Ancestral Wax Candle

Nearly every candle sold in this country is one of two things: paraffin, which is a petroleum byproduct, or soy, which is soybean wax. We spent a while looking at that and decided the rule we apply to the pantry ought to apply to the shelf by the register too.

These are poured from rendered tallow and beeswax and scented with essential oils. No petroleum. Nothing from a seed-oil crop. No synthetic fragrance, no dye.

Tallow burns the way it burned for most of human history — a warm, soft, slightly golden light, slow and steady, without the sooty top note paraffin leaves on your ceiling. Beeswax gives it structure and a long, even burn.

Ingredients: tallow, beeswax, essential oils. That's the whole list.

Three scents: Pure Harmony, Golden Whisper and Sovereign Noir. The ten ounce is for a room; the three ounce is for a bathroom, a desk, or finding out which one you want the big one of.

Burning it well: trim the wick to a quarter inch before each light. Let the first burn go until the melt pool reaches the edge of the glass — that sets the memory and stops it tunnelling. Never leave a burning candle unattended, and don't run it more than four hours at a stretch.

Amber glass with a matte black lid. Our own label.