FAQ

Candle care is very important and can prolong the life of your candles, resulting in a safer, cleaner burn. Always follow the safety instructions included with our candles and if you ever have any questions please get in touch. Burning your candle - to make the most out of your beautful candle and to make sure you light your candle for between 2-4 hours at a time or until you have a full layer of melted wax. You need to make sure you don't blow it out too soon becuase you might actually be shortening the life of your candle due to tunnelling. Candle tunnelling leaves walls of wax that can stifle the candle and can even drown the wick completely. Trim the wick - We always tell us customers how important wick trimming is. It is absolutely paramount! If the wick is too long the flame will be larger than it should be. This means that it will burn through the wax more quickly and may make the vessel hotter. Always trim your wick to 5mm each time you light your candles. Burning candles in a draught - if you notice your flame blowing to one side or that you're left with wax on one side of your vessel it may be that your candle was in a draught. Keep a close eye on them and if you spot the flame being blown around, extinguish the candle and move it to alternative spot.

Derived from the soybean, soy wax is a hydrogenated vegetable oil that turns to a solid at room temperature. Soy wax contains nothing artificial, which makes it a better alternative to old-fashioned paraffin wax, which is made from petroleum oil and produces harmful by-products when burned or melted. Soy wax is non-toxic making it better both for the environment and your health!

Since soy wax is made from soybeans, it is friendly to the environment because soybeans are a renewable resource. Paraffin wax comes from petroleum, which is not a renewable resource. The type of wax in your candle is important and especially important if you are pregnant, have kids, or have pets, because it’s the safest option health-wise. You want to avoid wax blends or candles that don’t state the exact breakdown of ingredients.

Essential oils are made of 100% all natural substances. Essential oils are extracted from different parts of a plant, such as flowers, herbs, or roots. These oils are pure extractions that are obtained through the process of steam distillation or solve extractions and are not cut with a type of carrier oil. Essential oils have many uses in aromatherapy to help ease muscle pain, skin problems, and other bodily afflictions. Fragrance oils are created in a laboratory and don’t provide the same health benefits as essential oils. We only use pure essential oils in our candles and melts.

Our candles are all made at our studio in Thorverton, Devon. They are all individually hand poured and are made in small batches to keep quality high. Each candle is checked after it has cured to make sure it has a smooth finish before the jars are polished, the labels are added, the wicks are trimmed and the lids attached.

When we started creating our blend selections, we tried to think about giving our customers a range of different scents and benefits, so that there is hopefully a blend for everyone's preferences! For each scent, we looked at the combinations of essential oils that natually work well together and from there started thinking about the kind of mood we wanted to create. We hand-pick oils to help enhance different moods. An example of this is the Sleep & Slumber and Spa & Pamper range. Both of these scents have some overlapping ingredients, however the overall mood and essence is very different. By adding the cedarwood to the Sleep & Slumber we have created a really creamy, calming and relaxing scent. Whereas with the Spa & Pamper candle, we added rosemary and peppermint which are naturally more energising, focussing scents and the bergamot then emphasises the orange properties already present, to again bring a more uplifting feel. We aim to give most of our candles three tones (or notes) to create a 'balanced' aroma. The top note scents are bright and fresh and they evapourate quickly so it's often the first thing you will smell after lighting. The middle notes are warm and radiant. They evapourate a little more slowly so their scent will stick around a little longer. These are often a floral scent and are used to bridge the gap between the base and top notes to make the entire aroma unified and layered. The final notes are the base note, which generally have a deep, earthy, heavy aroma. These give the blends a rich foundation and because they are 'heavier' they don't evapourate so quickly and therefore tend to linger in the air for longer.

Whenever a candle maker sets out to create a candle, they have to make decisions as to what they want their product to achieve. If profit margin is a priority then the likelihood is that the ingredients chosen will be very different to the ingredients you will find in our candles. The cheapest way to make a candle is to use a parrafin wax with synthetic fragrance oils. Some candle makers use a natural wax, but still use cheaper fragrance oils. Most candles you come across are made from these and it might be that the company wants to concentrate on creating a really colourful candle, where an iconic scent such as bubblegum or parma violet is the goal. To acheive this, a large amount of synthetic ingredients and colourants would have to be added and then burnt into the atmosphere, which in term we then inhale. Hopefully you have read a few other pieces on our website to help clarify the difference between soy wax and parrafin, and pure essential oils and fragrance oils, and why we have chosen the soy and pure essential oil route. When we set out to make candles, I knew I wanted a lovely looking container that would look great around my home and compliment different settings. I also knew I wanted to use a natural wax, especially with my young family around. Finally, I knew I wanted to create a candle that smelt lovely, but also gave me the benefits of aromatherapy. This is where the pure essential oils come in. Pure essential oils are expensive, but the benefits of using them far outweigh the cost benefits of using synthetic or fragrance oils, and therefore they are worth every penny. There have been lots of studies around the health benefits of essential oils, and while not for one minute am I claiming that they will cure or solve any problems, I do believe they can enhance our mood and help us to relax or de-stress. The science behind the smell is that a smell stimulates serotonin and dopamine, which contributes to decreased anxiety levels. We all know how powerful smells can be and how one whiff of a familar childhood smell can take us right back to that time. It is the same with the aromas of the essential oils as hopefully they will evoke feelings of unwinding or getting your head clear for the start of the day and hopefully they will become part of your daily routine.

We only use 100% pure essential oils in our candles and whilst you might think we go on about this a lot(!), we feel this is really important to get this across to our customers, as so many candle makers claim to use natural oils, but often these are still created through a chemical process using a cheaper 'base' oil. Therefore, you think you are getting the benefits of that oil, but actually you are just getting the scent. Most candles on the market use synthetic fragrance oils, which are created through a chemical process. Of course all of these chemicals are then burnt off and filter into the air as the candle is lit. Most of the time these are used becuase they are considerably cheaper but also a range of 'fun' scents can be created such as cookies, bubblegum, toffee apple, jelly bean or fresh laundry etc. Whilst there are a lot of people who love these, other people find them to be too overpowering and can often create a heavy, foggy smell. One of the attributes we love about essential oils is the fresh, clear and clean aroma they leave as they evapourate. There have been many research projects about the benefits of essentail oils, and pure essential oils are key part of aromatherapy. We would never claim that these would 'cure' or 'heal' in a traditional sense, we feel these can compliment you and your mood, and promote health and well-being. Our collection of scents, hopefully, offer our customers a good variety of aromas to suit almost everyone, but each has been blended with a different purpose in mind. The idea being that they will compliment the activities or mood you are in or they might be picked to enhance or adapt a mood in some way. For example, you wake up, you're feeling a bit low, the rain is hammering at the window, you're worrying about the little things, the big things and everything inbetween! This is when you might reach for our No.01 scent, Calm & Comfort. Or you might have a million things to get done but very little energy or enthusiasm. If this is the case then it might be our scent No.02 Energised & Fresh that you need! This is a lovely quote from an aromotherepy practictioner Andrea Butje, "you don't need any research to know which aromas you love, and sometimes being with an aroma you love is all it takes to help you fell relaxed and centred. After all my years of using oils, it still feels magical when I take the time to simply breathe in one of my favourite scents, and feel myself become more uplifted and calm'.

We have tried to keep our postage costs as low as possible, but unfortunately Royal Mail, or any sort of postage is expensive! Standard small parcel cost with the Royal Mail ranges from £3.10 to £4.10. We have also made the choice, as a responsible online retailer, to make sure all of our packaging is plastic free and responsibly sourced, and although this is more expensive, we absorb a large proportion of this cost to make sure our postage costs are competitive.