We had the good fortune of connecting with Evita Hilario and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Evita, how does your business help the community?
For me, lighting a candle helps ground me. I feel like there are a lot of distractions in the world and it gets heavy, but lighting a candle helps me be present. Kind of like a pause button that mutes all the chaos around and that’s what I hope happihuman candles do for people.

It was also important to me that happihuman did our part to help the environment. On top of using sustainable materials we partnered with an organization called ‘One Tree Planted’. So with every candle purchase, we plant one tree in the Philippines to help reforestation efforts.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I started happihuman at the beginning of the pandemic and the idea came just out of my love of candles.

I had a lot of anxiety and candles really help calm me down. At the time, I was switching out my old products to eco-friendly and sustainable ones, but I couldn’t find a candle that was both eco-friendly and had a clean, minimal design, so I decided to make my own. After I made my first batch, I posted it to my instagram. I didn’t even think about selling it, but surprisingly people DM’d me and asked if they could buy them. That’s how it all started, and I’ve just been enjoying the process ever since.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love thrifting, so I’d probably take them to the rose bowl flea market. Definitely gotta go to The Getty, The Griffith Observatory, maybe even take them to The Broad. I also love being out in nature and LA has a lot of hiking places, like Eaton Canyon. And for food we’d have to go to Lasita in Chinatown, and Woon in Silverlake.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I couldn’t do it without my fiancé. He’s been my number one supporter as well as my calculator lol.

Website: https://happihuman.us/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happihumancandles/

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.