Northern Light Organic Beeswax Votive Candles
That scented candle you’ve been burning is certainly beautiful, but if it’s a synthetically-fragranced candle with a wire wick, you could be ingesting potentially dangerous amounts of—egads!—carcinogenic aldehydes and lead, according to The Green Guide.
And don’t think that because your candle is made of soy instead of petroleum-based paraffin wax you’re off the hook—even soy candles can be artificially fragranced and contain hormone-disrupting phthalates, identified under the innocuous-sounding phrase “fragrance.”
But it’s one thing to invest in an 80-hour, soy-wax candle fragranced with essential oils to burn on a side table during dinner parties. It’s quite another to find eco-friendly versions of the votives that we burn through by the boatload during the fall/holiday party season—on mantles, in centerpieces, in (recycled, natch) paper bag luminarias going up the walk. If Ikea gave points for votive purchases from October through December, we’d have earned an entire living room by now.
That’s why we love Northern Light votives. Poured from organic beeswax and free from petroleum, paraffin, palm oil, soy oil, soy wax, artificial colors or scents, the Australian Northern Light candle company (not to be confused with the American Northern Lights candle company, which is a whole other animal), has been making safer candles since 1975.
Their candles convey the faint and delicate scent of honey. Their packaging is recycled and printed with non-toxic soy ink. The holders are reusable and made from recyclable Australian tin. In the studio, they use sunlight to heat the wax and collected rainwater to cool it. Yes, they cost a little more than what you’re used to. But just think of it as buying time.
