Banana Leaf Candle

3.5" H x 3.5" W

Richard Christiansen grew up on a farm in rural Australia, ran a creative agency in New York for sixteen years, and bought a seven-acre property in the hills above Los Angeles in 2013 after going to place beehives in a stranger's garden and never leaving. The house had been a former porn studio, a political center, and a hedonistic enclave where parties lasted for days. He bought it on a handshake without seeing inside, rebuilt it with Studio KO in Paris, and started making his own soap when he realized the bathhouse water ran straight into the garden.

The brand came later, in March 2020, when a local farmer was about to lose her land because her restaurant clients had all closed. He started selling her produce from his driveway under the name of his house, doubled sales every weekend, and within months had fifty drivers and a warehouse. Candles, soap, olive oil, honey followed. The line now spans over 150 products sourced from over 75 regenerative farmers, each ingredient traced to a named place: Rosehip from Patagonia, Jasmine from a third-generation farm in Egypt, salt from the cliffs of Big Sur. The working philosophy: scale the scarcity. When the lavender harvest runs out, it runs out.