Soy, beeswax and coconut. Never paraffin.

People ask what our candles are made of more often than they ask anything else, and we are glad they do. Every Éluvane pillar and sculptural candle, the ones we pour in moulds, is a natural blend of soy wax, beeswax, and a touch of coconut wax. Candles poured into jars or into our homeware pieces are simpler still: pure soy wax and fragrance. There is no paraffin in any of them, and there never will be.

The reason is partly about how a candle burns, and partly about what it leaves behind. Paraffin is a by-product of petroleum refining. It is cheap, it holds scent loudly, and it is what most mass-market candles are made of. It also tends to burn hotter and sootier, leaving the grey film you sometimes find on a wall above a candle that has been lit too often. We did not want to make that object. A soy and beeswax blend burns cooler and slower, which means a hand-poured candle lasts longer and stays cleaner in the room.

Each wax in the blend does something. Soy gives a smooth, even pool and a long burn. Beeswax adds firmness, a faint natural warmth, and the structure a sculptural form needs to hold its edges. The small amount of coconut wax helps the scent lift gently rather than shout. Our moulded candles take a cotton wick, and candles in jars or in our homeware a cotton or wooden one, never a cored or metal wick, so there is nothing in the flame you would not want in the air you breathe.

This is the quiet part of the work that does not show in a photograph. The forms are what draw the eye, but the wax is what you live with. If you want to see what the blend becomes, our candles are poured by hand, in small batches in Midrand, Johannesburg, and couriered across South Africa.