After going viral on TikTok, Emporal Co.’s enterprise took off
Spending Christmas alone is rarely enjoyable, and for Grace Lim, it turned a actuality when a prepare employees’ strike in Paris stored her from celebrating with mates.
“I used to be actually unhappy and depressed, [but] I remembered that my auntie gave me a candle. So I took it out, and I lit it for the primary time, and that is once I realised that ‘Oh my goodness, a scented candle introduced me loads of heat.’ and I felt nearer to my household,” she shared in a radio interview with ONE FM 91.3.
On the time, Grace was working in France and operating her personal occasions firm. Nonetheless, she needed to shut the enterprise and return to Singapore because of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her sister, Lena Lim, had additionally simply graduated from college then, and discovering a job was extraordinarily difficult.
This lit a spark in Grace, who wished to show her newfound love for candles and her present ardour for skincare right into a enterprise, and she or he roped Lena in to develop it collectively. After pooling S$20,000 of their financial savings to fund a yr of R&D, the sisters launched Emporal Co. from their residence in 2021.
Since then, the enterprise has gone viral on TikTok and now generates six-figure annual gross sales. Vulcan Put up caught up with the duo to learn how the enterprise has grown since our final interview in 2022.
They acquired a whole lot of orders in a single day
Earlier than launching the model, Grace and Lena conducting a number of rounds of trial and error at residence, buying a bunch of uncooked supplies and consulting a chemist to be taught from them.
They made a couple of pattern merchandise for a couple of of their mates and acquaintances to attempt, solely to start out once more from scratch after receiving not-so-good suggestions. “After they inform me one thing isn’t nice, I modify it, and I hold adapting it till it really works,” shared Grace in a video interview with Viddsee.
Ultimately, Emporal Co. debuted their first product a yr later: personalised soy candles. Nonetheless, the model recorded zero gross sales even two months after launch.
We had been so unhappy. As a result of we put a lot cash and energy into beginning a enterprise… we wished to only, like, hand over.
It was then that one in every of Grace’s mates advised creating content material on TikTok, as extra small companies had been leveraging the platform for publicity. Regardless of being a whole novice at the moment, she went on-line to learn to make movies and commenced posting.
Fortuitously, Emporal Co.’s huge break got here weeks later when one in every of their movies went viral, and the pair woke as much as a whole lot of orders. In reality, it was so overwhelming that the pair needed to electronic mail many purchasers to apologise for not having sufficient supplies to meet their orders.
“I keep in mind crying with my sister as a result of we did it, the hassle got here by means of.”
Increasing into practical skincare and extra pop-ups
With the enterprise selecting up, Grace and Lena continued posting each day movies on TikTok and slowly pivoted past candles into practical skincare. Now, their product vary contains room sprays, physique washes, and lotions, in addition to hair care merchandise like leave-in-hair conditioners.
“We offered over 17,000 bottles of leave-in hair conditioner over [the last] two years. [For] physique lotions and physique wash, we’ve offered round 20,000 to 30,000 bottles over three years,” shared Grace.
The duo has additionally branched out past their e-commerce web site, promoting merchandise on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Store to increase their attain. Simply eight months after launch, Emporal Co. had outgrown their properties, prompting the sisters to buy a warehouse to maintain up with demand.
Other than on-line gross sales, Grace and Lena have participated in pop-up occasions, together with a sales space at common native market, Mercury Fest, and a collaboration with Taiwanese bubble tea model Playmade. In line with them, collaborating in these bodily occasions permits them to have interaction with clients face-to-face, in flip strengthening their reference to them as a small enterprise.
As such, Emporal Co. additionally held its first warehouse sale in Jun 2025, which drew round 400 to 450 folks over three days. Whereas Grace has admitted that gauging demand for his or her pop-up occasions has been troublesome, the traction they’ve gained has additionally inspired them to host a second warehouse sale from Dec 19 to Dec 21, 2025.
As a small enterprise, the sisters acknowledged that fixed innovation and buyer relevance are crucial, particularly amid rising overhead prices. In a latest TikTok carousel, Grace shared that their month-to-month hire had elevated, chopping into their income and making it exhausting for the enterprise to outlive.
“Final yr, I made a decision to extend our stock to have perfumes, hair masks, and new scents, not realizing what’s forward, our rental elevated by 10-20%! And with the extra warehouse (which they secured in Oct 2025), this actually hit us exhausting,” she wrote.
Nonetheless, the sisters are decided to not be discouraged and have shared plans to additional increase their product vary and to open a everlasting showroom by early 2026. Regardless of the rollercoaster they’d skilled launching Emporal Co., they appeared to don’t have any regrets about beginning the enterprise.
“It has been a blast,” mentioned Grace with amusing.
- Study extra about Emporal Co. right here.
- Learn extra articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Emporal Co
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