To The Conscious Candle Consumer,

It’s that time of the year; candle season! There’s something of utmost importance for you to consider when purchasing candles for your home! If you’re a conscious consumer, here are some questions to consider before your purchase.

1. Is the wick and surrounding wax surface completely free of materials that may burn?
2. Is the glass thick enough to be heat safe?
3. Does the candle business commit to using quality oils and other ingredients?

If the answer is “No” to any of these questions, then buying the candle is a NO! 

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​I know it’s beautiful, lovely and quite divine to look at a candle with glitter, herbs, botanicals, and crystals on the top. This is a fire hazard! The ONLY time you can safely buy a candle like this is if you intend to use it for decoration only. IF it's a free-standing pillar candle AND the decorations are around the outside edge of a pillar candle, there’s a chance the candlemaker used a high-melt point paraffin to encapsulate the decorations around the edge and away from the wick and melt pool. You can tell this if you can clearly see a ring when you look around the top or bottom of the candle. In this case, the decorations are in a shell and this burns safely. Never buy a candle with combustible materials inside a glass container! Yes, even certain gemstones are considered combustible.

So, let’s consider the vessel. Typically ¼ inch is a really good measurement to think of when being a conscious candle consumer. Not only do we keep our wicks trimmed to ¼ inch for proper candle care, but we can also use this measurement when considering the glass containers we are purchasing. If the glass is thinner than ¼ inch, there’s more of a risk that the heat from the flame will crack the glass. If the glass is thicker than ¼ inch there’s less of a risk that the heat from the flame will crack the glass. However, it’s also important to consider that in my experience colored glass tends to be less heat resistant.  
What about ingredients! This is a topic I could write on for hours. As a general rule of thumb, if the candle business you are checking out does not mention anything about their conscious selection of oils, it’s safer to assume they are not shopping consciously for their oils and other materials. Oil selection is by far the most important step in ordering ingredients for your candles. Many factors are considered during oil shopping. Typically if a candlemaker takes the time to review data sheets to shop for oils that are phthalate and Nitro-musk free, they’re going to make sure their consumer knows about it either on the candle or on the website homepage. 

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It’s important to me to educate people about candles! There’s some accusations about candles out there that are not supported by science. I’ve been experimenting with candles regularly since 2001 and I conclude that the soothing, relaxing, mindfulness benefits of burning candles in our home outweighs the chance of air pollution or fire hazard. However, there’s also candlemakers not making safety a top priority, so it’s important to be conscious with our purchases; always! Follow me! I’ll help you be a conscious candle consumer.