Journal

A new chapter is here

Before we explore what’s new, I want to share how it all began.

I must have used a plastic lighter hundreds of times before I ever really thought about it.

I was living in a share house in Richmond with friends, and our old stove needed a flame to be lit. We had a fluorescent plastic lighter tucked away in a drawer just for this purpose. I’d also use it to light candles. It worked, it was easy, but it felt a bit... nasty. We went through the lighter fluid quickly, and instead of refilling it, we’d usually end up grabbing a new one at Woollies. It was convenient, but forgettable.

One day, I lit the stove, and for some reason, I started thinking about the lighter in my hand and what it meant. As someone who studied design, I love collecting beautiful objects and curating spaces. I remember looking down at the lighter in my hand, thinking: there must be something better out there? Then I thought, imagine if there was a brass version of this? I started to look for a lighter I could buy online, something I’d be proud to use and leave out on display. But I couldn’t find anything I actually wanted to buy. Which felt a bit strange, considering how many beautiful candle brands exist.

It was March 2020. Melbourne had just gone into lockdown. I was still working full-time but, like everyone else, was essentially housebound, confined to a 5km radius and only allowed out for an hour a day to exercise. As it turns out, these are pretty ideal conditions for starting a business.

Now, I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to start a lighter brand. I had been searching for my big idea for a long time. I knew I wanted to build something of my own, something useful, something that solved a real problem, something that felt original. I’d had other ideas before Flint, but none that felt worth pursuing.

Once I started thinking about a lighter, it was all I could think about. And when I came up with the name Flint, it started to feel real, and I realised this was the idea.

Fast forward to November 2020: I launched the first Flint website, hoping that maybe there were others like me—people who were looking for a better lighter. Four years on, we’ve sold over 30,000 lighters across Australia and New Zealand, and now have more than 250 stockists.

The response to Flint has been overwhelming. It gave me the chance to leave my day job and focus on the business full-time. And as a self-confessed perfectionist, I’ve been constantly thinking: how can I make this even better?

Over the past two years, we’ve been quietly working behind the scenes on a new and improved version of our lighter. It’s taken 9 prototypes and countless refinements, but Flint 2.0 is finally here.

The new design is more refined in both look and feel. We’ve made several important functional upgrades too: the battery now uses a larger-capacity cell, delivering at least 1000 ignitions per charge, five times more than the original. A new battery indicator light makes it easy to see when it’s time to recharge. And we’ve switched to USB-C charging, the universal standard.

We’ve also introduced a new Rose Gold colourway to the collection—elegant, warm, and timeless.

If you’re discovering us for the first time, welcome. And if you’ve been here since the beginning, thank you. Your support has made this all possible.

Here’s to the next chapter.

Chloe x