Benefits of Beeswax Candles An Honest Guide

Here's a number that amazes me even after decades around bees: it takes the hive somewhere between 6 and 8 pounds of honey to make a single pound of beeswax. That's honey the bees could've stored but invested in wax instead. So, a real pure beeswax candle isn't just a candle. It's a little piece of something the hive worked really hard for.

They burn long and slow, they've got a light natural honey smell that comes right from the wax, and a 100% beeswax candle is about as simple as it gets... real wax and a cotton wick, nothing else. Now, you'll also run into plenty of lists online claiming beeswax candles "purify the air" or "release negative ions." I'll be straight with you, I don't buy that one, and I'll explain why a little further down. First, here's what these candles are genuinely good at.

WHY BEESWAX CANDLES ARE ACTUALLY GOOD

Real Beeswax Is Rare and Hard to Make

Beeswax isn't made in a factory. It's made by the bees. Young worker bees, only a week or two old, have little glands on their bellies that turn honey into flakes of wax, and they chew those flakes up to build the honeycomb (here's how that works). Like I said up top, it costs the hive 6 to 8 pounds of honey to make just one pound of wax. That's why real beeswax will always cost more than paraffin or soy. There's simply a lot less of it, and it took a lot of honey to get. As a honey family, that's exactly why we hate to see it wasted.

Beeswax Candles Burn Long and Slow

Beeswax is denser than other types of wax. A properly wicked beeswax candle will burn slowly, and you'll get more hours out of it than you might expect. This is one of the reasons people feel it has more value.

Larger candles burn longer. I know what you're thinking... duh. But larger candles really do burn longer, and here's why: the bigger the diameter, the more the wick sits in a pool of melted wax, and that slows the burn down. The smaller decorative candles won't have that same wax pool, so they burn down the wick more quickly.

There's a second reason too. Beeswax melts at a higher temperature than the softer soy and paraffin waxes used in most candles, up around 145°F. A wax that stays firm when things warm up holds its shape and burns down gradually instead of melting into a quick puddle.

A Light, Natural Honey Scent

Beeswax has a delightful light, sweet honey scent. It comes from the wax itself and not from added fragrance oils like other types of candles. Sometimes that honey-like smell is a little stronger and sometimes it's a little weaker, depending on the honey the bees used to make the wax.

100% Beeswax, Not a Paraffin Blend

Here's something most people don't know. The words "beeswax candle" don't actually promise you much. There's no rule for how much beeswax has to be in there, so a company can pour a candle that's mostly cheap paraffin, toss in a little beeswax, and still sell it as a "beeswax candle." That isn't clever marketing. It's deceptive, and it's wrong.

Ours are 100% beeswax and nothing else. No paraffin, no fillers. One easy way to spot the real thing is something called bloom. After a few weeks you'll often see a soft, whitish, powdery film show up on the surface. Don't worry, that's not dust and it's not a defect. It happens because the natural oils in real beeswax slowly work their way up to the surface over time. Paraffin blends won't do that, so a little bloom is actually a good sign you got the real deal.

A Natural Golden Color, With No Dyes

Real beeswax has its own color, somewhere between pale yellow and gold, and we don't add any dyes. Because it's natural, it can look a little lighter in person than a bright photo, and it varies a bit from batch to batch. That's just the wax being wax.

The Original Quality Candle, for Centuries

Beeswax has been the good candle for a very long time. Back in the Middle Ages, most homes burned tallow, which is rendered animal fat, and it was smoky and smelled pretty bad. Beeswax burned bright and smelled sweet, so it got saved for churches and for people who could afford a little luxury (the National Candle Association tells the story well). The cheap paraffin most candles are made from today didn't even come along until the 1850s. So when you light a real beeswax candle, you're doing something people have been doing for centuries.

Made in the USA, From Beeswax We Know

Our candles are made right here in the USA with 100% American beeswax that comes from beekeepers we've worked with for years.