About A Novel Idea Company

Humble beginnings

In late 1996 we decided to pursue a dream.  Working together to create a profitable business seemed like just that -- a dream.  But little by little, the business started to take shape.  Every little success was a major step toward our goal.

We started selling hand-made hemp jewelry using a small card table at a local flea market.  While we realized moderate success in those first few months, we quickly realized that we needed to expand our product line.  Being the proud parents of 2 beautiful dogs and four adoring cats, we decided to start selling incense. After all, we burn it ourselves all the time, and people visiting our house often comment about how nice our house smells!  Well, that turned out to be a very good idea.

In the incense business

Quite honestly, the first incense we ordered wasn’t very good. It had the tendency to "torch" out of control & drip hot ash, and was just too dangerous for us to continue selling it in good conscience.  The safety of our customers is very important to us.  We didn’t even want to burn it ourselves.

So we looked around for another supplier.  We found several incense manufacturers that offered quality incense at prices that would still allow us to make a decent profit margin. Some were really nice, some were just "OK".  But by now we had become self-proclaimed "fragrance connoisseurs" and we decided we didn't like selling inferior incense. We knew there was better incense out there, and that's what we wanted to sell. The best. At that time, we happened to meet the president of the company that makes Wild Berry™ incense at a local community event.  He said he'd send us a sample, and he did.  As soon as we lit that first stick, we fell in love with its superior quality, and knew we had found the perfect incense. But we were concerned that the higher price might be a "turn off" to our customers. Fortunately, our customers recognize a quality incense when they smell one, and they enjoy the gorgeous scent of Wild Berry incense enough to pay a little more.

Years later, we're still selling WildBerry incense and people come back to us again & again for their "fragrance fix".  After all, everyone likes things that smell good! 

Gourmet Bath & Body

Our customers told us on numerous occasions that they were interested in buying bath & body products from us. Originally, our plan was to find a reliable supplier with reasonable prices and excellent quality. After contacting several manufacturers and not finding anything that we felt was suitable (after all, customer satisfaction is the only way to survive in the retail business), it occured to us to research the process of making our own products. Thus, Aromagik™ Essentials was born.

We started small with just a few supplies and fragrances, and we found an amazing number of other handcrafters online who were graciously willing to share their considerable knowledge. So with ingredients in hand and some basic formulas, we started to create. To our delight, we found that we truly enjoy making and packaging the things we sell. It's very gratifying to find and utilize healthful, skin-loving ingredients.

Currently, in addition to working on a variety of new products & fragrances, we're researching various aspects of the use of essential oils in aromatherapy and skin care. We continue to be excited by the opportunity to share these things with you.

So that's our story -- at least so far!  We're committed to bringing you the absolute best quality products available, and we're very proud of our customer service.  If you have any questions about any of our products, we encourage you to contact us -- we'll be delighted to hear from you!

Todd & Linda Crooks
ANIC