Botanique Soy Candle

[KristineG]

I purchased a Botanique 60 hour soy candle at Steinmart only because I really like the fragrance. The label states Cucumber but this in no way smells anything like or near any cucumber fragrance I've smelled. The label clearly states Soy candle. I don't think this is a 100% soy candle either. The look and feel of this candle's wax is just like mine. It's a blend. Do companies label their candles "Soy" candles just because there's soy in it? Isn't that deceiving considering the general public see's the word soy and automatically assumes it's a 100% Natural Soy candle?

[topofmurrayhill]

There probably should be some minimum proportion of soy shortening in the wax to label it a soy candle, but I don't think it should need to be 100%. Since there's no commonly-accepted standard, everyone can make their own rules, but for my part I wouldn't hesitate to call it a soy candle at 70%.

[Stella1952]

Isn't that deceiving considering the general public see's the word soy and automatically assumes it's a 100% Natural Soy candle?

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!

[KristineG]

Thanks for the info. Very informative. I don't make a "soy" candle. Mine are a soy/paraffin blend and never hesitate to say I use paraffin. It just irks me when people come up to me to have the whole soy paraffin debate, slamming paraffin and acting like somehow my candle is responsible for global warming...jk...lol, yet, they'll run right out and buy one of these for more than double the price. I just bought it because I liked the look, smell and wanted to try it then tear it apart...lol. I peeled the warning label off to check out what they used to adhere the wick to the glass, pulled the wick and cut it in half to see what kind of wick. I then (this is what consumers swear by) rubbed the wax in my hands like "lotion". Then, I took some of mine and rubbed it in....both absorbed (coated) the same. Anyway...guess I'm rambling now. Thank again.

[Stella1952]

somehow my candle is responsible for global warming

We'd all have to take a mea culpa on that one! ROTFL