I love a good side quest.

Hi, I'm Ana Yant, and I have never met a side quest I didn't want to take. I DJ sometimes. I draw a lot. I teach a yoga class every week, and if a thing can be made by hand, I will end up trying to make it eventually. My dogs supervise.

Most of these stay hobbies. The candle one didn't.

Ana Yant, the maker behind Sidequest Sis, sitting on the front steps of a white building with a red door

the craft

Not my first candle rodeo

I learned to pour candles back in 2018 at Hummingbird Candle Co., a luxury coconut wax studio where I worked for a couple of years. My boss Tianna built the kind of company I still think about. She hired women at fair wages and cared about the craft more than anyone I've ever worked for. A lot of how I make things, I learned from her.

So when the first run of Sidequest Sis sold out off one Facebook post, honestly it just felt like coming back to something.

meanwhile

The other quest log

By day I'm a product designer and the COO of Cloudfruit, the tech company I run with my husband, Sam. People hear that and assume the candles are my break from real work. They're not. Software and candles are weirdly the same job. You fuss over details nobody will ever notice so that the thing feels right when somebody finally holds it.

always making something

Assorted evidence

My hands don't really stop. Every character on these labels came out of the same sketchbook as everything else here, usually with no plan at all.

Marker drawing of a sliced fig surrounded by colorful stars and sparkles

Watercolor painting of a mouse in a party hat next to a birthday cupcake

Acrylic portrait of a beloved dog with a halo, painted on a blue background

Ana striking a playful pose in metallic pink platform heels

Marker figs, birthday mice, a very good dog, and the occasional platform heel.

Ana and her sister standing together on a lawn, one in a deep red dress and one in a white gown

the name

This is a sisterhood

People ask about the name. The side quest part you know by now. The sis is my sister, right there in the red dress, the loudest cheering section I have ever had and half the reason this brand has any attitude. That's what sisterhood is to me. You show up loud for each other, and nobody apologizes for being herself.

If serene beige spa energy is what you're after, there are other candles out there. Welcome home, sis.

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