When he graduated from Harvard Law School in 2008, Andrew Nicol never thought he'd wind up spending his days in a Bushwick warehouse handling logistics for a manufacturing company. 

But the founder of fragrance startup Element Brooklyn didn't plan on being a lawyer his whole career. For the South Africa-born Nicol there weren't many options besides joining a New York law firm which would allow him to both remain in the country and explore the city. 

After a few years in law that he described as interesting, educational and lucrative — he started out at an annual rate of $180,000 per year, plus bonuses — Nicol was ready to make a switch. 

"The stuff that interested me the most was always the business strategy," he says. "I needed to find a way where I could get closer to that than just providing legal advice to clients. And the closest way I could think of doing that would be to become an entrepreneur." 

Nicol knew it was a risk to leave his six-figure career behind, telling CNBC Make It that he can't think of many lawyers who would make the same decision.

"I went from making a really, really comfortable — maybe even more than comfortable — living, to not knowing where my next paycheck was coming from," he says. "But I also knew it was something that I wanted to do." 

The decision, however, paid off. Element Brooklyn brought in more than $2 million in revenue last year, according to Nicol.

Here's why he decided to leave the law behind in favor of hand soaps and candles. 

Searching for a new challenge

One of Nicol's first ventures into entrepreneurship was co-founding TripExpert, a site that aggregates professional travel reviews to help travelers plan their vacations. It was a success, but when Covid hit and demand slowed, Nicol looked to try something new. 

He set his sights on the world of fragrance after seeing friends spend hundreds of dollars on high-end products, only to find themselves unable to refill them once they ran out.

He noticed that cheaper brands were innovating their packaging in new and sustainable ways, but didn't see those same developments happening on the more expensive end of the spectrum. 

"You could walk into a Target or a Walmart and you could find sustainable refill options for your soaps and creams," he says. "But if you wanted a really high quality, luxuriously fragranced product from a sort of designer brand, you basically had no refill options. Your only choice was to buy a new bottle whenever you ran out of product. And I thought that was really wasteful."

Enlisting the help of his father, a chemical engineer, Nicol set out to try his hand at soaps and candles and had creams. The pair started out using a $300 KitchenAid mixer to develop initial batches of soap. 

"One thing that he taught me from a really young age is that a lot of this stuff follows pretty basic scientific principles," Nicol says. "That's definitely the case with hand soap." 

Element Brooklyn's first product, Mandarin Crush hand soap, retailed for $19 and quickly sold out.

"The first really positive signs were going viral on TikTok and Instagram Reels," he says. "Just some early customers who were among the first to discover us and considered us a sort of bougie-on-a-budget life hack."

With a successful proof-of-concept, Nicol decided to tackle other product categories. He was confident that he could convince customers to try out the brand if he could create products that smelled good and were attainably priced.

A candle from Element Brooklyn retails for around $25, while refills sell for less than $20. The brand's website lists a comparable scent for each item. For example, the $23 In Full Bloom candle lists the $76 Diptyque Baies as its closest comp. 

"Some of these companies make three-wick candles that cost 500-plus dollars," he says. "The markup is really, really extraordinary." 

Focusing on refills of his soaps and candles, on top of being sustainable and eco-friendly, helped create repeat customers. The business is also growing by working with health clubs and spas looking to create an elevated experience for guests. 

Nicol says Element Brooklyn is on pace to bring in more than $8 million in revenue in 2025. And while managing shipments and pouring candles in his warehouse is hard work, he doesn't miss the lawyer life. 

"It was a very sort of adult kind of job. Dressing up in my suit and tie every day and going into my wood-paneled office with a secretary out the front," he says. "But this is much more interesting, much more dynamic and much more fulfilling."

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