However, I found out recently that paraffin candles can be very toxic, releasing carcinogens such as; acetaldehyde, acrolein, benzene, formaldehyde, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and toluene into the atmosphere along with the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
So I started to look out for natural candles and here are three of of my favourite eco friendly luxury candle brands:
Neom Complete Bliss: Home Candle
Morrocan Blush Rose £39.50
A favourite of mine, this candle fills my apartment with the smell of fresh roses, with a hint of pepper and lime to give it a modern touch. The rose essential oils works to relax you and lift your spirits (rose is also known as a great anti-depressent and aphrodisiac). The candle is made from vegetable wax and essential oils and burns without releasing any harmful toxins or soot. I like the 3 wick candle because it lasts for ages!
Burning time is 50 hours.
http://www.neomorganics.com/
Jonathan Ward
Dance in the summer rain £32
I first came across Jonathan's candles whilst on a shopping trip in Wholefoods, I literally found myself following the scent around the supermarket to try and detect where it was coming from. That's how good these candles are!
The candles are made from eco friendly soy and bees wax. Each candle is hand poured in their south london base into beautiful Italian crystal glasses.
Jonathan Ward only use natural scents and ingredients. This candle reminds me of summer, and for someone who doesn't like the dark winter days this candle is a real pick me up! It smells of Jasmine, a reminds me of freshly cut grass.
Burning time 45 hours
http://www.johnlewis.com/231633290/Product.aspx
A favourite of mine, this candle fills my apartment with the smell of fresh roses, with a hint of pepper and lime to give it a modern touch. The rose essential oils works to relax you and lift your spirits (rose is also known as a great anti-depressent and aphrodisiac). The candle is made from vegetable wax and essential oils and burns without releasing any harmful toxins or soot. I like the 3 wick candle because it lasts for ages!
Burning time is 50 hours.
http://www.neomorganics.com/
Dance in the summer rain £32
I first came across Jonathan's candles whilst on a shopping trip in Wholefoods, I literally found myself following the scent around the supermarket to try and detect where it was coming from. That's how good these candles are!
The candles are made from eco friendly soy and bees wax. Each candle is hand poured in their south london base into beautiful Italian crystal glasses.
Jonathan Ward only use natural scents and ingredients. This candle reminds me of summer, and for someone who doesn't like the dark winter days this candle is a real pick me up! It smells of Jasmine, a reminds me of freshly cut grass.
Burning time 45 hours
http://www.johnlewis.com/231633290/Product.aspx
The Hype Noses
Epices en Stock £39
This candle is perfect for snuggling up by the fire with a glass of mulled wine! It's made by The Hype Noses (French brand). They only use soy wax and natural scents and I think they must use lots of scent because I thought Epices en Stock was quite strong (the instructions advise to burn for 2 hours max). I really liked the warming scent of Cinnamon. They Hype Noses only uses wooden wicks, to make them even more eco friendly. They crackle gently (great if you don't have a fireplace for that winter warming feeling)
Burning time 40 hours
http://www.averyonlinestore.com/index.php/the-hype-noses-epices-en-stock-candle-190gr.html
Thank you so much for your wonderful and kind post. I wanted to offer absolute accuracy for your readers (unlike many companies that make sweeping claims using words that can mislead consumers as to their green credentials). We do indeed a premium north American soy that has been harvested sensitively and isn't sourced from dominant soy companies that are responsible for deforestation. We also use a natural beeswax that is filtered on the premises and also is sourced from north America. We use a high level of naturals but also use a small percentage of excellent high grade aroma chemicals to create our fragrances that are built like "fine fragrance for the home". A Jonathan Ward candle (combining wax and oils) is 95-97% natural. However for consumers that require a 100% natural candle NEOM and other brands are a superb choice.
ReplyDeleteThere are no "organic" candles in the U.K. that are certified by the Soil Association, because there are no organic wicks available on the market. Certain chemicals are needed in all cotton wicks to ensure that they burn for hours and hours, if untreated these wicks would just frazzle upon lighting. The only certified UK wax that is organic is an organic beeswax and having experimented with it, its unusable for scented candles, as its dark brown in colour and retains a high percentage of pollen, rendering it extremely strong in smell of honey, so any delicate oils would be swamped by the honey smell.
As in the world of food, there are certain grades of aroma chemicals and the few that we select are certified safe, high grade and are in some cases less toxic than essential oils that can be irritants to the skin and eyes used in high doses. I just say this to point out that the broad term of "natural" doesn't always mean better and can often come with downsides if not used appropriately.
It's important to note that there are no certified scented organic candles in the U.K. (the last time I chatted with the soil associations).
Anyway, just wanted to leave an honest comment and hope that you will still consider my products suitable for your blog.
It's my policy to be totally transparent..
Yours
Jonathan
Thanks so much for letting myself and my readers know this Jonathan, I have to say it's refreshing to come across a company that is so transparent about it's ethical/ natural ingredient policy. As a consumer it is much appreciated, as it is very much a grey area that we are all trying to navigate...
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting for me to see that there are NO certified organic candles in the UK due to the wicks not being organic. As you can will see I have changed the title of my post to 'Natural' from 'Organic' as a response to your comments. I am wondering if the wooden wicks The Hype Noses use are more environmentally friendly/ healthy than conventional wicks? Is this the case do you know or am I mistaken?....
Thanks again for your interesting knowledge and comments. I will ofcourse continue to use your candles. I am a big fan! They smell divine!
Best,
Sarah
Thanks so much for your comments in return. When I first started the business, I myself was guilty of using the word "organic" broadly. The manufacturer of the original soy I used was keen to keep my business and informed me that although their product was not certified, it was indeed organic. We do use some organic oils in the products, and they are wonderful when appropriate. However, some organic oils cannot go through any treatments or processes and therefore can smell quite coarse and in some cases (jasmine) kind of rotten. Of course this is the extreme, but the reality is that organic oil blends are completely price prohibitive because of their limited availability.
ReplyDeleteI was commissioned by a celebrity to design her a completely organic candle so had to do lots of research. It actually was incredibly constructive. The company that produces my oils came up with phenomenal 100% certified organic oils blends. The cost of these oils were in the region of £225 per kilo. Based on the size of the candle, subsequently that meant that the raw cost price of 8% oil content was £18 worth of organic oil per candle at cost. The retail price for the candle would have been over £110.
Naturally the project didn't come to fruition. It's interesting that you mentioned the wooden wicks, because the only available wick on the market that carries an organic certificate is a wooden wick from a company in the USA.
We sampled the oil blends in the 100% organic beeswax with the wooden wick and there were numerous issues that prevented the candle from being a viable enjoyable home fragrance experience. The scents were completely drown out in the potent strength of the beeswax. The wooden wicks needed to be quite sizable to ignite an acceptable hot fragrance throw from the candle. The 100% beeswax blend burned quite dirty and sooty.
I was determined to make the project work, but unfortunately cost and poor performance made the project come to an end. Following that commission I removed all reference to the term "organic" from my products (at great expense) and also from the website.
I simply want a product that is available in the market at a price that is affordable for my customer. I want a product that is 100% truthful in its marketing and hopefully this will be a successful blueprint for the future.
I hope that one day I can be the first to produce a candle that can be truthfully be called "organic", until then "clean and natural" will have to do !
Thank you again for your kind response and I'm glad that you appreciated the honesty. It's just time to cut through the marketing rubbish and actually just offer the customer an honest product, this is really the consumer of the future. The food industry upholds strong clear guidelines to organic food types. The rules for organic fabrics are similarly quite clear. Candles will remain a bit of a grey area until there are industry standards and guidelines in place for the use of the word "organic".
Thanks Jonathan. How interesting and inspiring... you have such a compelling vision. I really hope you will be able to produce something that can be a truly 'organic' candle one day. It sounds like a similar story to the skincare industry, it is so difficult as a consumer to know exactly what you are buying with the constant marketing bombardment! Everyone is jumping on the 'green' / 'organic' bandwagon and yet there is no regulation in the industry. Hence, why I thought I'd do my bit and start trying to decipher the good green/ organic brands from the 'faux' ones.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many of us out there who for various reasons want to live in a cleaner, healthier more natural lifestyle (without compromising our taste/ style)! I think your honesty and transparency is admirable and you're candles, even though they are not organic... (yet) sound like they are made with some of the best natural ingredients you can find on the market, in order for them to remain affordable. It's admirable and as a consumer/ blogger, I can honestly say it's much appreciated.
Thanks to all for such an important blog article!
ReplyDeleteAs Jonathan pointed out, "organic" and "natural" are words that are often abused.
We feel that Jonathan has been very transparent and it is inspiring to read his own experience in this regard.
As a brand (Jardins Florian), we have stated from the launch of our own candles (Sept. 2011) that they are 100% organic as we do use 100% organic wax (soya and beeswax) and we did work with 100% organic essential oils, which is absolutely ridiculous in terms of costs and, consequently, reduces the margins to keep a decent retail price.
Rightfully again, Jonathan stated that it is currently close to impossible to source an organic cotton wick and we agree though we keep on searching.
Likewise, it would be good in the future to get certification for the final products so that the market/customers can differentiate which percentage of organic ingredients has been used by the various brands.
We decided to explain all that on our candle boxes and on our website, and we thank again Jonathan Ward for his philosophy of transparency and pragmatism.
Very best regards,
Jardins Florian team
http://www.jardinsflorian.com/products/night-scented-candle
NEWS--
ReplyDeleteCurrently we are doing final testing on 100% (yes a definative) organic candle using 100% Soil Association approved materials including organic wick.
It has taken over 18 months to source and have organic wick produced to the grade required, and testing is giving us the results .
We still have some paper based certfication elements to resolve over the next few months but by January 2014 we are sure we will be offering organic soil association certified candles, and more importantly at an affordable price.
For more information feel free to contact us.
www.blackaddercandles.co.uk
t:01361 808082
Florian
ReplyDeleteYou mention organic soya wax. unless mistaken soya is controlled with pesticide to ensure quality as organic soya is impossible to get the quality of oil to produce the wax. Some of the Soya is non GM but to date there isnt an 'organic' soya wax.
I know there are a number of chinese soya wax processors but the main bulk of soya is from the US from 3 different producers again none organic.
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ReplyDeletehttps://www.allumi.co.uk/about-allumi
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