Archive for the ‘scented candle’ tag
What Are The Benefits Of Scented Candles?
At one time, scented candles were a rare luxury to be enjoyed only by the rich while the rest of us made do with the ordinary white candles during power cuts and at Christmas time. However, that has all changed, and an endless variety of fragrances are filling our homes and relaxing us. Scented candles are one of many choices of home fragrance available today but they are immensely popular because they offer the combination of beautiful aromas with attractive design.
Scented candles can float or burn forever in the form of large church style candles. Votive candles hang in bunches from metal trees and sit in gardens during warm summer evenings. You can get them in jasmine, ginger and juniper and just about every floral scent you can imagine. They are also available in a vast range of colours and, of course, prices.
So what are the benefits of using scented candles? Sure, they give light during power cuts which is the reason our grannies used to keep them in the cupboard under the stairs, but what makes them different is their colour and particularly their smell. People choose scents to remind them of holidays in the country, with the smell of the apples ripe in the orchards, the ginger and cinnamon of their mum’s baking or just to have the smell of fresh spring flowers in their home all year round.
These scents come from a combination of natural plant extracts, such as genuine vanilla, sandalwood or rose petal, and the type of synthetic odorants that are also contained in perfumes, shampoos and soaps. Also used are substances such as amber and many oils and they are all safe to use and to burn. Commercially available candles have undergone stringent health and safety tests to make sure that the combustion products are safe and also that they can burn out without becoming a fire risk.
However, it is possible that a few people can be allergic to some of these, just as they are allergic to other common household smells and dusts, and it is wise to burn candles in well ventilated areas. People allergic to candle smoke can use reed diffusers instead, and these are becoming increasingly popular. Candle makers choose from approved lists of aromas and essential oils that are safe to be burned and emit safe and pleasant odours when incorporated in candles.
What was once an expensive indulgence is now an affordable commodity and they are used by anyone and everyone to enhance the sensual aspects of their home. You can now even choose candles to match your home decor. Although there is still a reluctance by many to use them, perhaps borne from old belief that candles were not for ordinary people, they can enable you to enjoy a lovely smell throughout your home all day, every day, or perhaps just on special occasions.
They also have a practical application if you have a cat or dog, because you can also use them to mask pet odours that can occasionally be very difficult to dispel without using equally unpleasant-smelling room deodorants. They are also invaluable on those rare, but infuriating occassions, when there is a power cut!
Many people prefer a candle to a normal perfume diffuser to freshen up their house because of its looks and much wider choice of perfumes, and although you can also purchase aromatherapy candles, many people like to use fragrance reed diffusers that can be used with aromatic essential oils or aromatherapy oils.
There are few things better when returning from a hard day at work than to enjoy a relaxing drink beside a floating candle offering the marvelous smell of sandalwood or lavender. So make your choice of candles from the wide range of perfumes available, and decide if you want them in the tradition design, sitting in a candlestick, floating in water, hanging from a metal holder or in any of the many other candle designs available.
A specialist candle store – either online or on the High Street - is one of the best ways to purchase candles because you have a massive range from which to make your selection, and it is so easy to choose, pay and then have them delivered to your door. Most candle outlets will be able to help you with the most appropriate scent for your needs, and many also have other interesting facts about candles that you can read.
Scented candles are popular worldwide, and if have not used them before you will be pleasantly surprised when you try them out. One can find an enormous range of fragrances nowadays – try whichever appeals to you and you’ll soon discover how they can help freshen up your home.
Mail this postPopularity: 1% [?]
Relax With The Calming Effect Of Scented Candles
There are many benefits of scented candles other than just the aroma and the light they give. In fact, candles are very rarely use for lighting today, but more for ‘mood’ or decoration, and scented oil candles in particular will add a fragrance to any room that can help to soothe nerves and enable you to relax after a hard day at work.
Many feel relaxed just by looking at a lit candle, even without a scent, so it is not just the smell that is effectively relaxing. Perhaps we have developed a special connection with candles, dating back over the years when they were our only source of light at night.. In days gone by, our ancestors were dependent on basic candles fashioned from animal fats to lift the gloom of long, dark winter evenings..
Even up until fairly recently candles were the prime source of light in the home, just before gas lighting became common and well before electricity was available in all homes. Even today, in some areas of the USA and the UK oils lamps and candles are used for lighting, though likely only because of the cost of installing ‘the electric’ as it was once named.
However, back to the benefits of scented oil candles – in today’s modern world where they are often used for little else other than nostalgia or decoration. Or is that true? They are also used by many as a form of aromatherapy, and candles are available in a wide range of fragrances, such as wild lime, Moroccan rose and Capri fig in addition to the more traditional lavender, jasmine, clover and spice.
Each of these will fill your room with a marvelous floral scent that will remind you of these warm summer evenings in the country or picnics by the river. After a difficult day there is no better way to unwind than lighting a scented candle, putting your feet up and savouring the beautiful aromas as they soothe your worries away..
Not only that, but handmade candles can look really beautiful. So attractive are scented candles, that many people buy them for display purposes only, with no intention of lighting them.. Which is a shame because candles are made to be used: they may have been designed to look beautiful, but candles are functional and should be enjoyed to the full. This can only be achieved by lighting them and enjoying the relaxation that their aroma and flickering flame can provide.
However, many prefer to purchase scented oil candles just for their decorative beauty than to burn them – and who can blame them? In many cases such candles are so artistically made that it seems a shame to ruin them by lighting the wick and watching the beautiful sculptures and carefully layered colours of wax disappear before their eyes.
Oil scented candles are made by melting the wax and then adding a quantity of essential oil (essential meaning scented – from ‘essence’) to the melt. The wick of the candle is then placed in the jar or other container while the molten wax, infused with aromatic essential oils, is poured around it. Just allow the wax to solidify and you are left with a scented candle in its simplest form.. The secret is in the waxes used, the wick and the other ingredients that are used to control the burning rate and reduce the smoke to a minimum.
Paraffin wax can be used, together with stearic acid or stearine, and you can also add oil-soluble dyes that provide the colour. Different coloured waxes can be layered to create the most artistic of scented candles.. However, these candles can be very expensive, and you won’t spend a whole load of cash just to burn it away in one night.
Most scented candles are of one or perhaps two colours, and contain enough essential oil to provide you with an exquisite smell in your home when it is burning. They should be priced sufficiently low to be consumable, so that you can burn the candle without it costing you an arm and a leg. There’s nothing wrong in purchasing one or two expensive decorative candles to complement those that you burn, but nobody likes spending a lot on something that is to go up in smoke.
The scents used in such candles are often included for specific purposes. For example, rose and grapefruit fragrances help relieve depression, jasmine and lavender are relaxing and help you sleep at night and mint and a blend of fruits and flowers are invigorating and energizing. With the variety of scented candles available today, collecting them is fun and you can light a different candle depending on how you are feeling.
Irrespective of your personal beliefs, scented candles affect you in more ways than you would care to admit, which is why they are popular the world over even though there are now very few areas where they are necessary for the provision of light. If light was the only consideration all candles would be made of plain white unscented wax. But there is so much more to candles now. While dancing candlelight is attractive in itself, the appearance and, of course, the fragrance of candles is now equally important.. Enough said!
Scented oil candles are soothing and can also affect your mood in very specific ways according to the scent – or it might be due to the oils themselves that are used to provide the aroma to the candles. You can keep you candles for decoration only but there is no doubt that to get the most from your candles you should light them.
Mail this postPopularity: 1% [?]