Inspiring Conversations with Natasha Wilson of Dream City Scents and Spa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasha Wilson.

Hi Natasha, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey started on November 11, 2005, when I went to the hospital to deliver my beautiful daughter Dream Aniya Motes, only to find out she had passed away and would be a stillborn delivery. After preparing for what was to be my 4th daughter and 6th child, for the last 9 months, this was the most devastating news Id ever had in my life. The healing process involved a lot of wine, baths, and candles and started my love of candles.

I would buy them in bulk and always have a candle burning as a sense of calm. During the pandemic, everything was shut down and with my partner being a massage therapist whose job was caught in the crossfire of shutdowns, luxury items such as candles were not within our budget, so I began to do research and testing to learn to make my own.

How hard could it be right? Wrong… lol… after 7 months and hundreds of dollars later, I finally had viable products that were safe to burn in the home without setting it on fire. I was working from home during the day as a CPAP specialist which I enjoyed, however, my passion became creating new scents and playing mad scientists in my kitchen at night. it was so therapeutic yet challenging and I loved it.

On January 4, 2022, I was laid off from my full-time job and told my partner, who was back to work full time now, that I was not applying for a new full-time position and wanted to pursue my hobby as a full-time business. With her support and agreement, Dream City Scents was launched. I set up my first table at a pop-up shop event on 2/7/2021 and proceeded to do markets and events every single weekend for almost the next year.

I was making enough to supplement my income and grow my love for business at the same time. 7 months later, I approached my partner with the idea of her firing her boss and partnering with me to open a business where we can combine our skills and open a spa. She was all in but just one issue, how would we fund it? Well shortly after, we were approached to put out house on the market and the value had doubled in less than just 5 years we owned it.

We’d considered selling before but decided there wasn’t enough equity at that time to make it worth it. Now here we are just 1 year later and the value has gone up another $100,000 just that quick. I was nervous and just knew she would think I was crazy but I now had my answer to the question, How are we going to fund it? Yes, we did. We took the offer and sold our first home.

We were now able to pay off all our debts and begin looking for the perfect location for this new business venture we were about to embark on. So we found a commercial spa here in Garner and signed the lease on 2/1/2022 (exactly one year since I launched Dream City scents). My wife put in her notice with her job at massage envy after 14 years and on March 19th, 2022, Dream City scents and spa was officially opened!!!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing about this journey has been easy and is still a struggle every day. From figuring out funding to now trying to learn how to market and get visible to the area. Everything has been a learning curve. When getting our building there were so many things we didn’t know.

We were set to open and 2 weeks before, learned we hadn’t applied for our business permit nor zone permits. Thankfully the sign company alerted us to this when they went to pull the permits for their sign permit… lol. During renovations on the building, we ran into everything from electrical rewiring issues to more things that needed permits.

We learned very quickly that being an actual business in a commercial space had a lot more cost, laws, permits, and just a lot more responsibility overall.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are what we like to call a “self-care oasis” and we are one of a kind. We are more of an interactive spa and like to make every visit an experience. Staring with a glass of wine or a cup of hot tea or just water if you’d prefer at check-in.

We have a self-care retail area where you can get everything from bath bombs, aromatherapy steamers, body butter, candles, and diffusers (just to name a few), for you to create your own oasis at home as well. We have a customization station where you can play around and create the scents that we will make into products for you as well.

We are also expanding to start our after-hours events as well which will include private date nights for couples where we teach couples massage classes and have a package that includes a picnic-style dinner in front of our fireplace prior to your class.

We are also adding what we call “sip and wick parties” where you make candles with me over wine. Dream City will be your one-stop-shop for relaxation and fun!!

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
We take pride in the fact that we are triple minority-owned and operated as well. I and my wife am both African American, woman, and LGBTQ making us one of the most diverse spas here in Garner, NC.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: dreamcity-spa.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/officialdreamcityspa
• Facebook: Facebook.com/dreamcityscentsandspa

Image Credits
Story Photography