WHY WE SAID
NO TO SOY WAX
IN OUR Candles
How we make your candles
and why we make them soy-free!
Soy wax. It’s a ‘no’ from us, and here’s why.
With most candle manufacturers now using soy to form the wax for their candles, you may be wondering why we chose to stay away from this for our own candles. Let us explain.
We are so excited to embark on the adventure of bringing ‘house of Alyssa’ to life, a dream Alyssa has held close to her for many years and something which she has only been able to bring to life very recently. For many years, we have been known as Alyssa Smith Jewellery and whilst we are still Alyssa Smith Jewellery, we needed a name which would see us into the next chapter of bringing our own dream to life. Alyssa has always had a passion for all things natural and aromatherapy and has had a lifelong love for home scents. A true cancer star sign, Alyssa loves to be at home, making her home lovely-and anything to add to that sense of safety and happiness in her special safe place is a yes!
Embarking on the dream of bringing our own range of living and home scents to life has been a long journey. Joining an already saturated industry, it was so important that our values as a brand were not compromised as our efforts for sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint are growing year on year. We wanted to ensure our candles were cruelty free and also vegan. In a day and age where there is so much choice available, we simply do not believe there is any need to be using the traditional bees wax in candle manufacture anymore which harms bees and their habitats when they are already in danger, and this took us on a journey of looking into alternatives.
Nearly every path led to using soy wax to produce our candles, and with most candle manufacturers using soy to form their wax, you may be wondering why we chose not to and instead use a secret, unique blend of naturally occurring sustainable mineral waxes combined with a small amount of pharmaceutical and hypoallergenic paraffin wax for our candles. (Our candle was is actually edible before we colour and fragrance it!)
Deforestation and Soy
It isn’t too widely known, but soy is actually on the national and international register as an allergen and is now believed to be nearly as bad for our environment as palm in some ways. It is one of the biggest causes of deforestation in countries like Brazil and China, and it is no surprise since the demand for soy products really has rocketed in recent years.
In order to turn soy into wax to produce things such as candles, it is often cleaned with hydrochloric acid and passed through a nickel catalyst, and this makes soy even more of an allergen to some.
Our decision to make sure that our candles were completely vegan, cruelty free and not tested on animals in any way was one we felt very strongly about, and we wanted to make sure that what we were putting into our atmosphere was as ‘clean’ as it could possibly be.
A secret blend
Whilst our secret wax blend is not perfect as it does contain a small amount of paraffin wax which is combined alongside our predominantly natural minerals, we use fully refined paraffin which is the cleanest and edible grade, with less than 1% of oil left remaining.
This is extremely clean and also very importantly, non-carcinogenic! If you have ever burnt a candle which omits black smoke into the air, you will know the horror of that black soot entering your room and more importantly, our atmosphere. This black smoke can be carcinogenic, so we wanted to make sure we stayed away from this at all costs.
It was so important as part of our continued sustainability efforts that we created a candle which has as little in the ways of harmful impact on the environment as possible.
How refined
We don’t claim to be perfect in the manufacture of our candles, because paraffin obviously comes from the petroleum industry, however this industry is already there and we are not adding to a process. The wax is a by-product from the oil which has already been extracted to use.
In its raw form it is recognisable as a filthy, grubby wax which needs to be cleaned to various degrees before use, and it is used in everything from tarmac to medical and food coatings (it is even used to coat some tablets!) If a use for this wax isn’t found, it gets dumped back into the ocean in this state and is devastating to marine and wildlife.
There are three grades of paraffin wax
-Unrefined
-Semi refined (which most candle manufacturers use, if they don’t use soy)
-Fully refined
We are one of the very few companies who use the fully refined grade in our candles, and it is so clean you can actually eat it before we dye it/add the glorious perfumes to it. Other companies who use this type of fully refined wax are usually those in the medical industries, as this wax is used on allergy testing strips.
So rather than wasting something which already exists and will end up dumped back into the ocean with devastating effects on our marine and wild life, we have been able to turn it into a clean burning and wonderful home scent to add ambience and gorgeous vibes to your home, wherever you choose to place our candles.
Excess packaging has also been kept to a minimum with not just our candles, but also our jewellery and everything else we design and sell too. Many things may be recyclable or biodegradable, but if we don’t need to use a certain type of packaging or padding to get our gorgeous essential purchases to you safely, then we won’t.
This is part of our continued efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and live and trade more sustainably. It also helps to keep the costs of our gorgeous House of Alyssa collectables at a better price, as we do not have to build these excess costs into our pricing.
To check out our range of cruelty free, vegan and gorgeous candles, you can do so here.