Double Bear Anikitia Abram started making candles to ease her anxiety during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, her hobby has turned into a budding business that’s providing patrons with unique creative and educational experiences.
Pretty Lux Co., located at 536 3rd St. in downtown Macon, sells handcrafted candles and bath and body products. Abram also offers candle-making workshops in her store and is showing students the science behind product development through STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workshops.
Abram, born and raised in Macon, began her career in retail and was inspired to go to college after a cancer scare at age 27.
“It sparked something in me to go for it because you don’t know when you’re going to leave this earth,” she said.
After trying classes at a few other Middle Georgia institutions, she discovered the organizational leadership program at Mercer. Growing up in Macon, she never thought an education at Mercer would be within her reach. However, Abram said she found the support, resources and atmosphere she needed in the College of Professional Advancement. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in 2016.
Once her children came into the picture, Abram decided to become an educator. She was an elementary school teacher in the Bibb County School District for five years, the last three devoted to teaching fifth-grade math.
When Abram decided to pursue her Master of Business Administration a few years later, she looked no further than Mercer and completed her degree in 2022. Meanwhile, as she pursued her studies, she was also honing her candle-making skills.
After much practice, she began selling her candles, which have wooden wicks, and then expanded to soaps, body butters and scrubs, all of them 100% vegan and made with minimal ingredients.
In January 2022, she opened a kiosk in the middle of the Houston County Galleria mall in nearby Centerville. After hosting a successful candle-making workshop for Valentine’s Day, she started thinking about offering more interactive experiences through her business.
While her kiosk was doing well, the location wasn’t conducive to the “luxury feel” she was trying to achieve. With support from a NewTown Macon micro business loan, she remodeled an empty storefront in downtown Macon and opened Pretty Lux Co. there in July 2023.
In addition to selling candles, skin care and hair care products, Abram started hosting candle-making workshops, which were well-received. Her customers told her they had to drive to Atlanta to do that kind of activity before. Abram hosts regular workshops that are open to the public as well as private parties.
“I hear from the adults, ‘This helped me with my anxiety.’ They’ll say, ‘This is relaxing.’ When you’re creating something unique, you have fun, and you want to do it often,” said Abram, who is also a full-time contract specialist. “The whole premise was to bring something to (Macon) that people drive to the city for. It’s local, and it’s in reach. It’s something different.”
As she hosted more candle-making events for adults, she realized it would be an enjoyable and educational activity for kids as well.
“People don’t understand that there’s true science behind making candles. I decided to create TheCandleSTEM collective where I teach STEM classes to students from third grade to collegiate,” she said. “I want them to open up their brains to something bigger.”
She has led workshops for middle schoolers at the Starbase Robins program at Robins Air Force Base, students at Bruce Elementary in Macon, and college students at Spelman College. She hopes to expand these workshops to cosmetic science, so she can introduce young people to this field and open their eyes to potential career opportunities.
“I love what I do, community wise,” she said. “I love the educational piece, introducing people to something new. It’s not just necessarily about the money; it’s about the experience. I’m waking up their minds. That’s my purpose, my mission — being a great community activist and engaging the community to think differently on a larger scale.”
