Ashley’s Candles
Paraffin wax candles may look beautiful and smell nice, but paraffin is a petroleum industry waste product that is bleached with dioxin and other poisonous chemicals.
Paraffin candles are often scented with artificial, scented oils and are marketed to “freshen our air.” Of course they don’t freshen or deodorize anything, they just mask the smell with chemicals.
According to the American EPA, paraffin candles are known to release carcinogens like benzene and toluene.
Natural beeswax candles, on the other hand, are actually healthy to burn. Many people that cannot tolerate paraffin candles find that beeswax candles do not cause them any respiratory problems and indeed help them!
But there is much more benefit to beeswax candles, compared to paraffin candles that are made from polluted petroleum sludge, or even vegetable-based candles that are a big improvement over paraffin.
When beeswax candles burn, they clean the air like a great, natural, air purifier.
Cleaning the Air by Burning Beeswax Candles
Air contains billions of electrically charged particles called ions. Ions act upon our capacity to absorb and utilize oxygen, and therefore cause powerful effects on our lives and well being. The ions in the air can affect our mood, energy and health. Negative ions actually feel good. Too many positive ions make us feel bad and they are loaded down with pollution and allergens that are drawn to them and suspended in the air. Negative ions, on the other hand, remove the pollution and allergens from positive ions, allowing them to drop harmlessly to the ground.
Beeswax candle fuel is the only fuel that actually produces negative ions, which not only helps remove pollution from the air but increases the ratio of negative ions to positive ions, the ideal and necessary scenario for clean air.
As does a rainstorm, beeswax candles leave your air fresher and cleaner. They are a true air purifier!
With increased negative ions studies have shown:
- Improved air quality
- Improved sleep
- Enhanced immune system
- Relief from hay fever and allergies
- Less severe asthma attacks
- Improved concentration
- Balancing of hormones
- Natural detoxification
- Sense of wellbeing
- Improved mood
Ashley uses only 100% pure, lightly refined beeswax. The candles are a beautiful golden color and offer a honey scent, a golden flame, and the longest, cleanest burn of any candle.
Beeswax achieves a very efficient and complete burn and so burns brighter, hotter, cleaner and longer than any other wax. They are smokeless and dripless, and measured by burn time are a better value than paraffin candles.
Beeswax is made from flowers by honeybees…it is like bringing the sun into your home!
For each pound of beeswax provided by honey bees, the bees visit 33 million flowers, fly 150,000 miles and eat 10 pounds of honey. A bee secretes the beeswax from its abdomen, and then uses the wax to construct a honeycomb. Beekeepers recover the wax from the comb by heating it in water where the melted wax rises to the surface and can be removed.
Because of lax labeling laws and consistent lobbying by chemical candle makers, a candle may be labeled “beeswax” if it contains as little as 10% beeswax. So look for candles that are 100% pure beeswax.
Ashley also crafts soy candles that are scented with natural oils.
Soy wax is basically hydrogenated soybean oil. It has a lower melting point than other waxes so is usually made into container candles.
This lower melting point actually makes soy candles ideal for scent dispersion if you do like perfumed candles. The lower burn point allows a bigger puddle of melted wax to form, which in turn creates more area to disperse the aroma.
While soy candles don’t offer the same wonderful ionizing benefits natural beeswax candles do, they are still a much better choice when it comes to your health and the ecology of the planet.
Soy is a natural and renewable resource. Petroleum is not renewable and the sooner we wean ourselves off of it, in whatever ways possible, the better off we’ll all be!
Simply by burning wax from renewable resources we will cut down on our petroleum consumption. A little bit, sure, compared to the galloping oil guzzling of industrialized nations, but every little bit makes a difference!
Stop in soon at Nissen’s Market on West Riverside Drive in Andover to see these lovely candles.
