The Terrifying Truth about Your Holiday Candles

There are few feelings better than the flicker of a glass encased candle on your counter after you deep clean the house. Are you with us? Lighting that thing after a day full of elbow grease is the deepest sense of accomplishment, in our opinion. There's also nothing more aesthetically pleasing than a nice candle, and who doesn't love when their house smells good? But at what cost do we really want to experience these things? And is there a better way to do so than what we're already doing? Let us explain.

When I was in college, I used to love to head to the big name stores to get my seasonal holiday candles. I'm sure you can think of a few of the places I'm talking about off the top of your head. I burned their candles NON-STOP from October to January. And often after that, too. I started noticing my throat would get scratchy and my sinuses would be irritated, but I didn't think anything of it. Once I graduated I started to hear more about candles and how unhealthy they were. I didn't listen or want to believe it because, sorry, I loved when my apartment smelled like fresh pine. And nothing was going to stop me. (Don't even get me started on the fact that I sprayed the same scented body spray all over myself (read: thyroid) every morning, too. (CRINGE)). Once I started experiencing some other things like hormonal issues and my sinuses got worse, I began looking into the actual ingredients of what I was burning daily. When I tell you I was shocked. I knew the candles weren't great for me, but I mean how bad can some wax and a little bit of fragrance be, really? The ingredient list is actually so much worse than I could have imagined.

It's important to be aware of how toxic and harmful these candles can be to you and your body. Let's use my ex-favorite candle as the example. Not only does it have 26 different ingredients, but quite literally every one of them can be harmful in some way. I wasn't just breathing in a small amount of toxins every time I lit that candle, but I was putting myself in harms way in 26 different ways, for long periods of time. Let's talk about the heavy hitters first, and then we'll get into the rest of the ingredients.

Paraffin Wax

Paraffin wax is a petroleum based wax. Petroleum is a known health risk. It has been linked to issues like headaches, dizziness, confusion, nausea, vomiting, and central nervous system depression. It is also found to be carcinogenic, meaning it causes cancer. When petroleum is burned, it releases benzene (carcinogen), toulene (reproductive toxin), ethylbenzene (carcinogen) and xylene (irritant) which is commonly referred to as BTEX. These are VOC's (volatile organic compounds) that are colorless and clear. It's essentially as if you're lighting up fossil fuels in your living room. And while some may argue that it is only in small amounts, the issue is you're in a small, enclosed space and these VOC's linger. Also, do you really want to be breathing in fossil fuels in any amount? When it comes to wax you want to try to avoid any hydrogenated oils, like vegetable, soybean or palm oils. While they're better than paraffin, the cleaner options are coconut and beeswax.

Fragrance

When you see "fragrance" on a label, it's actually quite sneaky and manipulative. Fragrance is an umbrella term for up to 4000 different natural or synthetic chemicals. Companies are legally allowed to use the term "fragrance" so they don't have to divulge their "industry secrets" or their "recipe" that creates the scent of the candle. We would argue that most companies really just don't want to list the actual ingredients used because they know if we knew the truth we'd probably all run the other way. This is a pretty scary thing, considering we can't truly make an informed decision for our health when purchasing these products because we don't truly know what the ingredients are. Fragrance has been linked to issues like hormone disruption, neural disturbances, cancer, liver and thyroid toxicity, reproductive problems, depression, headaches and nausea. Another issue with fragrance is that once the toxins are released into a small space like your living room, these toxins get stuck and can then create formeldehyde, which has also been linked to many harmful health issues.

BHT

BHT is also known as Butylated Hydroxytoulene and is a preservative. It is listed as a toxic and harmful chemical. It is a known endocrine disruptor and can impact testosterone levels and sperm quality. It has been linked to liver enlargement, renal dysfunction, lung inflammation, impaired blood coagulation, decreased potassium levels, thyroid cancer and tumor growth. BHT is banned in Austrailia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. Probably not something we want to be breathing in.

Other Ingredients

While almost all of the other ingredients listed had harmful side effects, we want to list out just a few more that we were shocked by.

-Butylphenyl Methylpopional - Can cause harm to fetus during pregnancy, can affect fertility, and is a known reproductive toxin.

-Linalool- Can cause central nervous system damage.

-Solvent Red and Solvent Orange - Allergen, can cauase skin irritation and emits VOC's.

-Benzyl Alcohol - Respiratory irritant, nose and throat irritant.

We could literally go on forever. Almost every other ingredient listed is either an irritant, allergen or causes some form of harm to you, your family and your pets. Point being, do we really want to be burning these candles? We know, the scent is amazing and the house smells so good! But at what cost?

Wicks

It's important to be aware of the type of wick that is being used. Always make sure your candles do not have a lead wick, as those can be SO damaging to your health. Lead wicks leech really dangerous emissions that can cause lead poisoning simply by breathing it in. Luckily for those of us in the US, they have been banned. The safest wicks are 100% organic cotton, untreated wood or organic hemp wicks. Wood wicks also create a really nice crackling sound just like your fireplace!

Greenwashing

Here's the thing, a lot of candle companies like to say they're "safe" and "healthy" and that they use "essential oils". But a lot of those companies are just greenwashing. What is greenwashing? Greenwashing is a claim that is completely unsupported that deceives and manipulates customers into purchasing a product that they believe is environmentally and health friendly, when in fact they are not. And just another small note, all essential oils are not the same. Just because something says it uses essential oils, that's not an instant yes! Make sure the essential oils are therapuetic grade essential oils. This is SO important as synthetic fragrances can be hidden in EO's as well.

Better Options

Now you're probably like, okay great, that's a lot of bad news. So I can never burn a candle again? Of course you can! It's actually quite simple to make a better choice, because so many companies have caught on to how bad the big box store candles are, and, thankfully, they want to offer a better option to their customers! We'll share two of our favorites.

Fontana Candle Co. and Rowe Casa Organics. Both company's candles have three ingredients. Yes, you heard us right. Three. Beeswax, coconut oil and therapeutic grade essential oils. All sustainably sourced. And instead of there being health risks with burning these candles, there are actually benefits.

-Coconut Oil: Clean burning oil, eco friendly.

-Beeswax: No chemicals, neutralizes odors, cleans the air, smokeless.

-Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils: MANY benefits depending on the oil used, such as stress relief, mood booster, anxiety relief, relaxation, and many more. Plus there is nothing synthetic!

Not only are they a better option for you health wise, but they smell amazing too!

In Conclusion

There is no need to put your health at risk to experience the incredible ambiance and scent of a candle when there are better options! We hope this holiday season you'll take into account everything we shared with you and you'll choose the better options for yourself, your family and your pets! Cheers to a healthy pine and cinnamon scented home!