Beeswax is the building material of the honeybee which they use to make honeycomb. It is secreted by worker honeybees from four pairs of glands on the underside of their abdomen. The bees only produce wax when they are producing honey. Because the bees use honey to obtain energy to produce the wax, beekeepers put the sheets of beeswax into the hives allowing the bees to produce more honey for us all to enjoy.
Beeswax candles burn brighter, longer, and cleaner than any other candle! The flame emits essentially the same light spectrum as the sun and in the process of burning emits, negative ions that are known to clean the air and invigorate the body (reportedly, stimulating the pituitary gland thus increasing creativity, intuition and dream activity). These negative ions help rid the air of pollen, dust, mould, toxins and many other pollutants. This feature makes beeswax candles ideal for allergy sufferers.
Rapeseed is a completely natural and sustainable material. It has superior ‘green credentials’ with no issues of intensive farming, deforestation or GMO presence. It has been grown in the UK & Europe for hundreds of years as animal feed and as a 'waste' crop to protect and improve soil for future crops.
It is available as a renewable wax refined in the UK from non-genetically modified rapeseed grown here and in Europe. It is made from the rapeseed oil, contains no hazardous ingredients and is not harmful to the environment. On the contrary, Rapeseed helps and protects the soil for future crops whilst the plant produces oil and animal feed.
The wax is non-hazardous to humans and wildlife and has a smaller carbon footprint than, say, soy wax as it is grown, and processed, nearer to home.
This wax is one of the later additions to the candle mediums available at Candle Cavern and, as a wax medium, it develops and continues the stance at the Candle Cavern of producing high quality pure natural candles. It must be close to one of the most environmentally friendliest candle waxes you can use due to it source, sustainability, renewability and low carbon footprint.
Soy Wax is (now) an established candle wax often used either on its own or blended with other waxes to produce candles and melts. The wax is made from the soybean and is a sustainable and renewable resource being completely natural and biodegradable.
It is a vegetable wax that is made from the oil of soybeans. Once harvested, the beans are cleaned, cracked and the hulls removed. They are then rolled into flakes after which the oil is extracted and hydrogenated making it a solid at room temperature.
Much of the soy wax nowadays comes from the USA although the EU also produces this wax giving it a far less carbon footprint than the alternatives.
Using soy wax will promote growth and care of the environment by utilising plants that are a renewable resource and therefore can contribute to reduce our longstanding dependence on crude oil (paraffin candles).
Generally, soy wax candles will burn cooler than many other candles waxes and this will increase the candle life by burning longer.
This is a very flexible wax and offers opportunities to have clean burning candles. We do not scent any of our candles here and offer them to provide natural light and heat.
