Daychelle Morris used to be a 9-5’er, but after many years of silent, diligent hard work on her sideline Bellissima Balloons to break the monotony from desk work, she has made the transition to self-employed. She always loved balloons and combining colours and had aspirations to make her mark in the industry and finally did!

 

Now, she’s her own boss and answers to no one.

 

As she approaches the quaint restaurant in Woodbrook, I immediately spot her and she takes her seat across from me. We exchange formalities and dive right into the interview. We start with her main business Bellissima Balloons and Events.

 

With a beam in her eyes and a shy grin, she boasts that Bellissima Balloons and Events has been transforming occasions from simple to spectacular for the past 16 years. A hobby business started in 2009 because of a passion for balloon decor that has since expanded into full event coordination services: all aspects of decor, fabric, floral and balloons.

 

“In 2011, we started offering balloon classes which we still do to this day. In 2020 we expanded to offering classes in floral arrangements, clean beauty-organic soaps, body butter workshops, eco-soy/friendly candle-making, and Sip N’ Paint Events.”

 

Her past corporate clients includes RBC-Marabella, Unicomer Ltd. Courts, Hyatt Regency Hotel, The Business Supply Group, Ross Advertising, Movietowne, VIP Members Club (Long Circular Mall) and many private parties in north west Trinidad.

 

Impressive.

Her other brand, Ginger Lily Organics TT was founded in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here, she produces and sells organic soaps, body butters, eco-soy candles in sustainable, environmentally friendly packaging.

 

She also promotes eco-tourism with her brand. It celebrates the flora, fauna and ecological gems of T&T aspiring to be the first green eco-friendly brand in the Caribbean.

 

“We celebrate local, with scents like: Creamy Coconut, Guava, Passion Fruit, Sugar Cane & Bamboo, Frangipani, Chaconia (Pride of T&T), Avocat Waterfall and Turure Watersteps. To ensure premium quality, certified Grade A Organic Oils from the US are imported,” the business owner says.

Therapeutic Healing

The business owner confides with The Muse that soap and candle making proved to be creative, healing therapy at a particularly trying time of her life. She shares that her business was founded at a time when she had lost everything: her job, savings, and for a long time hope.

 

“I was recovering from emergency surgery from a second miscarriage and was physically, emotionally and psychologically broken and devastated.”

 

As a hiker she also discovered that nature was indeed a healing place and this business helped her move foward and find purpose in the pain.

 

“Founding Ginger Lily Organics TT was another therapeutic outlet for me. I wanted to share our local scents with the world and celebrate what we have.”

 

As it relates to the ecological side of her business, she shares that solely organic ingredients are used.

 

“This means that no chemicals that pollute the air/watercourses with industrial waste are used in manufacture. We use trusted suppliers here, whose quality is up to par and also eco-friendly, minimalist, packaging, minimizing the use of plastic as much as possible.”

 

She shares that the process is very frustrating, especially in a developing nation where this is very costly, as eco-friendly paper for labels have to be imported.

 

“We also cannot get eco-friendly call cards done locally. However, we needed to uphold the highest standards of integrity. We use glass jars, brown cardboard soap boxes and brown paper bags. Sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint is imperative to saving our planet and attracting foreign investment.”

 

Her soaps and body butters are named after ecological gems with the inspiration coming from the fact that she’s an avid hiker where the flora, fauna, along with the local waterfalls, natural pools and gorges of Trinidad and Tobago serves as the muse. Having lived in England for some time, Morris shares that there’s a European clientele who considers our local scents exotic and products’ wonderful keepsakes.

 

 

In retrospect, Morris is ultra grateful for her day jobs at the library and in banking, but admits there’s nothing like the fulfillment she feels from her own business.

She explains that a busy day would be doing large soap/body butter orders, balloon décor on site, or mobilizing materials and prepping for workshops. A typical slow day would be planning social media campaigns, networking, planning PR and course offerings per quarter.

 

Pricing & What’s Ahead for Daychelle Morris’ Brands

Workshops are priced affordably and start from $500 per person for Beginner’s Balloon Course, Glitter Tattoo Workshop and our Eco-Soy Candle Course are $500 per person. Soaps are priced at $30, Body Butters $120 ea. Eco-Soy Candles $120.

 

“Our workshops aim to empower students with a skill, bring joy and creative therapy in a modern, fast paced world where women especially are stressed, overworked, burned-out, juggling multiple roles with many opening their own businesses,” Morris says.

 

Plans for the future include a Women’s Day Workshop and Talk at a private poolside residence in Coblents, Cascade; the launch of an organic pet care line, as well as a soap, body butter and candle collection inspired by the beautiful beaches and hidden waterfalls of Tobago.