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What do you use for color?
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How do you get the
"natural" colors?
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Why
do some of your candles not smell like beeswax?
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So are your candles
natural? Why compromise?
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What kind
of wicks do you use? Any metals?
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Why Beeswax
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Why
China?
Our colors Natural Ivory,
Natural Yellow and Natural Gold have no added colors.
For the colored candles we use both dyes and pigments.
Pillar lines: the
pillar candles are an uncolored natural ivory core with an
applied skin of colored wax. We do this to reduce the
amount of dye to the absolute minimum. We use candle
dyes from French Color (www.frenchcolor.com).
For material safety purposes, these are rated in the same
category as water, but we don't pretend that they're totally
benign. We believe that because the gases from the
burned beeswax have a predominantly negative ionic charge,
they do not remain long in the air and so likely there is
negligible toxic effect from the dyes. That said, if
one is extremely sensitive, we recommend the natural colors.
Dipped candles, rolled
candles, votives: these candles are colored throughout with
mineral pigments. The same can be said of these as for the
dyes.
Both the dyes and pigments
will fade gradually if left in direct sunlight or strong
incandescent light. The natural gold and natural
yellow will also fade towards ivory in strong light.
Natural beeswax comes in a
spectrum of colors ranging from white to dark brown, with
yellows, caramels, and umbers in between. Some have
reddish hues, some even green. So we can't speak
meaningfully of "natural beeswax color".
Most of our raw wax is a
rich yellow or gold. We get is straight from the
beekeepers, and it's a mess: dirty, full of debris from the
hive, and often a high honey content. But it smells
divine.
We grade the wax according
to color - some are perfect natural yellow and natural gold;
most are not, and so are further processed to make the
ivory.
We separate out the gross
(!) particulate matter using both precipitation methods
(liquefy it and let it stand), and filtering. That
gets us the clean, raw wax, and we use it in this state for
the natural yellow and natural gold candles, and for the
skin coat on the pillars.
When the bees elaborate the
wax out of their bodies, it's white. The qualities we
associate with "natural" beeswax - the smell, the color, are
actually added to the wax in the hive from pollens and other
sources as the bees form the wax into honeycomb using their
mandibles, and the honeycomb is in contact with honey,
propolis, etc.
So by removing these
materials from the wax, we restore it to white - or as close
as possible without chemical bleaching. We use a
combination of activated carbon, diatomaceous earth, and a
centrifuge - mechanical processes, essentially. This
achieves an ivory wax that has excellent and consistent
burning characteristics from batch to batch.
Ah, smell. Our oldest
and most compelling sense. The light is lovely, but
it's the sweetness we really want.
Raw beeswax of the clover
and alfalfa varietals seems to set the olfactory standard by
which beeswax is commonly judged. When we speak of
that yummy, dreamy, can't-get-enough-of-it smell that makes
us want to take a bite... clover-alfalfa. (For us
varietal honey junkies, the fragrance of varietal waxes is
another avenue of esoteric pleasure.)
The trouble, vis-à-vis
beeswax candles, is that one cannot create them perfect:
take the raw wax, keep that divine smell, and compromise
burning quality and consistency; filter the wax, lose the
smell, but realize a better candle.
The particulate matter in
raw beeswax clogs up the wicks and causes a host of problems
in burn consistency. The amount and nature of the
foreign matter changes from one batch of wax to the next, so
a wick that works one day may not the next. Raw
beeswax candles will always frustrate both the maker and the
user.
The highly filtered ivory
wax, while it smells almost neutral, allows standardization
of wicks and produces excellent and consistent burning
characteristics. It also allows us to buy a greater
range of waxes, often at a better price, and thereby fulfill
one of our core objectives - to make healthy candles
affordable.
Not all wax is of the
premium, dreamy variety. Like color, the smell of
beeswax varies vastly and correlates to the flowers from
which the bees have collected. You've not smelled the
worst of it, nor tasted the nasty honey, and almost
certainly you never will. Be thankful. But take
this wax and clean it well of color and fragrance, and it
makes a fine candle - as fine as the premium wax.
Beeswax is a scarce
commodity with an unstable cost basis. In good
(weather/crop/health/yield) years the price is flat; in bad
years, it goes up steeply. Why it never seems to go
down is a mystery to us. The point here is that
Without intending to be
coy, "natural" is not a simple standard in today's world.
As with most everything, there are shades of natural.
The purist's beeswax candle
comes from enlightened beekeepers who keep only healthy
bees, feed them only their own honey, shelter them from all
environmental harm, set them only in pristine,
peer-certified organic crops, isolated in some Shambala by a
distance greater than a bee can fly and upwind of all GMO
growers (a difficult achievement, given the nature of wind
and the roundness of the world)...
We're not purists and we
have no such candle. We've positioned our company and
our candle line to compete with the world of chemical
candles on aesthetics, performance and price - without
compromise. If a candle customer converts from
synthetic-fragranced paraffin to our beeswax, they've gone
90% of the way towards a healthy choice. If they want
to go that last 10% towards the perfect healthy candle,
they'd have to compromise aesthetics (give up color),
performance (the trouble with raw wax), and very certainly,
price.
To us, this justifies the
"unnatural" compromises of color and smell.
The 20th century took the
humble candle, a simple source of light, and marketed it
into a thing of cosmic wonder: portal of olfactory bliss (or
scourge of the sensitive nose); icon of romance and
THERE ARE NO METALS IN ANY
OF OUR WICKS. No Lead. No zinc core. NO
METAL that burns or enters the air.
We use pure cotton and
cotton composite (a few small strands of paper for strength)
wicks with zinc burn control tabs at the bottom to ensure a
safe and complete burn (this tab does not burn).
Health.
Most candles are paraffin, a left-over from oil refining
that contains dioxin and other carcinogens, and processed
meat-packing wastes. These toxic chemical candles are
scented with poisonous synthetic oils and deceptively
marketed to "freshen" the precious air that we breathe.
But the black soot they emit is as harmful to our health
and homes as second-hand tobacco smoke, and the EPA says
"burning several [paraffin] candles… increased risk for
cancer". The American Lung Association says "Refrain from
burning scented… candles", and that should include all
"aromatherapy" candles as unsafe. HealthyCandles.org says
"Avoid paraffin." We say "Health first! Avoid chemical and
scented candles."
Healthy candles? Natural beeswax is very different.
Made from flowers by honeybees, it’s uniquely non-toxic,
non-allergenic, and has a delicate honey-sweet aroma. A
perfect, peaceful, renewable resource, beeswax is made by
female worker bees for honeycomb that safely holds their
honey and baby bees.
To produce one pound of beeswax, the worker bees eat about
ten pounds of honey, fly 150,000 miles, and visit 33
million flower blossoms! Beeswax is very precious stuff.
Unscented beeswax is healthy when burned, producing
negative ions that actually clean our air of pollens,
odors, smoke, viruses, mold, dust, dust mites, and other
allergens. As does a rainstorm, beeswax candles leave our
air fresher and cleaner. They are the only candles for
anyone with chemical sensitivities or allergies.
Increasing negative ions in the air and on the body, such
as when one bathes in water, improves mood and sense of
wellbeing. Studies show:
- Improved air quality
- Improved sleep
- Enhanced immune system
- Relief from hay fever & allergies
- Less severe asthma attacks
- Improved concentration
- Balancing of hormones
- Natural detoxification
- Sense of wellbeing
Value.
Beeswax burns much brighter, hotter, cleaner, and longer
than chemical and vegetable waxes. When properly made and
burned, beeswax candles are smokeless and dripless (see
Burning Tips). They may seem more expensive by size, but
when measured by burn time and completeness of burn, pure
beeswax candles are usually a far better value than
boutique paraffin.
But beware:
because of lax labeling laws
and consistent lobbying by chemical candle makers, a
candle may be labeled "beeswax" if it contains as little
as 10% beeswax - the balance is probably paraffin. Also
be suspicious of labels simply stating "natural". If the
label doesn’t say "100% beeswax" or "pure beeswax", it
almost certainly is not.
Vegetable wax candles,
such as soy and palm, are a great improvement over
chemical candles, but do not possess the same magical
qualities as beeswax; and soy may be from GMO
(genetically-modified) sources.
Beauty. Beeswax is so beautiful. Smell it, mold it
in your hands, watch the living light as it burns. A
carefully handcrafted beeswax candle is a wholesome thing
of beauty that reminds us of our connection to the natural
world and supports health, sustainable practices, and
peace for all. Choose health, the greatest measure of
beauty. Choose beeswax.
Save the world. Burn
beeswax.
Sound like a
stretch? Consider the circle of life and the
interconnectedness of all things. Everything that we
humans do, every choice we make, every dollar we spend,
has an effect.
Consider the relationship
of humans and bees. Honeybees are vitally important
creatures in nature. They are also the principal
pollinators of our fruit, nut and vegetable crops. Without
them, life as we know it would change drastically for the
worse. With the current trend, this is a very real and
dreadful possibility.
Humans have so poisoned
the ecosystem with chemical agriculture (oil, again) that
today the bees are dying worldwide in alarming and record
numbers. When we support chemical agriculture, we
contribute to that devastation. But when we choose to
support organic agriculture, we contribute to the healing,
to health in general. When we buy and burn chemical
candles, we harm ourselves and our world. When we support
beekeepers and bees, well, we help save the world. Simple
as that.
Why Beeswax? Because we care about our health and our
world.
Choose well. Pass it on.
China...
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