On weekends, the Khandelwal family kitchen in Jaipur would look a little different.
Wax is melted, fragrances are measured, and colourful moulds are brought out as siblings Unnati and Udit Khandelwal get to work. The process looks far more organised today, but their early experiments were anything but.
There were spills on the floor, broken jars and several kitchen utensils that did not quite survive the process. Once, hot wax even ended up on the family’s freshly whitewashed floor.
“We have messed up mom’s six to seven utensils,” Udit, 20, says with a laugh, recalling those early days.
It is an amusing memory now, but those messy experiments were also the beginning of something the siblings had not initially planned as a business.
In June 2023, Unnati, 24, and her younger brother Udit, 20, started making candles at home after their parents encouraged them to take up something creative. Neither had any experience in candle-making. Unnati was building her career in digital marketing, while Udit was still in college.
What began with a few YouTube videos, a Rs 500 candle-making workshop, and an initial investment of a few thousand rupees slowly turned into GiftwithTwist, a personalised gifting venture that now caters to customers across India and has even fulfilled a recent bulk order of around 500 customised candles for Dubai.
Their first candle-making experiments came with spills, broken utensils and plenty of trial and error — but also the beginnings of a business.
The siblings have built it all without giving up their careers. For them, GiftwithTwist has remained a side hustle — one that has taught them how to turn a hobby into a business, manage money and customers, and perhaps most importantly, figure out how to work with each other.
From a creative experiment to their first order
The idea for the business came rather casually. “We were sitting idly, and our parents suggested that we should do something creative,” Udit recalls.
The siblings began looking for ideas online and eventually landed on candle-making. It seemed simple enough when they watched others do it.
Their first attempt quickly proved otherwise.
They learnt the basics through YouTube and Instagram but also attended a three- to four-hour workshop offline. They experimented with wax, fragrances, colours, jars and moulds, gradually understanding that there was much more to making a good candle than simply melting wax and putting it into a container.
Their first product was a jar candle, which they still have with them.
“We experienced that the candle-making industry is not so easy,” Udit says. “We learnt about many materials, how to use them, fragrance them, and make different designs.”
They started with an investment of roughly Rs 5,000, buying supplies from Amazon, Flipkart and local dealers. Some of the moulds were expensive, while their initial packaging was fairly basic.
At that point, however, they were not thinking too far ahead. They were simply experimenting with something new.
That changed when their first customers came along.
A 200-candle Diwali order from a corporate client helped the siblings realise their weekend hobby could become a serious side hustle.
Their first order arrived around Diwali in 2023, a few months after they started. Soon, they realised that the candles they were making for fun were things people were actually willing to pay for.
The turning point came when a corporate office reached out through Instagram for candles for Diwali gifting.
The order was for around 200 candles.
“I would come from college, and my sister would come from her office. Then we would sit, have dinner and gradually start making the candles,” Udit adds.
That order changed the way they looked at GiftwithTwist. What had started as a creative experiment suddenly felt like a business worth taking seriously.
Why candles became their starting point
For the siblings, candles offered something that made them particularly exciting: they could keep changing them.
They could experiment with shapes, fragrances and colours, but they could also personalise them for different occasions.
“A candle feels like a very personal and meaningful gift. It brings a sense of calm and positivity, too, which is what makes it special,” Unnati explains.
That idea eventually pushed them beyond candles.
The siblings realised that if they built their identity around only candles, they might limit what they could offer in the future. So, after initially operating under the name ‘Candles for U and U’, a play on their names, they eventually changed it to GiftwithTwist.
The new name reflected what they wanted the business to become — a gifting brand that could grow beyond one product.
Today, GiftwithTwist offers handcrafted scented candles, personalised gifts, festive hampers, return gifts and corporate gifting solutions.
Neither sibling quit their day job to pursue GiftwithTwist — instead, they used their existing skills in marketing, photography and social media to grow it.
Some of their most distinctive products have come from Unnati’s habit of looking for ideas online and asking customers what they would like to see.
That is also how food-inspired candles became part of their collection, with quirky designs inspired by favourites such as gulab jamun, rasgulla, ras malai and ladoos.
Unnati often looks to Instagram for inspiration, while also paying attention to what customers are asking for. “I get ideas from Instagram and think, ‘We should make ladoo candles as well,’” she says.
The approach has worked particularly well during the festive season. Diwali remains their busiest time of the year, when their food-inspired candles and other gifting products see the highest demand.
Building a business around their careers
The interesting part about GiftwithTwist is that neither sibling made a clean break from their existing career to build it.
Today, the siblings have careers of their own — Unnati runs her own digital marketing agency, while Udit works as a PR professional and continues to build the gifting business alongside them.
When the venture started, Udit’s college timings were from 1 pm to 6 pm, while Unnati’s work often kept her occupied at night. Finding time to work together was therefore one of their biggest challenges, as was figuring out how to divide the responsibilities.
Unnati naturally took on marketing, customer conversations, business development and creative ideas, while Udit became more involved with social media, photography and the product creation process.
From gulab imarti to ras malai, Unnati and Udit turned familiar Indian treats into quirky, handcrafted candles that became festive favourites.
Their professional skills ended up becoming useful to the business.
Unnati used her digital marketing experience to work on their website, find exhibitions and identify opportunities. Udit brought his photography and social media skills to the brand.
“We used our professional commitments in this,” Udit says. “Her creativity and my social media skills helped us, and our business grew because of that.”
The roles may sound neatly divided now, but getting there was not always smooth.
“When your co-founder is also your younger brother”
Ask Udit about Unnati as a co-founder, and he does not hesitate.
“Very hard to handle a co-founder,” he jokes.
The siblings admit that their ideas often clash, and their disagreements are not limited to business. They argue over pricing, product ideas, time, and even who should get up and finish an order.
“I would come home and want to sleep, but she used to wake me up and say, ‘No, there is an order. Complete it,’” he recalls.
Their parents would often end up becoming the unofficial mediators.
Their mother, a teacher, had another reason to intervene. When the siblings made candles in the kitchen on weekends, the space could be left covered in wax.
Once the wax hardened, cleaning it could take several minutes. Their mother would return from school, see the state of the kitchen, and then see the two siblings trying to clean it.
The chaos did not stop them from continuing.
They may argue over pricing, ideas and pending orders, but Unnati and Udit have learnt to put disagreements aside when there is a business to run.
In fact, their parents became an important part of the journey. They encouraged the siblings to take risks, supported their experiments and even helped them decide whether to participate in exhibitions that required spending Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 on a stall.
Extended family members also supported the business by buying their products and sharing ideas.
Sibling fights, founder compromises
The siblings have had their share of disagreements, from pricing and product ideas to how much time they should each put into the business. But when a customer order is due, the argument has to wait.
“We had a business to grow, work to do and pending client orders. We had to complete and deliver the orders,” Udit says.
“If we brought our disagreements into the work, the quality would suffer, so we had to compromise and understand each other.”
Working together has not made them any less likely to fight, but it has taught them when to put their differences aside. After all, there is always an order to finish — and, as they joke, a profit to make before they can get back to arguing.
Their parents backed their risks
The siblings have become more careful about risk as the business has grown.
In the early days, they sometimes underpriced their products because they had not calculated the full cost of materials. A batch of ladoo candles, for instance, could seem expensive to customers until the siblings worked out how much they were actually spending to make them.
Exhibitions also helped them understand the market better.
They would look at competitors, compare prices and observe what customers were willing to buy.
Today, they are more cautious about taking bulk orders, especially when there is no advance payment.
Unnati recalls one such instance where she decided not to accept a large order because the client had not offered an advance. Preparing Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 worth of products without a payment guarantee could have left them with a loss.
But not every risk has been avoided.
From cleaning wax-covered kitchen floors to backing their first exhibition stalls, their parents have been part of the siblings’ entrepreneurial journey.
One of their biggest recent milestones came when they received an order for around 500 customised candles, which they packed for Dubai.
The business is currently profitable, with the siblings estimating their net profit at around Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.
Rather than treating that money as personal income, they have been putting it back into the venture, upgrading their packaging and expanding what they can offer.
Marriage changed how they worked together
Another major change came this year, when Unnati got married.
For a business that had always depended on the siblings physically working together, her move meant they had to rethink how they operated.
But they found a way.
Today, orders can be discussed in their common family group, with one sibling coordinating the customer while the other handles the making.
Unnati recalls one recent example when she was travelling and an order came in. By the time she returned, Udit had already started coordinating the work.
The physical distance did not stop the business; it simply changed the way the siblings divided the responsibilities.
For Unnati, GiftwithTwist is now one of two ventures she wants to continue building. She runs her own digital marketing agency and does not see herself giving up either.
What a Rs 5K Start Taught Them
Three years ago, Unnati and Udit were simply two siblings looking for something creative to do. Today, their experiment has grown into a profitable gifting business, but neither believes starting a business requires quitting a job or putting all your savings into it.
“There’s no need for a big investment,” Udit says.
Unnati agrees, encouraging aspiring entrepreneurs to begin with whatever they have. “It is not important that you should have a space or proper raw materials. You can start small and with a smaller budget,” she says.
For Unnati and Udit, the journey is proof that a business does not always need a big investment or a perfect plan, sometimes, you just have to start.
For the siblings, GiftwithTwist has given them more than an additional source of income. It has helped them put their professional skills to use, understand the business of money and customers, and discover strengths in each other along the way.
Their journey, in many ways, is a reminder that a side hustle does not need a perfect plan to begin. Sometimes, all it takes is the willingness to try, learn and keep going — even when the first few attempts leave wax all over the kitchen.
And for Unnati and Udit, there is still always another candle to make, another idea to try and, inevitably, another sibling argument waiting after the next order goes out.
All images courtesy Udit Khandelwal
