoming wholesale barriers.
