Why should you love Francis Ellis Candles?
Each candle is individually hand crafted. FEC uses 100% biodegradable soy wax, eco-friendly wicks, recycled packaging and offers Certified Organic/ Fair for Life essential oil options. Read a bit further to find out how your purchase from Francis Ellis Candles is helping to make the world a little greener…
Eco soy wax~ Not only is our wax completely biodegradable, but it is dermatology-tested and perfect as a massage oil and body moisturizer! This wax burns cleaner, more evenly and much longer than traditional paraffin wax. (Paraffin= petroleum= jet fuel= yuck!) Paraffin has also been linked to skin, eye and lung irritation, as well as tumor formation. Just a few tid-bits in case you’re wondering how safe these candles really are…
Each batch of wax goes through 75 laboratory tests and guarantees your candles:
Are made in the USA with DOMESTICALLY grown crops
Are NOT tested on animals
Are 100% vegetable, made with pure soybean oil, GUARANTEED!
Are all NATURAL and biodegradable
Are FREE of petroleum, paraffin or beeswax products
Are FREE of pesticides, herbicides and all other toxic materials
Are FREE of GMOs!
Are Kosher Certified
Oh, and one more thing… If you ever have a spill, eco soy wax cleans up with soap and water!
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, doesn’t it?
Wicks~ The wicks used to make FEC are flat, coreless cotton wicks braided with thin paper filaments interwoven for burn stability and minimized soot and smoke. Although much less common in soy candles, soot/smoke will appear no matter what kind of wax/wick is used if you do not trim the wick to ¼ inch before each use. It’s also important to know that each individual wick has been primed with vegetable wax, which makes FEC completely VEGAN!!
Certified Organic/ Fair for Life Essential Oils~ The essential oils used are certified organic through OTCO (Oregon Tilth Certified Organic) – a USDA accredited organic certification agency. This means there were no harmful pesticides or chemical residues used to grow the herbs and flowers that the oils are produced from, therefore, you and your family will not be ingesting them either. What is Fair For Life, you ask? IMO (Institute for Marketechnology) takes Fair Trade certification to the next level. While they recognize that the traditional programs are important, they allow only a certain percentage of each transaction to be allocated to those involved in the production of a good, with negotiations being left up to external market prices. Fair For Life takes that steps beyond by providing a guaranteed minimum floor price (plus additional premiums,) safe working conditions, living wages, scholarship programs, democratically organized investment revenues, environmental sustainability, (NO GMOs or agrochemicals!) and many other benefits and fair practices. *Please remember that these certifications only apply to the essential oil line of candles, not the fragrance line.
Recycled Packaging/ Paper Products~ We use hand-made recycled/ up-cycled packaging and paper products! We also try to re-use as many shipping materials as possible. Be on the look-out for recycled glass containers coming soon!
Green Shipping~ Many of our daily activities produce greenhouse gases. These include things like driving, flying, cooking, and, yes, shipping. Carbon offsets are an easy, affordable, and convenient way for us to offset our carbon footprint by supporting projects which reduce or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The categories that your purchase with Francis Ellis Candles contributes to are: reforestation, energy efficiency, methane capture and combustion and renewable energy generation.
Charity~ FEC is in the process of starting up mutual relationships with a few charitable foundations. The goal is to donate a percentage of each candle’s sale to each foundation in hopes of making a positive difference in the lives of people less fortunate, to help animals in need and to take care of Mother Earth.
Where did the name Francis Ellis come from?
When Erin King, the creator of the company, decided to take a step back from the mainstream way that large companies in today’s society make candles, she realized that this simplistic approach was a lot like it used to be when her grandparents were growing up; pure. It was only appropriate that the company be named after Grandma Francis and Grandpa Ellis.
 Erin with Grandpa Ellis & Grandma Francis. One of the charities Erin hopes to donate profits to in the future benefits research of Myelodysplastic Syndrome, the type of Leukemia her grandfather passed away from in 2003. |
What type of environment are the candles made in?
Erin makes the candles (with love) in her very own kitchen in Chicago… usually dancing around to 1980′s pop and singing into the wooden spoon she uses to stir the wax… The world would be a much happier place if we were ALL allowed to do this at work!