Vegetable Wax Candles

What do you love about the Fall?

Do you love seeing the reds, yellows and oranges of the changing leaves? Or do you have memories of jumping in piles and piles of leaves as a child? Do you love getting back into the routine of school? Do you love harvesting your crops (even if it's just a garden or an apple tree) and preparing food for the winter? Or biting into a crunchy, juicy apple, right off the tree? How about the delicious smells of fall - - pumpkins . . . apples . . . spices? Do you love the holidays - - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, other celebrations? The food?

Harvest Time, Hot Apple Pie, Mulled Cider, Apple Cinnamon and Fresh Apple vegetable wax candles bring all that you love about fall to life.

Sit back and imagine . . .

Breathe in the smell of a Caramel Apple vegetable wax candle as you prepare your home for Halloween. Yum. Your whole house will remind you of biting into the sticky, gooey, sweet caramel and then the crunchy, juicy, tart apple.

Burn a Chocolate Kiss candle as you hand out candy. What a deep, full chocolatey smell . . .

Or burn a combination of the fall candles as you have people over for fun Halloween get-togethers!

I don't know about you, but when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of pumpkin pie (of the vegan sort :)). Don't you love the smell? And the spices - - cinnamon . . . nutmeg . . . cloves? It's great! And how about the feeling it evokes in you? Enjoy that all the time, not only when you're baking a pumpkin pie! Try Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pumpkin Spice veggie wax candles.

Christmas is a holiday that means different things to different people. It's celebrated in a variety of ways, yet there seem to be commonalities . . . like baking . . . like Christmas trees . . . like the warm scent of foods like spices and cranberries. Gingerbread, Holiday Cookies, Night Before Christmas and Spiced Cranberry vegetable wax candles enhance your Christmas celebrations with their fragrances.

Well, a vegetable wax candle is a candle that's made with soy, palm or other vegetable waxes.

Pretty simple.

But sometimes they're called "natural" vegetable wax candles.

What's a natural candle?

The answer is that it depends!

Completely natural candles are not very common because there is more to a candle than just the wax. Candles consist of wax, color, fragrance and a wick.

Completely all-natural candles are colorless (dyes are synthetic). They're scented with essential oils made from plants, rather than synthetic fragrance oils. They have cotton (or hemp) wicks. And they're made of a natural wax like bees wax, soy, palm or other vegetable waxes (not paraffin, which is the most common wax used in candles today).

Candles that use natural wax and natural cotton wicks, but synthetic fragrance and color, are much more common, and are usually what is meant by a natural candle. And that's what the candle is that I'm recommending here (and it uses renewable palm waxes).

To be fair, there is debate about the benefit of natural candle wax (soy, palm, other vegetable wax, bees wax) vs. paraffin (petroleum) wax. Some people believe that natural waxes burn more cleanly than paraffin waxes. Others claim that since all waxes are hydrocarbons and give off carbon when burned (that black stuff, called soot), high quality paraffin wax burns just as cleanly as natural wax. Wick quality, color and fragrance are also factors in the cleanliness of the burn with either natural or paraffin wax.

But . . . natural vegetable waxes (e.g. soy, palm) are non-toxic, non-carcinogenic and biodegradable. They're unquestionably environmentally friendly, healthy and the best choice, in my opinion!

Most vegetable wax candles use all-natural cotton wicks.

But what's a wick all about, anyway?

As I wrote on my lens all about natural candles, "The purpose of candle wicks is to move fuel (melted wax) up to the flame where it vaporizes and burns. Although consumers of candles find scent to be the most important factor, the wick is actually the most vital in terms of candle construction.

Good wicks are designed to facilitate this process as efficiently and cleanly as possible.

1. Wicks are treated with flame-resistant substances so that they are not burned up by the flame (without a wick, there would be no candle).

2. Some candles contain more than one wick for more complete combustion.

3. Wicks are chosen to work with the type of wax and the candle's shape, size, color and fragrance.

4. Wicks are shaped according to need e.g. flat, square.

5. Wicks are made up of fibers that are twisted, braided or knitted together. Twisted wicks are usually lower quality and burn faster because they are looser and cause more fuel to reach the flame.

6. Wicks are most often natural wicks. They are usually made of cotton. In the past, a lead core was included to allow the wick to remain stiff. This is now banned in the United States due to health hazards. Now, tin, zinc, paper and synthetic materials are often used in cores. However, it is preferable to purchase candles without zinc or tin cores (i.e. natural cotton coreless wicks)."

Check out that lens for more information.