Our story
We wanted a candle
that actually lasted.
TheLotusFlames started at a kitchen table, with a thermometer, a cheap scale, and a long run of candles that were not very good.
The first ones tunnelled — a narrow hole burning straight down the middle while a thick wall of wax sat untouched around it. Roughly a third of what we had paid for, wasted. The next batch had the opposite problem: a wick so large it smoked and left grey marks up the glass.
It took about a year to work out that the wick, the wax, and the fragrance load are one system, not three choices. Change the fragrance and the wick that worked yesterday is wrong today.
Why coconut soy wax
Most cheap candles are paraffin — a petroleum by-product. It is inexpensive, holds fragrance well, and burns fast and sooty.
We use a coconut and soy blend. Coconut wax has a lower melting point, so it burns more slowly and evenly, and it holds fragrance at a lower temperature — meaning you smell the candle rather than the heat. Blending it with soy gives the wax enough structure to hold a clean surface instead of collapsing.
It costs noticeably more per pound. We think the difference between a candle that fills a room for fifty hours and one that smells of nothing after twenty is worth it.
On sustainability
Coconut and soy wax are both renewable, and both biodegradable. Our wicks are braided cotton with no metal core.
The jars are glass and worth keeping. Put the empty one in the freezer for a few hours and the last of the wax lifts out in one piece; wash it and it makes a decent tumbler.
We are not going to claim to be carbon neutral. We are a very small operation trying to make a well-made thing and not waste materials.
Find one that suits your room.
Shop candles