Questions we're asked most

Are your candles non-toxic?

It's the question we get most, so here's a straight answer: we don't print "non-toxic" on our candles, because it's the kind of claim anyone can make and no one has to prove. What we can do is tell you exactly what's inside — 100% pure beeswax and a cotton wick, with no synthetic fragrance, no dyes, and no additives — and let that stand on its own.

What's actually in them?

Beeswax and a cotton wick. That's the whole list. The wax comes from a Pacific Northwest apiary we know personally — we've visited, walked the operation, and picked out our own wax blocks. The wax is cleaned in great tanks of water and filtered mechanically — never chemically processed at any step.

Do they release anything into the air when they burn?

Any lit candle gives off some combustion byproducts — that's true of every candle ever made, and we won't tell you ours "purify" your air, because no candle does that. What we can say is that the simpler the candle, the less it puts into your room: ours are only beeswax and a cotton wick, with no fragrance or additives to burn off. Fragrance-free candles are the lowest-emission kind you can buy.

Is beeswax really better than soy or paraffin?

They're genuinely different materials. Paraffin is made from petroleum; most soy wax is a processed blend, often with additives to hold its shape and scent. Beeswax is the one common candle wax that already exists in nature — the bees make it. We'll let you weigh what that's worth rather than run down anyone else's candle.

Are you certified "non-toxic"?

No — and here's our honest thinking on it. There's a respected third-party certification in this space, and it does real work: it screens products with long ingredient lists — wax blends, fragrance compounds, carriers, dyes — against thousands of restricted substances. That's how you vouch for a list too complex to check yourself. Ours is two lines: beeswax, a cotton wick. It's short enough to check without a laboratory. If we ever add an ingredient, we'll revisit the question — but a candle with a longer list than that wouldn't be Big Moon Beeswax.

What are your wicks made of?

Braided cotton, with no metal core of any kind — our wick maker builds them coreless, so nothing holds the wick upright except the weave itself. Our pillar wicks are a square braid, the traditional weave for beeswax, which is thicker than other waxes and needs a wick that can draw it up like a straw. Lead-cored wicks have been illegal in the US for over twenty years, but zinc and tin cores are still legal and common — we don't use those either. The braid is designed to curl gently into the hottest part of the flame as it burns, so carbon burns off instead of building up. (The small steel tab at the base of a tealight or votive wick is a lead-free clip that holds the wick in place — it never burns.)

How do I know it's really 100% beeswax?

Fair question — plenty of "beeswax" candles are actually blends. Ours comes from an apiary we know personally and have visited ourselves, and we've published a guide on how to tell pure beeswax from a blend, so you can check ours or anyone else's.