A green Christmas

As we approach the Christmas season (and the Black Friday sales this week) I hope we can find the time to be eco conscious of what we are buying and who from. Coming from a family that’s currently full of little children, this festive season is all about toys in their eyes! We will try and do our best to buy local, from small businesses, pre-loved and from companies who use as little environmentally unfriendly packaging/materials as possible. We will also be buying fewer things.

Read on to see how we, at Olivine and Ruby, are and have always been eco-conscious in how we make and package our scented candles and candle gift sets.

Ingredients

We use vegan-friendly vegetable soy wax with cotton, lead-free wicks for our luxury candles. Slow burning soy wax candles last longer than other mineral or paraffin based ones on the market so you will get to burn your candle for much longer. As a bonus, soy wax also does not soot or pollute the air in our home.

Our fragrance oils are also specifically formulated for use in scented candles and are completely cruelty free and vegan. Since most cruelty free products tend to have fewer chemicals, there may be less toxins contained in the products that are then released into the atmosphere.

Reusable glass vessels

Our scented candles vessels are made out of glass. As well as looking utterly luxurious, glass is also one of the best materials to recycle - in fact, 100% of it can be recycled. However, we encourage our customers to reuse their glasses once their soy candle has finished. All it needs is a good clean with warm soapy water before it can be used around the home for other purposes.

We wanted our candles to sit in a vessel that would be reused over and over again and wouldn’t be a throw-away item. We use ours for drinks glasses and they feel very luxurious. Nevertheless, even if you don’t want to keep your scented candle glass once it is finished and do not have access to glass recycling, glass does minimal harm to the environment even when not recycled.

100% recyclable packaging

Rest assured that we use very little to no plastic in our candle packaging. The signature candle boxes and paper mailing material used is all 100% recyclable. We use paper bubble wrap as we hate the plastic stuff! You will be pleased to know that the clear film used to keep your white box sparkling bright and un-scuffed while in transit is also completely compostable and biodegradable. It is made from corn or other sources such as sugar beet and potatoes which is why it can go in your food waste bin or garden waste.

Our Christmas candle gift sets contain reusable ribbon and recyclable shredded paper. As well as this, a beautiful rigid black box that can be repurposed for many things around the home once it is empty (or for another gift perhaps!). The possibilities are endless. The fact that is a neutral black box means it may fit effortlessly into your home’s decor too.

I’d love to hear from any of you if you have any ideas on how we could improve as a brand to try and be as eco as possible, especially during the Christmas season when so much can potentially go to waste. What will you be doing this year to be more eco-conscious throughout the festive season?

Take care,

Charlotte x