From a Garage in Hermanus to Your Home
Brink of Touch didn't start with a business plan or a marketing strategy. It started with a woman, a garage, and a lot of candles.
Joany, the founder and maker behind Brink of Touch, was running a guesthouse in Hermanus when COVID-19 shut the borders and brought the tourism industry to its knees. To keep things going, she converted her single garage into a massage spa. She burned candles during every session, and quickly realised something: finding good quality candles at a fair price was nearly impossible.
So she learned to make her own. She took courses, experimented with soy wax, and started pouring candles by hand. Her massage clients started placing orders. Then their friends did. Eventually, the candles outgrew the massage business entirely.
Three years later, Brink of Touch has a dedicated workshop in Hermanus, a full range of soy candles, reed diffusers, and room mists, and a growing community of loyal customers across South Africa. Every single product is still made by hand.
Women-Owned, Women-Built
Brink of Touch is a proudly women-owned South African business. Joany does everything: the product development, the pouring, the packing, the shipping. There's no factory floor, no outsourced production line, no faceless supply chain. When you buy a Brink of Touch candle, you're buying directly from the person who made it.
In a market filled with mass-produced products from overseas, that matters. Supporting a women-owned business means your money stays in the local economy, supports a real person's livelihood, and funds a business built on quality rather than volume.
It also means the products are made with a level of care that's hard to replicate at scale. Joany is a self-described perfectionist. If a candle doesn't meet her standard, it doesn't leave the workshop. As she puts it: "If I don't believe in my product, I won't be able to sell it with conviction."
Handmade in Hermanus: What That Actually Means
The word "handmade" gets thrown around a lot. Sometimes it means a person pressed a button on a machine. At Brink of Touch, it means exactly what it sounds like.
Every candle is hand-poured in small batches. The soy wax is melted and brought to the right temperature. Premium fragrance oils are measured and blended in. The wax is poured into vessels by hand. Wicks are centred manually. Each candle cools naturally to avoid the imperfections that come from rushed factory production.
This process takes longer than industrial manufacturing, and that's the point. It's what gives each candle a consistent burn, an even scent throw, and a clean finish with no soot or tunnelling.
Hermanus itself plays a role too. The small coastal town in the Western Cape is known for its natural beauty, from the whale-watching coastline to the fynbos-covered mountains. That connection to landscape and place runs through the entire Brink of Touch range.
100% Soy Wax, No Compromises
Every Brink of Touch candle is made with 100% natural soy wax. Not a soy blend. Not soy mixed with paraffin. Pure soy.
This matters because soy wax burns cleaner, lasts longer, and releases fragrance more evenly than paraffin. It's a renewable resource made from soybeans rather than petroleum. And it produces virtually no soot, which means no black marks on your walls, ceilings, or candle jars.
When you see "soy blend" on a label from another brand, it usually means the majority of the wax is still paraffin. Brink of Touch doesn't cut corners on this. Soy wax costs more, but it's the foundation of a genuinely premium candle.
Scents You Won't Find Anywhere Else
One of the things that sets Brink of Touch apart is the originality of the scent range. These aren't the standard vanilla-lavender-cinnamon options you'll find in every homeware store. Each fragrance is developed to tell a story.
Fynbos captures the wild botanical character of the Cape Floral Kingdom, a scent that could only come from South Africa. Hermanus Champagne Air bottles the crisp, celebratory feeling of the Overberg coast. Muttrah Souq transports you to the spice markets of Oman. Arabian Nights layers oud and warmth into something rich and memorable.
And then there's the Afrikaanse Kerse range, a collection that celebrates South African culture through scent. Names like Ouma se Kombuis, Melktert, Koeksister, and Waatlemoen by die Swembad aren't just clever labels. They're scent memories, bottled. Try finding that from an imported brand.
Proudly South African, Through and Through
Every ingredient is sourced with care. Every product is made in South Africa. Every order is packed and shipped from Hermanus. When you choose Brink of Touch, your money doesn't leave the country to pad the margins of an international conglomerate. It stays here, supporting a local maker and the local economy.
For gift-givers, this matters too. A Brink of Touch candle isn't just a nice thing to receive. It has a story behind it: a real woman, a real town, a real craft. That's something a factory candle from overseas can never offer.
Personalised candles take this even further, with custom labels for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, corporate gifts, or just because. It's a proudly South African product with a personal touch that makes it genuinely meaningful.
The Full Range: More Than Just Candles
While candles are the heart of the brand, Brink of Touch has expanded into a full home fragrance range:
- Large candles for living rooms and entertaining spaces
- Tin candles that are portable, giftable, and perfect for trying a new scent
- Luxury reed diffusers for continuous, flame-free fragrance in hallways, bathrooms, and offices
- Room mists for an instant burst of scent before guests arrive
- Afrikaanse Diffusers and Afrikaanse Mists in the same beloved local scent range
Every product in the range uses the same quality soy wax base and premium fragrance oils. The consistency is part of what makes Brink of Touch work as a whole-home fragrance system, not just individual products.
Why People Keep Coming Back
There are plenty of candle brands in South Africa. What keeps customers returning to Brink of Touch is the combination of things that's hard to find in one place: genuinely handmade products, original South African scents, clean soy wax, transparent ingredients, and a real founder who cares about every candle that leaves her workshop.
Browse the bestsellers to see which scents South Africans love most, or explore the full range at brinkoftouch.co.za.
