Choosing The Best Candles

Candles have been with us for many centuries, being developed around 200 BC providing much needed light when night time drew in.

The invention of the modern electric light bulb during Victorian times saw the decline of candles as an everyday household item and became marketed for more special occasions. Their beautiful warm flickering glows adding spectacle and enhancing the atmosphere at special occasions.

Various religions around the world use certain styles and quantities of candles placing them in particular places within their places of worship and at events. Easter candles are the off-white pillar style and blessed and used during religious services and then used at other special occasions throughout the year.

Birthday parties simply aren’t birthday parties without candles placed as centre piece on a cake. The origin of this event is attributed to Greek times, but came into its own in Germany during the 18th Century.

Today candles remain as popular as ever, ranging in all kinds of sizes, colours, fragrances mixed with natural or synthetic ingredients poured into varying types of containers. They are a beautiful gift to give anytime of the year ranging in price from a British pound to hundreds.

So does it really matter what sort you buy and whether your best friend, your pet, would feel any discomfort?

What Are The Best Candles?

The ‘Do Nots’ When Choosing A Candle

Candles can be produced from a range of natural or synthetic ingredients.

A generalisation is that the cheaper the candle costs to buy, then it’s likely to be made from cheaper synthetic ingredients causing toxins that can be breathed in by humans and our millions of household pets.

The facts surrounding toxicity have been written about for a long period of time with vets and scientists concerned about the toxicity whilst associations representing candlemakers were disputing this. Read Huff Post.

The cheaper candles are generally made from paraffin wax, a by product of crude oil which gives off nasty toxins when burnt and breathed-in, such as toluene, benzene, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and acrolein. To make these candles smell nice, the dyes and scents added to the paraffin wax are made synthetically. These candles should be avoided for both yourself and particularly for any pet household as it takes far less time for pets, including dogs, cats, rabbits and other small animals, to become overwhelmed by smells and toxins. You’ll also notice the flame burns quite bluish-black when releasing these toxins into the atmosphere.

Paraffin based candles, can be referred to as mineral based candles, have been used since 1830 in UK homes when the Victorians introduced our modern day candle-making. The UKs Clean Air Strategy, introduced 2019, aims to reduce emissions inside the home, as well as outside, and warns about using candles made with a paraffin base and wicks that should be lead free, with no central metal.

Vets have for sometime been warning pet owners about the use of candles and the choice of candles to cause pets less irritation and to take care when these are alight, placed in positions to pose no risk to pets.

Candles placed in enclosed containers with small ‘smoke’ holes are a perfect choice, ‘storm vases’ but ideally should be placed higher up on furniture, out of the reach of pets that can accidentally knock these over when rushing around the home and breath in the candle burning vapour.

It is the paraffin based synthetic candles to avoid buying, not just for your pet’s health, but clearly yours too.

Candles In The Garden

Lit candles flickering in the garden during a summer evening create a lovely ambience and being outside cause less toxicity problems to humans and pets, not burning in a confined space.

Using an essential oil and natural wax candle such as eucalyptus and soy may help to keep the evening gnats and mosquitos away as even these small animals do not like the smell of eucalyptus!

You may want to have wonderful aromas such as roses, rose essential oil natural wax candles would be perfect, however, this is allegedly extremely dangerous for cats and small pets to inhale when close by.

So What Are The Best Pet-Friendly Essential Oil Fragrances To Use In Candles?

Cats and small pets

What works well for dogs will very likely affect cats and most certainly for the 400,00 or so rabbits now kept in our homes and any other smaller pets so it’s important if you have a mixed pet household to take notice if your one of your pets shows signs of any discomfort and extinguish the candle(s) immediately, move your suffering pet to another room, watch for any worsening signs and contact your vet.

Cats shouldn’t be confined to the room where you have a candle lit. They must have access to leave.

However most candles made with essential oils and natural waxes are not safe for cats to inhale including many popular varieties such as lemon, bergamot, lemongrass, geranium, lime, cinnamon, mint, sandalwood, mint, pine, basil and many more.

There is much conflicting information as to what oils are and are not dangerous to cats but the ‘rule of thumb’ is generally most are. You can read more about cat toxicity from candle burning at PDSA.

Dogs

Dogs can tolerate more aromas but still can react to certain essential oils. There is no information supplied by the PDSA with a definitive list of essential oil fragrances that are toxic and likewise much contrary advice between pet organisations, veterinary practices and candle makers.