So Much for Wet Feet

It’s safe to say that since I started at Honey Candles® the initial new phase is now over- and that’s not a bad thing at all. I started here at the beginning of August and I thought I would ease into the job; learn bits and pieces about the beeswax candle world and the product. No such luck. Last week was the Alberta Gift Show- and I went full bore on getting promotional material ready for the event, (which looked pretty good if I do say so myself,) then the Monday after the show started I got a glimpse into the sales aspect and came to the conclusion that our Sales Manager, Pat can never take a holiday again. Ever. Needless to say a trade show is a hectic time.
When the owners Roy and Leah came back I thought I was in the clear- no need to panic until late October when the Christmas rush would happen. I could get back into the groove of what was going on and figure out my own systems. Once again, no such luck. We got word of the Vancouver Gift Expo from September 19th – 20th and this girl is going! If I don’t know the product before I go, I sure will by the time the show is over. So much for getting my feet wet- I’m diving in.

The New Essentials

The hottest selling item at the Alberta Gift Show

Getting Honey Candles into your Favourite Retailer

Every month we get calls from Honey Candle® lovers all over the place wondering how they can get stores near them to supply our beeswax candles. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. Go into your favourite health food store, gift store, or grocery store and tell them about Honey Candles®. Let them know why you want them to carry our products, (feel free to tell them how much you love our products!) Usually talking to the store manager is your best bet.

2. The store manager can then contact us in a few ways: email, phone or fax. From there we can send them a copy of our catalogue, either a hard copy or an e-copy, or we can refer them to our wholesale website so they can see what we have to offer their store.

3. Once they put in an order, we ship off the product right away. We have been known and recognised for our fast shipping.   That’s all it takes to get Honey Candles® from us, to your retailer and into your home.

So spread the word! Before you know it you could have a variety of retailers to choose from so that you can experience pure elegance and share the wealth.

Welcome to the team Asia!

We are very excited to welcome our new Marketing Coordinator, Asia Snook.

Asia’s Bio: After graduating and doing the whole ‘cap and gown,’ Kelowna born and raised Asia decided to pack up and take the road less traveled so she moved to Kaslo this past week to start a new chapter with Honey Candles as the Marketing Co-ordinator.

As a student of Okanagan College, Asia was selected to participate in numerous business competitions across Canada, (including placing first at the 2009 Simon Fraser University International Marketing Competition,) and this past April she was representing her school down in San Diego at the prestigious International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition and along side her team blew the other teams out of the water. These teams came from major schools across the states, and even teams who were working on their Master Degrees from London, UK and Dubai.

Asia is also an outdoor enthusiast and avid cyclist who in 2009 participated in the inaugural Ride to Conquer Cancer with her dad and since then has also become a fitness instructor specializing in cycle classes.

Working with Honey Candles, Asia believes it will be a great start to her professional career and utilizing her education. Residing in Kaslo will be a change in pace from Kelowna but a welcomed one.

She will be taking over the blog so if you have any comments or suggestions please contact her marketing@purebeeswaxcandles.com

We love Honeybees!

A Honeybee hard at work in Pat’s garden

Honeybees are interesting creatures who are vital link in our Eco-system, without them we wouldn’t enjoy many of the products we enjoy today such as honey, bee pollen, propolis and of course our favourite: beeswax! For the next couple weeks, I’d like to focus on Honeybees and what we’ve learned through researching them. They are busy little creatures and they deserve some attention. This week I’d like to introduce you to the three types of Honeybees. There are over 20,000 species of bees, Honeybees make up a very small fraction with about 44 species.
 

The Honeybees main purpose in life is to produce honey. They use the honey to feed their larvae and live on it during the winter months. Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production, the Honeybees create honeycomb in order to store the honey. When the honey is extracted from the honeycomb what’s left is a wax substance, called beeswax. It is then melted down and filtered. (Since we are by no means honey experts please click for more information on honey.

Within a hive there are up to 40,000 busy Honeybees. There are three types of Honeybees: The Worker Bee, Drone and Queen. Each has their own distinct job.

Queen: There is typically only one queen per hive. Every bee in the hive is her offspring. She can lay up to 2000 eggs/day and can live 2-5 years.

Drone: The drone’s only job is to mate with the queen. Their life span is 8 weeks or less.

Worker Bees: Workers bees have various tasks including: feeding the larvae, work with honey, pollen, propolis and wax within the hive and forage for pollen and nectar outside the hive. Their life span is around 40 days in the summer.

The domestic Honeybee looks different than other types of bees such as Bumble Bees. It’s body is more round and smaller than other bee species and it’s color is lighter and quite unique (see above photo). Next time you see a honeybee pollinating one of your flower beds, be glad! It is collecting the very substance that’s in your candles! Next week we’ll talk about pollination and nectar collection.

There are so many great resources for bee information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee

http://www.gpnc.org/honeybee.htm

http://www.beeclass.com/dts/honey_bee.htm

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSk_ev1eZec

Does Citronella really work?

Botanical name: Cymbopogon nardus 

Citronella essential oil has long been used as an effective insect repellent. It is considered a natural choice for health conscious consumers who are concerned about the dangers of using products such as a Deet on their skin and who steer away from fragrance based candles. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency Citronella essential oil is not considered harmful to humans or animals and can be safely used as an insect repellent. Read more.

Citronella essential oil is most commonly used three ways:

1. As a plant – Citronella plants can be planted around your garden, deck or patio to keep insects away. The perennial plant is related to lemongrass (Cymbopogon) but is not edible. Cymbopogon nardus grows between 1 to 3 feet tall with very aromatic leaves. For instructions on planting click here
2. In a candle – Not to be confused with typical bright yellow fragrance based Citronella candles often found in drugstores, essential oil based candles contain Citronella extracted from the plants leaves.  Our Citronella Outdoor Candle is subtly scented and doesn’t overwhelm, the scent is both woodsy and lemony and smells similar to lemon grass.
3. Used topically in lotions, sprays and rubs – I find using a small drop of Citronella essential oil on my wrists is very effective in keeping mosquitoes away. When essential oils on your skin, be careful to use a very small amount or mix with olive oil or sweet almond oil. Citronella is very strong and can cause an allergic reaction to those with sensitive skin. The Canadian government warns against using large amounts topically as it can be harmful in large doses.

Government regulations prohibit companies with Citronella products to say “Insect repellent” or any terms that makes similar claims. When shopping for all-natural Citronella based products, make sure the product ingredient list says pure Citronella essential oil.

Andrea

Our Special Visitor

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Honey Candles®! At the end of June we had a special visitor come from Japan to see our shop and meet the folks who make 100% pure beeswax Honey Candles®. Momoko’s (pictured left, we put her to work!) family owns a store called M’s Collectibles in Akita and has carried our candles for 10 months. She describes her store as a gift, honey and collectibles store that carries a wide variety of products people can’t find anywhere else. Now that she’s seen where we live, she’ll share stories about the shop and people who make the candles with her customers. She hopes it will give the customers a feel for the unique handmade product they are buying. Momoko enjoyed Canada very much and said everyone she met has been friendly and helpful. We enjoyed meeting her too and showing her the Kootenays.  We hope she comes back again!

There is no such thing as cheap beeswax!

Beeswax candles are generally expensive compared to other candles.  If you come across a company claiming to sell cheap beeswax they may not be telling the truth about what’s in their candles. 

Chinese Beeswax – Chinese beeswax is typically very low quality. According to one of our beekeepers, some chinese Honeybees are not allowed to forage on plants. They are fed sugar water instead. The result is a wax that doesn’t have much natural scent, a lack of color and burns at a lower quality (often chinese beeswax has a green muddy appearance.)

Mixed or Blended Waxes – Some companies will call their product “beeswax” when it’s blended with other waxes such as soy or paraffin.  According to candle regulations, a company can call their candle a beeswax candle as long as it has 10% beeswax in it. When shopping for the real beeswax candles make sure the candle says “100% pure beeswax candles”.

Rolled Honeycomb – Rolled honeycomb candles are very different than poured, solid beeswax candles. They don’t burn for very long compared to solid beeswax candles and don’t burn as well.

When shopping for beeswax candles here are some tips to make sure you get the real deal:

• 100% pure beeswax is very hard and heavier than blended candles. When you pick it up you can feel the weight in your hands.
• 100% pure beeswax candles typically develop “bloom.” The whitish film is an indicator of purity and is cherished by candle connoisseurs. Bloom is defined in the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary as a “state or time of beauty, freshness and vigor.” Candles mixed with other waxes will not develop bloom.
• 100% pure beeswax candles have a richer looking color (see photo on the right) than chinese wax and blended wax.
• 100% pure beeswax candles have a subtle honey scent. Some companies will use artificial scent in their blended candles to mimic the natural honey scent.
• If you are unsure about your candles call the company and ask them where they source their wax and if it’s blended with other waxes.

Certified Organic vs. Organically Managed

We understand buying Certified Organic Beeswax is important to many customers. They want to make sure their candles come from organic sources and the bees are treated ethically. It’s hard to discern what is truly Certified Organic and what is simply labeled “organic” since many companies mislead customers.

When it comes to beeswax very stringent guidelines must be followed before a company can call their product Certified Organic. Beeswax falls under the umbrella of Apiculture (also known as beekeeping), which is defined as the maintenance of honeybees for the production of honey, beeswax, royal jelly, propolis and other bee related products. Canadian and US regulations for Apiculture are very similar. In Canada everything within 1.86 square Miles of the apiary must be non-treated organically produced plants or wild vegetation. In the US the radius is 4 square miles.

The regulations also state:

• Apiarists must use natural materials such as wood and metal for the hives
• Apiarists cannot use synthetic materials for pest management or treat the bees with any antibiotics to prevent diseases
• Apiarists must not clip the queens wings or destroy the colony annually
• The bees must be left with an adequate supply of their own honey and pollen for them to survive the dormancy period

For a full list of regulations please visit one of the below sites

Our beeswax comes from Organically Managed hives. This means our beekeepers do not spray their crops with pesticides and herbicides but use natural techniques such as crop rotation to reduce the bee’s exposure to these chemicals during pollination. Our beekeepers assure us they love their bees and treat them ethically! Read more

Sources:

Central Beekeepers Alliance

Quality Assurance International

NSOB Organic Apiculture Standards

Companies:

Certified Organic Honey: Golden Acres Honey

Essential Oil Candles are a hit!

We are so excited about the positive comments we’ve been hearing about the new Honey Candles® 100% pure beeswax essential oil candles we decided to share what our customers are saying so far:

“I absolutely love my essential oil candles, they burn evenly and the smell is so nice and calming. I really liked the way you packaged them. I gave one to a girlfriend and one to my boyfriend, and they loved them too. I will put in another order soon to try out the scents.”  (Sylvie, Castlegar, BC)

“I love your lavender tin. I love how it has more than just lavender. The other scents make it more interesting but still soothing.” (Dawn, Victoria, BC)

In response to the wonderful feedback, we are thinking about expanding this line and need your help! Do you think the essentials would be better in Pillars, Votives, T-Lites or in a glass jar? Are there any other scents you’d like to see? Please leave a comment below or post your idea on our Facebook Page. If you are not familiar with the essentials here’s a list of our current scents:

Citronella: This is a great candle for summer with the benefits of citronella. Unlike synthetic fragrance candles, this candle has a soft subtle scent that doesn’t overwhelm and is a popular choice for health conscious customers. Pure Citronella Oil has a delightful grassy lemony scent similar to lemon grass.
Essential Oils: Pure Citronella Oil (Cymbopogon nardus)

Country Lavander: The combination of lavender and sweet orange is both citrusy and flowery. A dash of Black Pepper gives Country Lavender a subtle spiced finish. Essential Oils: Lavender (Lavandula angustifolium), Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis) and Black Pepper (Piper nigrum)

Mulled Spice: A winter favorite! Mulled Spice invokes feelings of sipping a hot apple cider in front of a fireplace with snow falling outside. A great way to add warmth to any room. Essential Oils: Cinnamon (Cinnamonum zeylancium), Clove (Eugenia caryophylatta), Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) and Ginger (Zingiber officianalis)

Kootenay Forest: Transport yourself to the pristine alpine wilderness of the Kootenay Mountains with this nature inspired blend. Essential Oils: Pine (Pinus pnaster), Fir (Abies siberica) and Cedarwood (Cedrus deodorata)

Rosemary Mint: For those who enjoy a simple, clean blend, refreshing peppermint combined with herbaceous rosemary is absolute bliss. Makes a great air freshener. Essential Oils: Peppermint (Mentha arvensis) and Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis)

Evening Bloom: The scent of this candle is inspired by a floral breeze on a warm summer evening – this candle is sure to delight your senses. Essential Oils: Ylang Ylang (Cananga odorata) and Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora)