Some beginnings arrive quietly — long before we recognize them as the start. Alchemist + Co. was born in one of those moments, during a season when everything felt still and uncertain at once. I didn’t set out to build a brand or become the next female founder — I was simply trying to find my way back to myself. What I found instead was flow, a sense of presence I hadn’t felt in years. The kind that whispers instead of demands. The kind that invites instead of forces. This is the story of how stillness became the beginning of everything.
"Every scent I created was a conversation between who I was and who I was becoming."
When the World Went Quiet
In 2020, when the world shut down, my life did too. I had just been laid off from my role as a Senior Recruiter for a Japanese oil & gas company in Houston, and the pace that once kept me moving forward came to a sudden, disorienting halt. The stillness felt unfamiliar — almost threatening — and for a while, I filled it with anything that kept me from being alone with myself.
As a single mother of three, my days were full but my mind was loud. I was trying to keep us grounded — planning meals, entertaining my then–three-year-old, and watching cable news as if it were my new full-time job. That relentless ticker in the upper corner, the anchors repeating the same message: things will get worse.
But what broke me most wasn’t what was happening here — it was what was unfolding an ocean away. Every afternoon, my phone became a live broadcast of the crisis in Japan, the country I grew up in, where my parents still lived. Empty shelves. No masks. Rising panic. And there was nothing I could do.
One quiet afternoon, something inside me snapped — or softened; I still can’t tell which. I didn’t know anything about nervous system regulation or energetic hygiene back then. I just knew I needed the noise to stop. I needed to feel connected to something that wasn’t fear.
That’s when I found crystals. At first, it was simple curiosity — natural formations that held light and groundedness. Red Jasper was the first one I bought. Not the romantic rose quartz or the mystical amethyst. Red Jasper — the stone of grounding. And from there, the path unfolded: chakras, energy centers, astrology, birth charts.
In hindsight, my spiritual awakening wasn’t a moment — it was a flow. A slow, steady remembering. I devoured the teachings of Neville Goddard, Abraham Hicks, Joe Dispenza — anyone who spoke about consciousness, presence, or the power of returning to yourself.
And without realizing it, I was starting to come home.
The Note on My Monitor
One afternoon, when the noise had finally settled and the world felt strangely muted, I wrote Alchemist + Co. on a sticky note and pressed it onto my monitor — the same monitor I had spent hours staring at, hoping for a sign of future employment. I didn’t know what the name meant yet. Only that it felt like direction, like a breadcrumb pointing toward a version of myself I hadn’t met but somehow already missed.
Over the next three months, those breadcrumbs became sketches, experiments, and late-night research rabbit holes. I found myself drawn into the world of scent — how it moves through the limbic system, how it shapes memory, how it anchors us back into our bodies when nothing else can. I didn’t realize it then, but those quiet hours were the beginning of something I was instinctively creating long before I could name it.
Following the Thread
“I didn’t think I was building a brand — I was simply following flow.”
Those months were unlike anything I’d ever experienced. While the world outside felt unstable, something inside my apartment — inside me — became undeniably clear. I slipped into a creative flow so deep it felt like time stopped bending around me. There was no doubt, no pressure, no five-year plan pinned to a vision board. Just presence.
It was the first time I slowed down enough to hear what I actually needed, and the first time I trusted a path before I understood where it led. Creativity poured out; learning poured in. I was being rebuilt and didn’t even realize it.
In truth, Alchemist + Co. felt like a fever dream — a spark I couldn’t ignore. I imagined what it might feel like to work for myself, to build a community, to create something that felt like home. And like many pandemic-born founders, I took the stimulus money and made a decision that changed everything: I started.
The first few weeks were what my kids still call “storage life.”
Boxes filled our tiny dining room from floor to ceiling. The dining table moved into the playroom, replaced by metal racks stacked with droppers, beakers, burners — the early anatomy of a business I didn’t yet know I was building.
My bedroom was even more chaotic. Bottles of fragrance oils lined the dresser. Safety data sheets covered the floor. Notebooks filled with late-night scent experiments and potential blends sat in piles at the foot of the bed. I was up researching until 3 or 4 a.m., following threads of curiosity that lit up parts of me I hadn’t felt in years.
And somehow, amidst all the mess, I felt more alive than I had in a long time.
Becoming The Alchemist
The first candle I ever made — The Alchemist — wasn’t meant to be a product. It was a becoming in a jar. A quiet conversation between who I had been and who I was starting to become. Creating it felt like building a bridge back to myself: through scent, through stillness, through the kind of intentional creation that anchors you when everything else feels unsteady.
I didn’t know it then, but that candle would become the foundation of this entire brand. At the time, all I knew was that it made me feel present. Steady. Alive in a way I hadn’t felt in months.
During that season, I kept returning to Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. I read it over and over again, each time uncovering something new — a lesson, a reminder, a truth I wasn’t ready to hear until that moment. Those pages mirrored the journey I was on: listening to my inner compass, trusting the unseen, following the call of something I couldn’t fully name yet.
And in that small apartment, surrounded by bottles and notebooks and half-finished blends, I felt a spark of pure excitement — the kind you only feel when you’re creating something that feels like alignment.
A Brand Rooted in Presence
Alchemist + Co. was never meant to be just fragrance. It was created to be a sensory anchor — a quiet nudge back into your body, an invitation to slow down, breathe, and return to yourself. The work we do today still carries that same intention: rituals without pressure, scent with purpose, alignment that feels lived rather than performed. Every candle is a moment of presence you can hold in your hands.
I didn’t choose this brand; it chose me in a moment of stillness. Maybe that’s why it still feels like home — familiar, grounding, and honest. If you’re reading this, thank you for being part of this story. Alchemist + Co grew out of quiet, and now it meets you exactly where you are — whether you’re beginning, returning, or becoming.
The Journey I’m Still In
If there’s one thing I’ve learned through this journey, it’s this: nothing brings your shadows to the surface quite like building something from your soul.
Creating a brand isn’t just branding — it’s mirroring. It reveals your strengths, your fears, your patterns, your resilience. And I’ve grown alongside this brand in ways I never could have planned or predicted.
I’m not telling this story from a mountaintop or with a journey completed. I’m still very much in the becoming — healing, learning, stretching, returning. And for those who’ve been with me since the Etsy days, you’ve witnessed every evolution. Thank you, truly.
Here’s what I want you to know:
Every blog post, every product, every caption, every scent — it all comes from something I’m personally moving through. Something I’m healing, learning, or glowing through. I’m not a founder to admire from a distance; I’m simply a woman who found a way to intertwine creativity with healing — and invite you into the process with me.
This brand isn’t about perfection.
It’s about presence.
And I’m grateful you’re here.
Tiffanie – Founder of Alchemist + Co.
Tiffanie is the founder behind Alchemist + Co., where scent meets self-connection. A mother, creative, and lifelong student of inner alchemy, she crafts rituals and fragrances designed to anchor presence in a world that rarely slows down. Her writing captures the real-time truth of becoming — the shadows, the softness, and the beauty found along the way.
Shop the Ritual
The Alchemist Ritual Candle
$48.00
