How a Dubai-based entrepreneur turned his pet’s health concerns into a sustainable candle business

A beloved pet, a leap of faith, and nearly 100 candle experiments inspired Scotchie’s Candles, a Dubai-based brand creating customized pet- and human-friendly home fragrances with sustainability at its core.

For Jeevan Menon, founder of Scotchie’s Candles, entrepreneurship began with a concern close to home: the wellbeing of his Maltese dog, Scotch.

After 21 years in the corporate world, Jeevan left his career and began exploring alternatives to the scented products used in his home after Scotch developed breathing difficulties at just one year old. His research into candles, incense, diffusers, and air fresheners eventually led him to experiment with making his own candles.

Without a professional candle-making background, Menon turned to YouTube tutorials and trial and error. It took approximately 100 experiments before he created a candle that burned and smelled the way he wanted.

What began as a personal solution gradually became Scotchie’s Candles, a Dubai-based small business offering handcrafted home-fragrance products built around customization, conscious consumption, and pet-friendly living.

A personal experience

Scotchie’s specializes in customized organic pet- and human-friendly candles, which are hand-poured and homemade in Dubai using 100% organic soy wax and cold-pressed infused oils. Customers can personalize selected candles according to their preferred scents, making the products suitable for gifting, celebrations or creating a more personal home-fragrance experience.

The range extends beyond traditional candles. The brand offers scented and unscented candles, pet-friendly collections, signature and festive candles, taper candles, wax melts, tea lights, reed diffusers, pillow mist and car fresheners.

Its product offering also extends to businesses through private-label candle production. Companies can develop their own candle collections, with customization covering fragrance formulations, wax colors, containers, labels and packaging.

Scotchie’s has also built services around the craft itself. The company conducts candle-making workshops for private groups, birthdays, bridal showers, corporate wellness programs and team-building activities. Sessions typically last 1.5 to 2 hours, with private workshops accommodating groups of six to 15 people, while larger groups can be arranged on request.

Sustainability is another part of the business model, particularly through its refill program. Customers can return clean, empty eligible containers and choose a new fragrance for their next candle, with the company offering a 10% discount on qualifying refills. Rather than treating an empty candle jar as waste, Scotchie’s also encourages customers to repurpose containers as storage jars, drinking glasses, vases or craft containers.

The approach reflects a simple principle: a product’s life does not necessarily have to end when its original purpose does.

Built around fur parents

Scotch’s story remains central to the brand, which is increasingly appealing to fur parents looking for more conscious choices for the products they bring into their homes.

While labels such as “natural” or “pet-friendly” can be appealing, they do not replace veterinary advice, particularly for animals with existing respiratory sensitivities. For pet owners, responsible use remains important, from maintaining good ventilation and keeping candles and oils out of reach to never leaving a burning candle unattended. For Scotchie’s, that awareness is rooted in the very experience that inspired the brand.

That connection with the pet community extends beyond its products. The brand’s Paws & Glow Loyalty Program allows customers to earn points through purchases and other activities, with rewards that can include discounts, products and opportunities to direct certain benefits toward pet shelters.

Scotchie’s Candles represents a growing kind of entrepreneurship in the UAE: small, locally built businesses emerging from personal experiences and attempting to solve specific problems for their communities.

For anyone considering a leap into entrepreneurship, perhaps that is the biggest lesson from Scotchie’s Candles: some of the most meaningful businesses begin not by asking “What can I sell?” but by asking “What problem do I care enough to solve?”

Explore Scotchie’s Candles:
Website: www.scotchiescandles.com
Instagram: @scotchiescandles