The Journey to Certified Organic Beeswax Candles 

This is the first of a series of blogs tracking our journey to see how certified organic beeswax can be introduced to our candles.

"Organic" is a much used term in our community. Whether it is at the farmers' markets we attend with friends or the health/food industries we are a big part of, the word "organic" stirs many emotions.

When I think of organic (and shopping for goods) I am really looking for chemical free. Food is the obvious one and easy for us... many of our friends are farmers who grow the best food, chemical free and close by so it is always SOOO fresh!

We also are fanatical about everything else in the home. Creams and soaps  (anything to go on skin really) and household containers, cleaners are all part of the daily check for chemical.

Of course our beeswax candles were born to help change people's habit of burning toxic, chemical filled candles. (no chemicals in our beeswax).

So what about "Certified Organic" goods and food? When you add the word certified to organic there seems to be a change or a shift in thinking. Is certified organic better? Or is it a way for us to be reassured, knowing that other people (not the producers) have checked to ensure these products are 100% chemical free?  Does certification "tick the box"?

In terms of chemical free, I think it does. If we use our candles as an example, we know our beekeepers and how they work. Knowing this means we can offer beeswax candles that are chemical free and those who have tried our candles and have have talked with us know that we take great care to make this happen.

But what happens when there is a shortage of beeswax (like we are currently experiencing) and we have to look for new beekeepers, people we don't know as well, people we haven't worked closely with. Are they using any chemicals in their hives to keep, for example, hive beetles away? It takes a significant amount of research for us to find the beekeepers that don't use chemicals in anyway.

This raised the question, do we start sourcing certified organic beeswax to make sure that it is chemical free... to have the reassuring "tick".

Well, we have decided to do just that. We have started talking with beekeepers who are certified organic and see how their certification is earned and whether that translates to a better, chemical free, experience.