Natural Birthday Candles & How to Clean Candle Wax

Does it skeeve you out when the birthday candle drips onto the cake? Maybe I'm just weird but whatever random chemicals lurk inside dollar store candles aren't something I want touching my food and getting into my fabulous body.

Most candles are made with paraffin, a petroleum by-product, which is not natural and is unhealthy to burn. To prepare it for candle making, it is chemically bleached and hardened, then artificially scented and colored. Burning paraffin emits harmful, black soot and pollutes the air. Currently, there are no regulations in the U.S. on disclosing ingredients on candle labels. (source)

Fortunately there are healthy alternatives worth celebrating.

Beeswax and soy wax birthday candles are the perfect alternatives to petro-based paraffin wax.

Big Dipper Wax Works makes beeswax birthday candles, with unbleached wicks, in natural or colored with eco-friendly dyes that are never tested on animals. They even make beeswax number birthday candles!

I'm kinda crushing on Big Dipper Wax Works, especially since their site features an entire page on how to remove wax from clothes, carpet, wood, and more! (In short, you either heat and then soak up the wax with a cloth or let the wax cool and harden, then scrape it off. Easy!)

Not down with beeswax? Waxworks Creative Candles sells handmade soy birthday candles in a variety of colors via Etsy. I think the yellow birthday candles are supercute!

All of three of these options cost less than $5 and as Wendy at Simply Frugal Lifestyle points out, you can rinse, dry, and reuse birthday candles in upcoming years. 

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