Karen McKee is fighting the battle against paraffin wax one candle at a time.
McKee had never given a second thought to burning fall scented candles in her home until a dinner guest refused to come inside while a candle was burning.
“He took two steps in the front door, stopped dead and said, ‘I have to go, I can’t come here,'” McKee said.
In order for the dinner guest to not have an asthma attack, McKee had to air out her house while her guest waited on the front porch.
“He told us that he has such sensitive asthma to paraffin wax candles that he’ll go into a full-blown asthma attack,” McKee said.
She added, “That led me to start looking into paraffin wax, I always thought of people who have asthma as the canary in the mine shaft.
“If they can’t breathe the air, the rest of us probably aren’t doing so well with it either but we just have a higher tolerance level.”
McKee began researching paraffin wax and what she found was unsettling.
“I was shocked to find out what’s in paraffin wax candles. I immediately said, ‘That’s it we’re not burning anymore paraffin wax candles in this house,'” McKee said.
Paraffin wax is cheap and dirty, she added, it’s a by-product of petroleum refining and when it’s burned it releases toxic fumes into the air.
A healthier alternative to paraffin wax candles are soy wax candles, which come from a vegetable wax made from the oil of soy beans.
Soy wax burns clean, and doesn’t have the toxins that paraffin wax has, said McKee.
However, the ultimate type of candle to burn is beeswax.
Beeswax emits a negative ion that attracts some of the pollutants in the air, McKee said, just like plants can clean the air, so does beeswax.
“Beeswax candles burning in the air will help with allergies, asthma, and hay fever,” she said.
After making the decision to ban paraffin wax candles from her home, McKee began shopping around for beeswax candles, but was surprised by how much they cost.
After finding nothing but limitations, McKee decided to take a candle making workshop, and quickly became a convert.
“I make my own candles now, I’m really just getting started,” McKee said.
She first begins the candle making process by clearing off her kitchen counters, to ensure the wax doesn’t get on anything.
Once she has cleared the space she will be working, McKee assembles all of her supplies, the essential oils she will be using to scent the candles, a chunk of wax, or wax pellets, a melting pot, tea light containers, wicks, and a wooden tray lined with parchment paper to place the candles in to set.
“You need a solid surface. If you have to move them, you’re going to jiggle a little bit, it’s going to create a crack in the wax,” McKee said.
Once the wax has been poured into the tea light container it needs to cool and set for a minimum of 24 hours before it can be burnt.
“It really doesn’t take that much time,” McKee said.
“It’s a matter of finding a receptacle, finding essential oils, making sure you have the right ratio, and giving yourself time to do it,” she added said.
Although making her own candles at home was challenging at first, it has become a fun and easy activity to fill an afternoon.
Now McKee can make a couple dozen tea light candles in less than an hour.
“It was challenging getting over the fear that I’m going to mess it up,” McKee said. A fear that was compounded by initially receiving unreliable information about the process.
While it was difficult at first, McKee has found that being able to experiment creating her own scented candles has been rewarding.
Lately, McKee has been using mostly peppermint, cinnamon, orange, clove, nutmeg, ginger and occasionally lemon to create her scented winter candles.
“Knowing that I’m improving the air quality in my home, and not putting diesel fumes in my home has been a big highlight,” McKee said.
Doing as much as she can for her health is extremely important to McKee.
“I’m Just trying to attain my best health,” she said.
“This time of year, it’s dark by five, and having a candle lit in the room is just such a nice atmosphere, it makes that cozy feeling. So, go ahead breathe deeply, you’re only going to be healthier for it,” said McKee.
To see a video of McKee demonstrating her candle making process visit The Anchor’s website at www.theanchor.ca/video-gallery/
