Collection: Beeswax Candles

Burning beeswax candles has many perks, not least of which is the scent of raw, high-quality beeswax -- sweet like the flowers it came from, with a subtle undercurrent of honey and amber.

Beeswax is completely natural and non toxic. It burns clean and has a very high melting temperature, which means you get slower burns and more hours of candlelight for your buck.

Folks also choose sustainably harvested beeswax because sales of this byproduct of the honey harvest help support beekeepers and the hives they care for.

Pure beeswax candles are the gold standard when it comes to non toxic candles for the home. They're hypoallergenic and pet-safe, a great natural candle alternative for folks seeking authentic candlelight and subtle, evocative, natural fragrance.

Beeswax candles burn slower and thus longer than soy candles of the same size. Bluecorn's lightly filtered raw beeswax from the US is also significantly less refined and more traceable than commercial-grade soy wax.

Paraffin wax is a byproduct of diesel fuel pollution and burning it in your home releases similar toxins, only in a confined space.

Pure beeswax is an incredibly rare, precious and thus costly raw material. It takes about 100,000 bees 12 hours to produce a single pound of bees wax. Climate change and demand being what they are, it's no surprise that crude beeswax is roughly 5 times more expensive than other candle waxes.

We lightly filter our raw US beeswax to remove any particulate that would impede the burn, while leaving the iconic scent and color intact.

Side note - most companies don't filter their own beeswax because it's incredibly laborious, sticky, technical and notoriously variable (every batch of beeswax is unique, after all). We've been refining our process for over three decades and it's a key part of what makes our candles burn so well, so reliably.

After filtering we test burn every batch of beeswax to match it to to the right custom cotton wick for its particular burn temperature (which varies based on what the bees were pollinating and the resulting sugars in the wax). We work with dozes of different braids, thickness and strengths of wick to make sure that we're building candles that don't drip, smoke or tunnel.

Then we pour or tip all the candles by hand in our Montrose, Colorado workshop, where we pay our skilled craftspeople a fair wage.

Yes, our candles cost more than some (and a lot, lot less than others), but we think they're wildly good value along all steps of the supply chain -- especially when they illuminate your most important moments.

Pure beeswax candles require particular care depending on their shape and size.

Trim the wick to 1/4" before lighting. Wick trimming prevents overly-large flames that can smoke and shorten your burn time.

Key caveat: Trim taper wicks to 1/4" to separate the pair, but after that you should leave them long. Tapers need their longer wick to balance their very narrow and delicate burn pool. If you trim to short, you're likely to get dripping.

Let the molten wax reach the container wall before extinguishing your candle. This goes for everything you burn in a vessel, from beeswax in blown glass, to votives in holders, to scented candle tins, etc. If you extinguish before the melted wax covers the surface of a container candle, you'll mess up the burn equation going forward. That basically means the next time you burn your candle, there will be too much wax for the amount of wick, which can lead to tunneling and even wick failure.

Choose the right diameter candle for your burn style and timeline. The wider the candle, the longer it needs to burn every time you light it in order to perform its best. In beeswax land, the rule of thumb is usually one hour per inch.

So, if you get a 3" diameter pillar, it needs to be burned for at least 3 hours at a time to avoid tunneling and maximize the overall longevity of your candle. This is great if you're someone who enjoys burning candles all afternoon or evening.
For folks seeking shorter candle burning sessions of an hour or less, we recommend narrower varieties like pure beeswax tea lights and votives. Because of their unique shape, tapered candles have wildly flexible burn times. You can light one for five minutes or five hours — how's that for technological innovation!