Brightfield, Toronto’s handcrafted, non-toxic fragrance candle brand, is now available at Summerhill Market as it expands its presence in the retail marketplace.
Known for its clean, functional fragrances and elevated design, Brightfield is a complementary addition to Summerhill Market’s curated selection of premium goods.
Brightfield’s candles are thoughtfully crafted to transform everyday moments. Each candle is made in small batches in Toronto’s Beaches neighborhood, featuring vegan, carcinogen-free, and cruelty-free formulas.
Their partnership with Second Harvest further emphasizes Brightfield’s commitment to sustainability and community impact.
Founder Christina Gjiri said the company launched about two years ago.
“I used to be a director of HR in a tech company. And had won awards for Canada’s top employer five years in a row and had grown a company from 15 to 300 employees. So it was really focused on making it an amazing place to work,” she said.
“But I also had a dream of helping people just spark joy in their every day. And I wanted to create products that were clean, non-toxic, but just also really beautiful, something that would make them happy. One day on my morning commute, I just asked myself, what would I do if I couldn’t fail? And it was this dream that had been in the back of my head.
“I just started working towards that, eventually quit my job and started working on it full time.”
Brightfiled started online and doing a few pop up markets.
“I did the One of a Kind show ( in Toronto) and had won best booth at the One of a Kind show last year.”
Gjiri said she’s excited about being in the Summerhill Market.
“They are an amazing grocer. They have a really long history, I believe that they’ve been around for 70 years. They are kind of like an iconic grocery store, independent grocery store in Toronto. But they are growing where a lot of grocers are facing challenges. They are more of a higher end grocery store that’s been able to be really successful and grow actually. They’ve been doing a lot of expansion in the past few years. And they now have seven locations and they’re very well loved and people are very loyal to them. So we’re very excited to be there.”
Gjiri said the brand is in a few home home interior stores such as Rug and Weave in Guelph, LemonTree + Co. in Elora, Ontario, Simply Cottage in Bracebridge, Ontario, Market Fresh in Guelph, and a few other locations.
She said she would love to have her own store in the future.
“I think maybe in the future I would love to have a studio and shop combination where it could really be like a destination for people to go,to take their families on the weekend, to get gifts. Maybe one day,” she said.
Gjiri said Second Harvest is Canada’s largest food rescue charity and for every candle sold Brightfield donates to Second Harvest. One candle equals three meals donated.
“We do this all year round. We’ve done it for the past year and a half. So they’re like a long term partner with us. We also volunteer as well when we can to help them sort food that then goes on to be donated. But they’re, um, our charity partner and we are very proud to support them, especially, you know, in the last year over one million more Canadians have had to use their their services now more than ever it’s needed the most so we’re very happy to donate to them from every candle sold.”
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