They had zero sales for 2 months. Now, this candle & skincare biz is raking in 6 figs yearly.

After going viral on TikTok, Emporal Co.’s business took off

Spending Christmas alone is never fun, and for Grace Lim, it became a reality when a train workers’ strike in Paris kept her from celebrating with friends.

“I was really sad and depressed, [but] I remembered that my auntie gave me a candle. So I took it out, and I lit it for the first time, and this is when I realised that ‘Oh my goodness, a scented candle brought me a lot of warmth.’ and I felt closer to my family,” she shared in a radio interview with ONE FM 91.3.

At the time, Grace was working in France and running her own events company. However, she had to close the business and return to Singapore due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her sister, Lena Lim, had also just graduated from university then, and finding a job was extremely challenging.

This lit a spark in Grace, who wanted to turn her newfound love for candles and her existing passion for skincare into a business, and she roped Lena in to grow it together. After pooling S$20,000 of their savings to fund a year of R&D, the sisters launched Emporal Co. from their home in 2021.

Since then, the business has gone viral on TikTok and now generates six-figure annual sales. Vulcan Post caught up with the duo to find out how the business has grown since our last interview in 2022.

They received hundreds of orders overnight

Before launching the brand, Grace and Lena conducting multiple rounds of trial and error at home, purchasing a bunch of raw materials and consulting a chemist to learn from them.

They made a few sample products for a few of their friends and acquaintances to try, only to start again from scratch after receiving not-so-good feedback. “When they tell me something isn’t great, I change it, and I keep adapting it until it works,” shared Grace in a video interview with Viddsee.

Eventually, Emporal Co. debuted their first product a year later: personalised soy candles. However, the brand recorded zero sales even two months after launch.

We were so sad. Because we put so much money and effort into starting a business… we wanted to just, like, give up.

It was then that one of Grace’s friends suggested creating content on TikTok, as more small businesses were leveraging the platform for exposure. Despite being a complete novice at that time, she went online to learn how to make videos and began posting.

Fortunately, Emporal Co.’s big break came weeks later when one of their videos went viral, and the pair woke up to hundreds of orders. In fact, it was so overwhelming that the pair had to email many customers to apologise for not having enough materials to fulfill their orders.

“I remember crying with my sister because we did it, the effort came through.”

Expanding into functional skincare and more pop-ups

With the business picking up, Grace and Lena continued posting daily videos on TikTok and slowly pivoted beyond candles into functional skincare. Now, their product range includes room sprays, body washes, and lotions, as well as hair care products like leave-in-hair conditioners.

“We sold over 17,000 bottles of leave-in hair conditioner over [the last] two years. [For] body lotions and body wash, we’ve sold around 20,000 to 30,000 bottles over three years,” shared Grace.

The duo has also branched out beyond their e-commerce website, selling products on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop to expand their reach. Just eight months after launch, Emporal Co. had outgrown their homes, prompting the sisters to purchase a warehouse to keep up with demand.

Aside from online sales, Grace and Lena have participated in pop-up events, including a booth at popular local market, Mercury Fest, and a collaboration with Taiwanese bubble tea brand Playmade. According to them, participating in these physical events allows them to engage with customers face-to-face, in turn strengthening their connection with them as a small business.

As such, Emporal Co. also held its first warehouse sale in Jun 2025, which drew around 400 to 450 people over three days. While Grace has admitted that gauging demand for their pop-up events has been difficult, the traction they have gained has also encouraged them to host a second warehouse sale from Dec 19 to Dec 21, 2025.

As a small business, the sisters acknowledged that constant innovation and customer relevance are necessary, especially amid rising overhead costs. In a recent TikTok carousel, Grace shared that their monthly rent had increased, cutting into their revenue and making it hard for the business to survive.

“Last year, I decided to increase our inventory to have perfumes, hair masks, and new scents, not knowing what’s ahead, our rental increased by 10-20%! And with the additional warehouse (which they secured in Oct 2025), this really hit us hard,” she wrote.

Nevertheless, the sisters are determined not to be discouraged and have shared plans to further expand their product range and to open a permanent showroom by early 2026. Despite the rollercoaster they had experienced launching Emporal Co., they seemed to have no regrets about starting the business.

“It has been a blast,” said Grace with a laugh.

• Learn more about Emporal Co. here.
• Read more articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Also Read: This home-based scents biz hit S$1 mil revenue in 2 yrs & now has a Changi Airport store

Featured Image Credit: Emporal Co