WAXING LYRICAL - WHY 100% NATURAL WAX?
All our candles are made from 100% Natural Wax, a blend of sustainably sourced organic soy and rapeseed we’ve been refining and developing since 1989. But it’s far cheaper—and a lot easier—to use paraffin… So why don’t we use that?
- Paraffin is a petroleum by-product of the crude oil industry—the sludge waste left when it’s refined into gasoline—and because it’s a non-renewable resource, it's considered unsustainable.
- By using our bespoke mixture of organic soy and rapeseed - both harvested from sustainable fields, we can adjust the blend to be perfectly balanced for every fragrance and size of scented candle. (using only one of these materials means variations between batches of natural crop can’t be adjusted for, so consistent quality can't be guaranteed.)
- Paraffin candles can be dyed pretty colours, but when burned, they emit large amounts of particulate pollutants found in diesel fumes - a major component of air-pollution.
- Paraffin burns faster than natural wax - giving shorter burn times.
- Apart from being longer-lasting, 100% natural wax has a consistently strong fragrance ‘throw’ when combined with Coreless Cleanburn® Technology, which also prevents "tunnelling".
- 100% natural wax burns cleanly - especially when combined with Coreless Cleanburn® Technology, which also prevents “tunnelling”.
So yes, especially when we first started, it would have been much cheaper and easier to out-source the manufacturing, but from the get-go we chose to develop our own eco-friendly blends and processes.
Many mistakes were made along the way, but over the decades, we came to appreciate that “mistakes” are just part of learning what not to do. You can always improve and because nobody else was manufacturing 100% natural wax, this was the only way to make sure of our quality, consistency, and authenticity at every single stage.
Words of warning...
- Dont’ be fooled - Just because a label says “natural wax” it may actually be up to 80% paraffin. Read the small print.
- Beware of scented semantics - Some companies call paraffin “mineral wax.” It sounds nicer, but it’s paraffin.
- Pretty? - The easiest way to identify a paraffin candle is the colour: paraffin wax can be coloured; 100% natural wax can’t be dyed, and has that soft, rich, natural creamy surface you’ll see slight variations of colour on. Undyed paraffin has an “ice-rink white