You may be asking yourself, right now, why soy? That is such a great question and I’m so glad you asked! Soy candles hold a multitude of benefits over petroleum or beeswax candles. For example, soy burns cleaner than any other wax. If you’ve ever burned a petroleum based candle—such as one from Yankee Candle or White Candle Barn—you may notice that nasty ring of black soot around the rim of the jar. That soot contains toluene and benzene (both cancer-causing agents) and nine other known toxins. More than being cancer causing, this soot can also strongly affect people who are asthmatic. Soy, on the other hand, is non-toxic and gives off little-to-no soot.
Many people are turned off to buying soy candles because of their cost. While it is true that soy candles are more expensive, soy actually burns slower and cooler than paraffin candles, which helps to alleviate some of this cost. In addition to this, many companies use wicks with zinc or lead in them. This metal helps the wick to stay firm and actually makes it burn hotter, burning up both the oil and the wax more quickly. In addition to this, zinc and lead are released into the air and inhaled by you, your children, your pets…even your plants!
Speaking of plants, I wanted to explain why we hold so strongly to the idea of having only essential oils in our candles. Often times, people ask us if we have scents such as apple pie or vanilla sugar. Occasionally, they are turned off by our response that we do not. This is because scents such as those are not natural or plant derived. Some fragrance oils contain a certain amount of natural oils, but many of them are made in a laboratory. If you’ve ever read “Fast Food Nation,” you may recall the chapter about how McDonalds and other restaurants have been known to add various man-made scents to their food to make them more enticing. These man-made scents are just chemicals that your nose responds to make you believe that you are smelling something that isn’t necessarily there. Using 100% essential oils in our candles limits the types of scents that we can make, but it also allows us to be 100% natural, something that Green Illuminations really believes in strongly.
Not only are essential oils all-natural, they also have aroma therapeutic values to them. For example, lavender in fragrance oil form doesn’t necessarily relax you. But the essential oil lavender has the ability to calm and soothe your body. This is because the make-up of the essential oils contains chemicals that your body naturally reacts to.
Green Illuminations can truly say that our candles are 100% natural and good for you. They smell amazing and they help to improve your mood. They also help the earth by not using petroleum to make candles and releasing harmful chemicals back into the environment. We do all of this so that our customers know that they are contributing to a greener, healthier world while enjoying the scents that nature has created. And, at the price-point that we sell our candles at ($7 for a 3 oz. candle that lasts 20-24 hours), it is a great buy, too. Keeping the candles natural and the cost down is not an easy task, but we feel that it is the right thing to do. We only wish that more companies would consider doing the same!
