Organic? All Natural? Earth-Friendly?

[Mei-Mei]

I'm having some difficulty finding a definition for those words as applied to candles and bath and body products. From what I've read so far all-natural seems to mean soy with no dye and essential oils only. Why? Paraffin is natural. Are there certain dyes that are more 'natural' than others?

I use a para-soy blend. Does that mean my candles are 'unnatural?' What are the requirements needed to label your candles/b and b products natural? I don't think (from what I've read) that it's possible to use the term organic in connection with candles at all. I'm a barefoot hippie sort of girl, and I like to make my products as earth friendly as possible, but I'm not going to lie in order to sell a candle or a bar of soap. Are there any clear guidelines on this?

[lsbennis]

Good luck on this one...being a earth friendly chic myself there is so much hype and "Green Washing" on what is Organic, Natural. I would think that it would be almost impossible to label a candle "Organic" although I do know of one company that does that...

WHAT IS ORGANIC ?

Certified Organic products are grown and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilisers, or GMO's*. It is an innovative method of farming and production and is increasingly being recognised as being on the leading edge of food and fibre technology into the future. Organics is not just chemical free by testing. It is about the way the product ingredients have been grown, prepared, processed and packaged. The whole system is linked;

Soil. Plants. People. Environment

resourced from...www.PureSafeOrganic.com

[Ramaroa]

I think most people can accept that 100% soy wax is natural (not organic) in it's raw form, until we want to do things with it to make it look or smell nice. As soon as we add synthetic fragrance, zinc wicks, perhaps with metal tabs and colour it quite simply ceases to be a natural product.

I really started out with the idea of being 'all natural' but have come to accept that I can't have it that way and I am upfront with my products and tell people that my candles cannot be considered entirely natural. I would love to sell only pure white candles fragranced with only esential oils, but the market is quite small here for such a 'high end' product. The only way you could market a 'totally' natural product would be to use no colour or use natural vegatable based colourings and although I don't know any who does that - I expect you could. Problems abound with fragrances as you would have to use natural pure essential oils, which are expensive and not particularly good in candles as they don't give the strong throw that people want.

I'm happy to be proved wrong but I would not consider paraffin a natural product, it may start out from crude oil but not knowing the ins and outs of the petro-chemical world, it surely must go through chemical processes to be turned into petrol, paraffin etc.

[Mei-Mei]

I'm happy to be proved wrong but I would not consider paraffin a natural product, it may start out from crude oil but not knowing the ins and outs of the petro-chemical world, it surely must go through chemical processes to be turned into petrol, paraffin etc.

According to wikipedia paraffin wax is just a heavier form of paraffin. It doesn't describe any scientific, unnatural process. But then again I'm not a scientist and there were a lot of big words in the article!

[Hope]

What are the requirements needed to label your candles/b and b products natural? I don't think (from what I've read) that it's possible to use the term organic in connection with candles at all. I'm a barefoot hippie sort of girl, and I like to make my products as earth friendly as possible, but I'm not going to lie in order to sell a candle or a bar of soap. Are there any clear guidelines on this?

I think you can use natural however you please because it doesn't seem to be defined for a product by the FDA. Well, maybe. That doesn't help much with advertisement for candles though.

The USDA has a lot of info on organic in their National Organic Program's Q&A. One of the Q&A:

Q: We want to label our poultry "natural." Where in the National Organic Standards do we look for the labeling requirements for using this term?

A: Please note that "organic" is not synonymous with "natural." There is nothing in USDA’s National Organic Standards defining or regulating the use of the term "natural." USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) regulates the term "natural" on meat and poultry labels.

Basically, FSIS defines "natural" in the following way: "A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed (a process which does not fundamentally alter the raw product) may be labeled natural. The label must explain the use of the term natural (such as--no added colorings or artificial ingredients; minimally processed). You will find this definition and many other labeling terms, including "free range" at the FSIS web site...

Green emphasis is mine. Although many of these links involve food, I've included them b/c the shortening is classified as a food.

I don't think that the FTC recognizes natural as being an actual defineable term in relation to product advertisement either. Check out this little quiz. Involves supplements, but seems that they would include how 'natural' could be used. I can't find anywhere they have regulations concerning the term. FTC

Guides (quote):

"The Guides give examples of how consumers may interpret various claims, and identify the kinds of claims that should be explained or qualified to avoid deception. They provide specific guidance regarding certain claims (recyclable, degradable, compostable, recycled content, source reduction, refillable, ozone friendly, non-toxic, and chlorine-free), but they do not scientifically define environmental terms or establish product performance standards."

I don't use natural in descriptive form regarding my candles. It also seems to be used for too many things that are heavily processed without quantifiable benefits. I'd guess the soybeans of my soybean derived candles are made from GMO's, laden with pesticides, and processed with wicked chemicals. I am working on highlighting some of the terms (in purple) in regards to my candles.

Sandalfooted Hope

[KristineG]

I received this response to a question that I asked in another thread regarding Natural Soy candles . Though some of the response may not fit your question exactly, I think Stella gives food for thought when claiming a "natural" candle. HTH:

The problem there is the "automatically assumes" part...

Both by those who create the inference that leads to the (incorrect) assumption and by those who so willingly do the assuming...

Let's look at the term "all natural" or "100% natural" - what IS "natural" anyway?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/natural

There is no such thing as a 100% Natural Soy Candle because:

1. candles do not occur in nature

2. soy wax does not occur in nature

3. soy wax candles are not made from soy - they are made from soy WAX (which is derived from soybeans). If the word "wax" doesn't immediately follow the word "soy," I automatically think the manufacturer is either an imbecile or a weasel trying to mislead me. Tofu is 100% soy, too, but I will bet the farm it won't burn worth a flip! Not to mention the throw...:rolleyes2

Half of the problem is that the general public is as poor a consumer of information as they are fast food. They do not bother to READ nor to UNDERSTAND nor to THINK. The other half is that many manufacturers have no personal ethical prohibitions against selling their products by the use of deception, however subtle. As long as the bucks end up in the register, they don't mind telling the customers whatever they wanna hear.

We won't advertise our candles as 100% soy because they aren't - they are primarily soy WAX, and also have other stuff in them, like stearic acid (from vegetable sources), fragrance oil (god only knows what's in that stuff...) and colorants. Because of private labelling/branding and no REQUIREMENTS to list ingredients EXACTLY, most of us really do not know what IS in our candles for sure! We also don't advertise them as "all-natural" in ANY percentage because that is a totally meaningless BS term used by both honest people of great personal integrity and conscience who are attempting to describe the purity of their products and by weasels with no ethics whatsoever who simply will tell customers ANYTHING to get the dollars - all at the same time on the same shelf.

I would not have purchased that candle BECAUSE of the claims on the label - it is OBVIOUS that the company is deliberately trying to mislead and they don't get my dollars. That "100% all-natural soy" from which the wax was made could easily have been grown with mega fertilizers and pesticides - is that what you thought you were getting? Fragrance oils are not "natural" by any stretch of the imagination... many contain no essential oils or anything that actually comes from the substance itself - like your cucumber. If it doesn't smell like a cucumber, didn't come from a cucumber, then it can't be construed as "all-natural"!

Sorry to get on a rant, but insufficient, missing or deceptive labelling is one of my pet peeves. I mean no offense to people who never thought about this stuff either as a purchaser or a seller, but I hope everyone thinks about these issues before they buy or sell! And I hope suppliers will endeavor to LABEL their products accurately whether they are required to do so by law or not!

[pinetreecandles]

I received this response to a question that I asked in another thread regarding Natural Soy candles . Though some of the response may not fit your question exactly, I think Stella gives food for thought when claiming a "natural" candle. HTH:

That is right on! I don't like those marketing tactics either. "Don't buy theirs because it's made with xxx, buy mine because it's ALL NATURAL. It may not burn or throw worth a $%^&, but it's ALL NATURAL!"

[lsbennis]

I'm having some difficulty finding a definition for those words as applied to candles and bath and body products.

I just realized that you also asked about B&B and as far as that is concerned yes you can call it "Organic & Natural" but you better make sure that it is cause there are a ton of bogus products out there that say those catch phrases and clearly when you read the ingredients list it is nothing but chemicals you cannot even pronounce. I only know of one B&B company that has the ability to carry 3 international "Organic" certification labels...the link is in my above post if you are curious to see the ingredients and what is truely a "Natural/Organic" B&B product! HTH

[Mei-Mei]

That is right on! I don't like those marketing tactics either. "Don't buy theirs because it's made with xxx, buy mine because it's ALL NATURAL. It may not burn or throw worth a $%^&, but it's ALL NATURAL!"

I want to make it very clear that the reason I asked the question is because I believe in honesty in advertising. One of my local competitors advertises 'all-natural' candles and I wanted to know exactly what that meant. At no time would I ever (a) put down a competitors' candle for any reason or ( lie to sell a candle. I've put two years of study into making candles before I sold a single one and I intend to do everything right and honestly (as I think I made clear in my initial post).

[arkangel]

If you're making soap as well, until lye grows on a bush, I don't think you can use 'all natural' either. At least not truthfully. The best you can use (if you do veggie oil soaps and eos) is 'vegan'.

[KristineG]

I want to make it very clear that the reason I asked the question is because I believe in honesty in advertising. One of my local competitors advertises 'all-natural' candles and I wanted to know exactly what that meant. At no time would I ever (a) put down a competitors' candle for any reason or ( lie to sell a candle. I've put two years of study into making candles before I sold a single one and I intend to do everything right and honestly (as I think I made clear in my initial post).

Mei-Mei, I know you were doing your homework. If you weren't you never would have asked the question. I for one didn't assume you were trying to figure out a way to mis-label your candles. I'm sure others here also know you were searching for information. No worries.