THIS life: EBI AND EMMANUEL SINTEH

The couple behind Our Lovely Goods share their story of building a business while juggling childcare and lockdown, all while making home the place we all most want to be

- Catherine Coyle

Ebi and Emmanuel Sinteh do not do things by halves. Even as we chat via Zoom, there’s a lot of multi-tasking going on. Where most couples would be collapsing on the sofa in front of the latest Netflix boxset, this pair are catching up on emails, planning their next buying trip and checking outbound orders – as well as breastfeeding. The husband-and-wife team set up their boutique lifestyle brand Our Lovely Goods in Aberdeen in 2019, not long after getting married, moving house and having their first child, Eliana, and it has been non-stop ever since.

It was while 28-year-old Ebi was on maternity leave from her job in occupational health that she first indulged her creative side, exploring the aspects of home and health that she’d always been interested in but never had the time to properly discover. “We’d always light candles in our home – it’s our way of creating a cosy atmosphere with scent and light,” she recalls. “Then, when Eliana came along, I began to think about ways of having a more natural, sustainable lifestyle.”

By seeking to make a more eco-friendly life for their growing family, Ebi, a pharmacy graduate, began making soy candles at home. “It links back to becoming a parent, I think. Our daughter had very dry skin when she was born and I started to look more deeply into natural remedies and where products come from. As we tested our sample products on our friends and family, we realised how much people loved them.”