Wicked Sniffer Aromatherapy Co. is a woman owned small business created and run by Lindsay Martin. It's based in historic Bennington, VT, with an online-only shop.
Lindsay makes most of the products by hand and formulates her own recipes for those products.
She decided back in fall of 2018 that learning soap-making was something she wanted to conquer. She set out to learn and started watching how-to videos, reading information on websites, and connecting with peers. She began formulating her own recipes and creating test batches of soap in 2019 while continuing to learn.
After months of research and making test soaps, she decided she wanted to make her dreams of exiting the typical 9-5 lifestyle come true and decided to create her own business. In June of 2019, she formed her first ever LLC.
She continued practicing, researching, and building on her business. In winter of 2020, she took a course at the local community college to learn the ins and outs of small business start up. She had already taken business courses in high school and college, as well as having 14 yrs management experience in local retail stores, but having never created her own business from the ground up she needed more info.
Alongside her desire to learn soapmaking, she's also had an affinity for smells her entire life, and decided around the same time she wanted to learn about aromatherapy. In 2020, she took two essential oil chemistry classes with the Tisserand Institute and enrolled in Aromahead Institute's self study Aromatherapy Certification Course.
She's self proclaimed as a 'Wicked Sniffer', as she defines as a "really cool person who likes to sniff stuff", which is where the businesses name is derived from.
She has her hands on everything in her business from the back end to the front end, including designing her own labels, sourcing all of the product materials, designing her website, deliveries, and all the back end work as well. She plans one day to have enough sales revenue to hire help, particularly a certain family member (her oldest daughter) who will one day be ready for her 1st job. Lindsay has begun the process of teaching her daughter tasks as well as the importance of great customer service, and hopes she can teach her the importance and freedom that comes along with being your own boss .
Lindsay continues to study and take different courses to learn as much as she can about the world of business, soaping, and aromatherapy, because as she says, "We never stop learning and never stop improving. You're never too old to learn something new, a new skill, a new tidbit of information, a new process. I always keep my mind open for new knowledge."
Currently, the number one product she offers is her handmade artisan soap, having sold over 100 bars so far (half of them in 2022 alone.) She has perfected her soap recipe and has so far received great feedback from all her customers.
Lindsay says, "It's a different kind of feeling when you have an idea to create something, and not only are thousands of other people doing the same thing, but larger prominent stores offer your competition as well, and people take a chance and decide to trust something you created from your own brain and fingertips, and then to have them love it. It's a special feeling. There's nothing like it."
She has lots of plans for the future of Wicked Sniffer Aromatherapy Co, including expanding her product offering. "I'll be introducing things like ear gauge oil, new perfume rollers, shampoo & conditioner bars, and aromatherapy products like inhalers and roll-on oils, to name a few." She also plans to create a men's product line in the future. "Beard oils, soap, roll-on cologne oils, things like that."
She hopes this is the year that she can finally begin being a vendor at local downtown events so she can mingle with the locals and give her customers the chance to sniff and feel her products in person. She has no plans to open a brick and mortar shop at this time.
Pictured below is Lindsay with one of her handmade artisan soaps, scented with Cedarwood essential oil.
