Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68174
improved soil and less water pollution. We've found non-organic commercial agriculture quite troubling to us. "I'd like to stress the fact that if you believe in serving organic food on your table, you should have an organic candle on the table as well," he says. That's a sentiment shared by hasn't been fully ignited by the wick. That's what causes soot." Beeswax doesn't produce soot. 4. That's why, for centuries, churches have burned only beeswax candles—to avoid getting soot on the walls. "If they burned paraffin candles in the Sistine Chapel, the artwork would have been destroyed in a generation," Roth says. THE UNWELCOME LEFTOVER Candle soot is hardly a new phenomenon, but it went largely unnoticed until the advent of jar candles, which became popular in the 1980s. Then, soot that otherwise would have dispersed over a wide area suddenly became visibly trapped on the sides of the jar. It's not dangerous, but it is unsightly. "What happens is, in an apothecary jar, the neck is narrower than the sides, so the wick doesn't get enough oxygen surrounding it and it tends to choke," says Tom Closser, owner of Aloha Bay, a Lower Lake, California, maker of palm wax candles. "What it coughs up is black carbon that 5. THE VALUE OF ORGANIC There's nothing inherently better about a candle made from wax from organically-grown products. Opting for organic products is more a statement of values. "This is one of the leading areas where the organic movement can make strides in non-food products," says Roth, whose company buys exclusively organic and not genetically-modified vegetable oils for its candles. "We feel we're doing our part to support the organic movement and organic agriculture, so farmers have another market for their crops, and thereby bestow on all of us the benefit of Closser. "I can't get too righteous about paraffin because I drive a gas truck," he says. "As long as we burn propane, diesel, and gasoline, there will be plenty of by-product left over. But on the other hand, one of the core issues in our company is to support organic farming, and so we're trying to limit our use of petrochemicals." 6. COST AND BURN TIME Cheap candles—typically imported from Asia—tend to burn fast and unevenly. Investing in better quality candles may, in fact, save money in the long run. "Chances are a more expensive candle will burn longer, and will burn evenly all the way down," says Dan Maurer, president of the SOI Company, a Walnut Creek, California, company that sells soy-based products, including soy candles. "You may have heard of tunneling. You buy a jar candle and it burns right down the middle and you're left with all this residual wax on the sides of the jar. That's a bad candle." connect with your colleagues on massageprofessionals.com 77