Talofa, talofa lava!
My name is Grace Brown & I am the sole owner of Suga & Spice. I am half Samoan, half African-American. Majority of my childhood life was spent making memories in American Samoa with my God-fearing grandparents. With the help of my amazing sisters, we came up with the idea of Suga With Spice.
Before my small business, I had just started working at my new management position at a bakery. Fast forward to a couple months later, the pandemic started and I got laid off due to the bakery closing. The issue of finance was definitely a problem, however, family time was absolutely precious. Even though the pandemic brought so much sadness and pain upon the world, it also brought some happy and defining moments for most of us.
As a family, we will come home and vent about work to let off steam, and we would joke around about cloning ourselves to make life easier. Our mindsets started to change at that very moment and we wanted to start our own business and work for ourselves - to give and show people what we love doing, with a little bit of who we are and where we come from. Ladies and gentlemen - that is when Suga With Spice was born. Our family is a big fan of anything “candle”! From Bath & Body Works , Yankee Candle, even Walmarts Better Homes & Garden, we have tried it all. I personally would always love to buy all the summer collections because those were the ones that reminded me of home. The scents were tropically named and were fruity and fun! I would see the big companies put names of our beautiful islands on their scents and it would make me so excited to take it home just because. This is why you will see MOST of my candle names in Samoan, though, I will put the translation for my non-Samoan friends and family.
Our Motto that we have been living by is:
Get ready ? Are you scared ? GOOOO !
Yes. All the advice you hear about just starting is all true! To just start, don’t second guess yourself and to believe in your products! Yes, yes, yes! I didn’t really believe this until I actually started and I understood what they meant. I never would’ve have improved, met the people that I have met or gotten to this place if I didn’t start when I did. Yes, plan ahead as much as you can! Get scared and that is when you know you are ready! That gut feeling of butterflies and nerves? Those are your ancestors blood cheering you to go!
By the way, this may just be me but I still don’t know what I’m doing! However, you would be surprised with the amount of love and support people will show you along the way! The Pasefika spirit is alive and strong, just like my grandfather would always say to reference our small village “E la’ititi ae ma’ini,” meaning “tiny, yet mighty.”
Much blessings & alofas,
Grace Brown