When I started with Ria it was ALL about the essential oils as I started with aromatherapy rollerballs and products and I knew how powerful they were. When I started pouring candles I wanted it to be all essential oils. When I found to be true though is getting a good scent throw which for me was the most important thing and yet was very hard to achieve with pure essential oils without charging incredibly high prices. In my mind if I was to need the therapeutic properties of essential oils I would prefer to use it in a personal inhaler, rollerball or even in a room diffuser which are incredibly efficient. The issue with candles is that to get the oils to bind with the soy wax then you need to heat it and some of the oil can be lost in the process.
So I started to use a combination of both aromatherapy oils for their benefits and incredibly high quality fragrance oils depending on what I was trying to achieve. For me the candles were to be part of a mindful experience where we anchor in the scent and for me the candles needed to smell. I can not tell you the hours we spent testing, evolving and trying to get that perfect candle. Some candles use 100% Essential Oil and others don’t. For instance creating a fun gingerbread candle to remind you of your nannas kitchen would be impossible with pure essential oils and if you are burning it then you are trying to scent your home and not take therapeutic benefits from it. I also realised from speaking to fragrance manufactures that the stigma around ‘synthetic fragrance’ was misplaced and they were even more toxic or harmful than some essential oils.. in fact there is an argument to state that they are in fact safer.
I feel that by offering both essential oil candles AND fragrance candles we can achieve so much more. For instance with our scent discovery box we can offer you a trip around the world and into all the parts of your memory where if we were just essential oils we would be so much more limited which is not where our goal is. We want to transport and transform you to places which make you happy and we don’t want to hold back on doing this because of a misplaced loyalty to essential oils.
I also learned that the most expensive and renowned candle maker did not use 100% Essential Oils in her candles. I am happy to be corrected but Jo Malone uses a mix use like us. To us it is the scent which is important in our candles while also being non toxic, vegan and paraben free (as well as smelling amazing) and then we will show you ways to get the health benefits from essential oils or to use them in different ways to scent your home. Obviously when we launch massage candles we will indeed use essential oils as it is a different product entirely. To be clear there is nothing wrong with essential oil candles.. in fact they are gorgeous and we make them too but I wanted to write something to try and bust some myths.
Again is is not different to your favourite perfume.. it is all about the scent and the journey it takes you on. For healing and health I recommend using Essential Oils but for creating a unique and transformative scent I think you will be limited if you simply remain within that area.
We pride ourselves on only using quality fragrance oils. Specifically manufactured to guarantee performance within the finished product. Our fragrance oils are manufactured here in the UK and are compliant with all IFRA & EUstandard, paraben free and vegan friendly. All suitable for home fragrance & cosmetic products. Including Candles, Wax Melts, Reed Diffusers, Room Sprays, Cold Press soap and cosmetic products. The fragrance oils we use are a sophisticated blend of Natural, Nature Identical and Synthetic Aromatic Materials. They are NOT TESTED on Animals or contain any Animal Derivatives. As you can see when we started to introduce fragrance oils we ensured that we did this in the same way we went about everything else in our business. Mindfully, thoughtfully and intentionally. There is always a reason and I feel that scent has the power to do so much in our lives.. not just through the properties of the essential oil.
In conclusion, aromatherapy oil and fragrance oil are two different things. Aromatherapy oil is made from essential oils, while fragrance oil is made from other ingredients. I guess the misconception comes from the fact that frangrace oils of course come in varying standards (and yes some smell of toilet cleaner) but if you think of the most expensive perfume in the world.. I would bet that it is a mix of both manmade and natural products, The simplest distinction would be that Aromatherapy oils are used for therapeutic purposes, while fragrance oil is used for scenting products and as long as we know the difference I feel we should embrace and enjoy both.
