Candles are a fantastic way to add a cozy vibe to any room or workspace. The fragrance is a compelling way to infuse any room with emotion through our sense of smell. These scents can calm, excite, and make our space feel fresher and more inviting. However, how do you choose the right candle? And with so many options out there, what does something like a vegan candle even mean? Luckily there is a vegan candle set you can order straight to your home to provide you with options before deciding which fragrance best fits your needs.
What makes a Candle Vegan?
First off, vegan isn’t just to describe a diet preference. So don’t worry, we won’t expect you to eat your wonderfully scented candle… just smell it.
Vegan can describe any product that does not involve animals producing it. For example, historically, candles were made with tallow animal fat. Lucky for us is not popular in candle-making. Beeswax is the material the bees produce to form the honeycomb. While there are sustainable and cruelty-free ways of making beeswax, it cannot be considered a vegan candle.
Soy and paraffin wax are the most common options used to make vegan candles, with some candles being a mixture of the two. But we don’t want just any vegan candle; we want the best vegan candle. So…
What makes a vegan candle stand out?
If you want the best of the bunch, you will look for a paraffin-free soy wax candle.
Paraffin is made from extracting crude oil to create petroleum which leaves behind a waxy substance. Although this substance can be used to make a candle it may have specific side effects. It’s hypothesized that frequently burning paraffin is a carcinogen, meaning it can cause cancer. Plus, petroleum is a finite resource. So while a paraffin-based candle may be vegan, it is certainly not a sustainable option for us or our earth.
Soy wax is a sustainable and vegan option.
Soy wax is made from soybean oil which has hardened and cooled at room temperature. Since soybeans are an agricultural crop, this makes it vegan and sustainable. Unlike paraffin, soy wax is not a carcinogen. This makes for a cleaner and longer-burning candle.
When shopping for the perfect candle, check all the labels. For example, many department store candle options may say Soy Wax on the front of the package, but they contain a mix of both soy and paraffin wax. Instead, look for other options or blends, including vegetable wax, which, like soy wax, is cooled to a solid and made from a sustainable crop.
Other Factors to Consider
The wax isn’t the only ingredient that allows a perfect vegan candle to have a clean burn. You also want to consider the material the wick is made from. Sustainable sourced organic cotton wicks are a great option as they provide for a clean burn and prevent mushrooming at the base. Mushrooming is when the wick develops that mushroom-like head which can cause a smokey candle, a taller flame, and a potentially dangerous outcome. Along with choosing an organic cotton wick candle, you can also prevent this by trimming the wick on your candle to a quarter of an inch.
Not All Scents are Created Equal
Scent is highly subjective. The scents around us trigger memories. Everyone will experience different scents in vastly unique ways. To choose the right candle for you, smelling it certainly is essential.
Yet, many drugstore or department-based candles aren’t guaranteed to be made vegan, paraben/ phthalate-free, and certainly not free of paraffins – or with clean organic cotton wicks. This means we turn to the internet, and as amazing a resource as it is, our computers are not yet smart enough to let us scratch and sniff our screens. Ordering a candle online only to be disappointed by the scent compared to the description is highly disheartening.
An easy solution would be to order a candle kit from a company like Snif. Snif guarantees clean, vegan, and sustainable ingredients since it is manufactured right here, in the USA. These kits include three gender-neutral scents for you and their full-sized counterparts to keep if the smell suits your tastes or send back if you’re looking for something else. They created the closest thing to a scratch and sniff you can find on the internet, making it easy to find the perfect vegan candle scent.
