Q: What is the difference between your regular fragrances and the essential items?

A: Our regular products are made with “fragrance oils”. This is what most candles and body products contain, and can be any combination of artificial fragrances, essential oils, extracts and resinoids and usually have a very strong hot and cold scent throw. The Essential line uses essential oils only, and can be more subtle in their scent throw. Essential oils can be used for aromatherapy, whereas fragrance oils do not have the properties to actually provide aroma therapeutic properties. Many candle companies advertise as having “all natural” and “aromatherapy” candles, but this is not possible unless the fragrance is created purely with essential oils. If you are looking for “all natural”, stick with essential oils.

Q: What are cold processed soaps?

A: Cold process soap, or “lye soap” is the art of making soap from scratch using fats, butters and oils combined with sodium hydroxide (lye).  When the lye and fats combine, they go through a chemical change called saponification to produce “soap”.  A correctly made soap will have not have any lye left behind, and will often have extra unsaponified fats left behind so that it is even more nourishing for your skin, this is known as “superfatting” your soap.  It is also rich in naturally occurring vegetable glycerin which is often removed from commercial soaps to be sold separately for other uses such as cosmetics and food production.  Vegetable glycerin is an emollient and a humectant, so it is extremely beneficial for keeping skin conditioned and hydrated.  In my soaps you won’t find any of the artificial detergents that are in most grocery store or drug store soaps, just high quality butters and oils, natural additives like luffa, herbal powders, animal milks, and sometimes a little fragrance or coloring.

Q: Is soy wax really water-soluble?

A: It sure is! This makes cleaning the wax out your glass containers a breeze. If most of the wax has burned away, just clean the glass out with some hot water and soap. If there is wax left, just pop the container in the oven on 180° F for a few minutes, remove carefully and wipe the melted wax out with a paper towel. It washes out of most fabrics, but can leave an oil stain behind, so be careful!

Q: Can I return my glass containers for you to refill?

A: While this is possible, we have found that the cost of shipping makes this an inconvenient option. It seems like it would be more environmentally friendly to refill them, but the added shipping back and forth adds to their negative environmental impact. To help you reuse your glass we have developed custom refill candles that fit the glass containers perfectly. An option for the larger glass containers is to reuse them with our tea lights. The clear tea light cups make for a beautiful display paired with the frosted glass.

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