They look good enough to eat. An Oreo ice cream cake, a milkshake topped with ice cream, a mudslide shot and other sweet treats may sound like items on a dessert menu, but at Beautiful Vivid Elements they are candles. They are designed to look like the foods that inspired them and, just as importantly, smell like them too.

The unusual approach to candle-making is part of the experience that founder and Creative Director Opal Donaldson-Cross wanted to create when she launched the business in 2024.

“I kept on giving the same thing, seeing the same cups, the same everything, the same candles,” Donaldson-Cross told the Jamaica Observer.

She was looking for gifts that felt less predictable and wanted to create something that would make the recipient pause, look twice and ask, ‘Is that really a candle?’

“I just wanted to create an experience that was different for Jamaicans,” she said.

The idea was partly driven by her own relationship with candles.

Donaldson-Cross enjoyed lighting a candle after cleaning her house and having the scent spread through the space. But over time, she became disappointed with some of the candles she purchased, particularly those that burnt down the centre, leaving wax around the sides and limiting how much of the candle she could actually use. She eventually stopped buying them. At the same time, she began looking at the product differently.

“I found that they were a bit boring. Then I said, ‘What if we could do other things?’ Because candles can be moulded into various shapes. So why not mould it into something that looks like food?”

Body desserts, perfumes and other products from Beautiful Vivid Elements on display at a Christmas in July trade show event.

Believing that people generally associate food with happiness and memories, Donaldson-Cross turned to dessert-inspired candles designed to evoke those emotions while still providing the relaxation associated with burning a candle. And the resemblance does not stop with the appearance; the scents are deliberately matched to the desserts, with the range moving beyond familiar candle fragrances such as vanilla to butterscotch, chocolate, blueberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake and passion fruit.

“So as much as possible, the scent is aligned. So if I have a blueberry cheesecake candle, it smells like blueberry cheesecake,” Donaldson-Cross said, adding that the product retails from $1,800.

To keep costs down, the young entrepreneur has converted a section of her home to make the candles, which she sells online through
Instagram. The company’s top seller is its ice cream cake, including an Oreo-inspired version designed to look like the black-and-white dessert, complete with an ice cream scoop and Oreo pieces. The mudslide shot candle is another popular product.

A customer examines products on display from Beautiful Vivid Elements founder and Creative Director Opal Donaldson-Cross.

“I don’t even eat sweets, but they make me smile,” she admitted.

Beautiful Vivid Elements has since expanded beyond candles into dessert-inspired body butters, perfumes and room sprays. Its customer base is largely individual buyers seeking gifts, souvenirs and items for special occasions, while corporate orders tend to increase around Christmas as companies purchase gifts for their teams. Christmas, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day are typically the busiest periods. Customers can also request particular foods, colours or scents, although Donaldson-Cross does not make every request simply because it is possible.

“It has to meet a level of luxury that I consider to be a luxurious asset. Two, it has to bring some level of joy. So if it meets those two things, I don’t keep it, and I won’t make it.”

Donaldson-Cross’s ambition is reflected in the company’s slogan: “Turning ordinary moments into extraordinary memories.” But building the business has come with its own cost pressures.

An ice cream sundae candle from Beautiful Vivid Elements, part of the company’s range of dessert-inspired products.

One of the company’s biggest challenges is sourcing affordable materials locally. Containers and other supplies often have to be imported because of the high local markup.

“The markup is so high locally, I have to import the things that I use,” she told the Sunday Finance.

Importing has brought its own expenses, including fees and the additional cost of using third parties to bring in supplies. Delays have also affected production, with Donaldson-Cross saying some items have taken months longer than expected to arrive. There is also a risk in importing materials that cannot always be fully tested before larger quantities are purchased. When a container or other material does not perform as expected, the purchase becomes a loss that the business has to absorb.

However, even as sales grow locally and among Jamaicans abroad, Donaldson-Cross said she is not yet taking significant profits from the business. Instead, earnings are being reinvested to build the brand and develop the range she envisions over the next five years. Her goal is to turn Beautiful Vivid Elements into a premier gifting brand.