If you are asking whether Tuscany candles are toxic, you likely have a jar in your hand and a label that tells you very little. The plain answer is that a Tuscany candle is made from ingredients that give off toxic compounds when they burn. That puts it short of what most people mean by a non-toxic candle.
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Tuscany Candle is made by Empire Candle Co. in Kansas City, Kansas. The company says its candles use proprietary wax blends of paraffin, or soy mixed with paraffin, plus fragrance oils whose full formula is not published. Burning paraffin releases benzene, toluene and formaldehyde, and an undisclosed fragrance leaves you guessing about phthalates. A safe burn starts with one wax and a fragrance you can name, which is how we make every candle in our 100% beeswax candle collection, hand poured in New York City with phthalate-free fragrance.
Why the worry that brought you here is worth listening to
You did not search this question for fun. Maybe your throat feels scratchy after an evening with a candle lit. Maybe a new baby is on the way, and you started reading every label in the house.
Research has shown that a burning candle adds fine particles and volatile organic compounds to indoor air. Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are chemicals that turn into gas at room temperature. That is how they move from the jar into the air you breathe.
Studies have found that paraffin candles release benzene, toluene and formaldehyde as they burn. These are real compounds with real names, and your concern about them is reasonable. People who use mass-market scented candles have reported sore throats and headaches, and people who are sensitive to scent often notice first.
A small room makes it stronger. With the door shut and no fresh air coming in, particles and gases stay put and build up over an evening. The same candle can feel fine in an open kitchen and heavy in a closed bedroom.
If you have asthma, allergies or migraines, or if you are pregnant, follow your doctor's guidance on burning candles and using scent at home. This post will help you read a label. It cannot replace advice from someone who knows your health.
The good news is that the problem lives in specific ingredients, so you can avoid them. The first one to look at is the wax, because it is most of what burns.
The wax, which sets the floor for everything else
Every other choice in a candle sits on top of the wax. It is the fuel the flame eats for hours, so it decides most of what ends up in the room.
How paraffin gets made
Paraffin starts as crude oil. At a refinery, the oil is heated and split into products like gasoline and motor oil. Once the fuels are drawn off, a thick, waxy residue is left behind.
That residue is stripped of leftover oil and often bleached white so it looks clean in a jar. Follow those steps from the well to the shelf and the plain description is clear: paraffin is petroleum waste, reworked into a candle.
Paraffin also burns incompletely. That incomplete burn is where the black ring of soot on a jar rim comes from. It is also how compounds like benzene and toluene escape into your air.
Where soy blends fit
Soy wax comes from soybean oil, and it burns cleaner than paraffin. That is why so many brands put soy on the front of the label. The catch is the word blend, because a soy blend can contain any amount of paraffin and the label rarely says how much.
Tuscany says its candles use proprietary blends of soy and paraffin, or paraffin alone, depending on the line. Proprietary means the company keeps the ratio private. Many shoppers assume a jar candle like this is pure soy, and the company's own description says otherwise.
Why beeswax burns differently
Honeybees make beeswax to build their comb. Beekeepers collect it as a byproduct of harvesting honey, then melt and filter it. No refinery and no chemical processing sit between the hive and the jar.
Beeswax also has the highest melting point of any common candle wax. A harder wax melts more slowly, so the candle burns longer and the flame stays steady. The light it gives off has a spectrum closer to natural sunlight than any other candle.
| Paraffin | Soy blend | 100% beeswax (MBur) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wax source | Petroleum residue from oil refining | Soybean oil, often mixed with paraffin | Honeybee comb, a byproduct of honey |
| Processing | Refined, de-oiled, often bleached | Hydrogenated soy, blend ratio often private | Melted and filtered, no chemical processing |
| Burn behavior | Soft wax, burns fast | Cleaner than paraffin, varies with the blend | Highest melting point, slow and steady burn |
| Soot and emissions | Releases benzene and toluene, visible soot | Less than paraffin, more as paraffin content rises | Cleanest burn, minimal soot with a trimmed wick |
| Fragrance | Often toxic fragrance with phthalates | Often toxic fragrance with phthalates | Phthalate-free fragrance |
| Dye | Often colored with chemical dye | Often colored with chemical dye | No chemical dye, natural golden wax |
| Wick | Varies, some have metal cores | Varies, some have metal cores | Wooden wick, two on the 12 oz size |
| Where made | Mass produced | Mass produced | Hand poured in New York City |
Think about where you burn a candle most. For many people it is the bedroom around 10 p.m., door shut, window closed against the cold, the jar a foot from the pillow. That small, still room is where the wax matters most, because whatever the flame releases has nowhere to go.
For that room, our Wine Down lavender beeswax candle is the one we point people to. It is 100% beeswax with phthalate-free fragrance. Its notes are Lavender, Chamomile, Sage, Rosemary, Camphor, Cedar, Sandalwood, and it smells green and quiet, the right scent for the last hour before sleep.
Wax sets the floor. The next ingredient is harder to see, because it hides behind one word on the label.
The word doing the most work on the label
On most candle labels, fragrance is a single word standing in for a long list. One fragrance oil can be built from dozens of ingredients. Most candle makers do not name them, so the word tells you almost nothing.
Phthalates are chemicals often used to help a scent last longer. Research has raised concerns about some phthalates and the body's hormones, which is why many people now look for phthalate-free fragrance. Parabens, a family of preservatives, show up in some fragrance oils too.
Many candles use toxic fragrances containing phthalates and parabens. From the label alone, you cannot tell which candles do. That gap is the real problem with an undisclosed formula.
Tuscany has started posting more detail for some collections. For its Chamomile Cotton line, it lists fragrance allergens such as linalool and coumarin. Both are common fragrance ingredients that some people react to on skin or in the air.
That disclosure covers some allergens. It does not cover the full fragrance oil formula, so we cannot verify whether Tuscany fragrances contain phthalates and will not assert it. What you can say is that the label leaves the question open.
Every MBur candle uses non-toxic, phthalate-free fragrance oils. When you read fragrance on our label, you already know phthalates are left out. Wax and fragrance you have to take on trust from the label, but two other ingredients you can check yourself.
The two you can see with your own eyes
The wick
Look at the wick before you light it. Some wicks have a thin metal core, often zinc or tin, that keeps the wick standing up in soft wax. When that wick burns, the metal burns with it.
A plain cotton or wooden wick leaves no metal in the flame. MBur candles use wooden wicks, and the 12 oz size has two. A wooden wick burns with a soft crackle and a wide flame, which helps the whole top of a beeswax candle melt evenly.
The color
Now look at the wax itself. Bright red or deep blue wax got its color from a dye, and a chemical dye burns along with everything else in the jar. Beeswax has its own warm golden tone that needs nothing added, and MBur candles use no chemical dyes.
Put these four ingredients together and you have a test you can run on any jar. That includes the one on your shelf right now.
A four-point check for safe burning candles
This is the checklist we use, and the one we built our candles to pass. Start at the top, because the first point matters most.
- The wax is one ingredient you can name. 100% beeswax, with no blend and no hidden ratio.
- The fragrance is phthalate-free, and the label says so in plain words.
- The wick has no metal core. Cotton or wood, nothing inside it.
- The wax has no chemical dye. Its color comes from the wax itself.
A candle made from paraffin or a soy and paraffin blend fails the first point before you reach the others. That is where a Tuscany candle stops. Every MBur candle passes all four.
People who are sensitive to scent tend to notice the difference first. Here is how one customer described burning Wine Down:
Absolutely loved the Wine Down candle! The scent is so light and clean not overpowering at all, which is exactly what I look for. A lot of other candles tend to give me headaches, but this one was a total game-changer. I was able to enjoy the calming aroma without any discomfort. It made my space feel cozy and refreshed at the same time. I'll definitely be purchasing it again. Highly recommend if you're sensitive to strong scents but still want something that smells amazing!
Nicole D.
Those are her words, about her own experience. We will not claim a candle does anything for a symptom, and your doctor's guidance still comes first. What we can tell you is exactly what goes into the jar of our Wine Down beeswax candle: 100% beeswax, phthalate-free fragrance, wooden wicks and no dye.
How to burn any candle more safely tonight
Good habits cut down what any candle puts into the air. They also help a beeswax candle reach its full burn hours. These come straight from standard candle safety guidance.
- Let in a little air. Crack a window or leave the door open a few inches. Fresh air keeps particles from building up in a small room.
- Trim the wick to ¼ inch before every burn. A long wick makes a tall flame, and a tall flame makes smoke. On a wooden wick, pinch off the charred tip before you light it.
- Give the first burn enough time. Burn about 1 hour per inch of the jar's width, until the melted wax reaches the edges. Stopping early leaves a hard ring that makes the candle tunnel on later burns.
- Stop at 4 hours. Past that point the wick grows long and the flame runs hot. Let the candle cool, trim, then light it again.
- Snuff it instead of blowing it out. Blowing can scatter hot wax and push a puff of smoke into the room. A snuffer or a non-flammable lid does the job cleanly.
- Keep the wax pool clear. Wick trimmings that fall in can catch and flare, so lift them out before lighting.
- Retire the candle at ½ inch. When that much wax is left in the jar, the glass can get too hot, so it is time to stop.
Habits help, but they work on top of the ingredients. The wax and fragrance still decide where you start, which is usually where the next questions come in.
The questions people raise once they hear all this
“But Tuscany says its candles meet safety standards.”
Tuscany says it evaluates its products against ASTM standards, the main set of US guidelines for candles. Those standards cover fire safety and warning labels. They do not require a candle to be paraffin-free or to publish its full fragrance formula, so a candle can meet them and still burn paraffin in your bedroom.
“But I have burned them for years and felt fine.”
Many people do, and that is good to hear. Feeling fine and breathing clean air are two separate questions. What a candle releases depends on the wax and the fragrance whether you notice it or not, so if a candle is part of your nightly routine, start with ingredients you can name.
“But beeswax candles barely smell.”
Pure beeswax has a soft honey smell of its own. A scented beeswax candle carries fragrance across a room the way any well-made candle does. One customer wrote this about one of our scents:
Theres nothing I hate more than a candle that can't fill the room and baby this is NOT that. This candle permeates every corner of the room. Cant say enough about how impressed I am with this company.
Tiffany Gordon
For a bigger space, like a living room where you have people over, look at our Room Service vanilla beeswax candle. It is our bestselling scent, and its notes are Saffron, White Tea, Purple Peonies, Orchid, Tobacco, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Tonka Bean. One customer was unsure until the first burn: “Once I lit it, however, I fell in love!”
Frequently asked questions
Do Tuscany candles have paraffin in them?
Tuscany says its candles use proprietary blends of soy and paraffin, or paraffin alone, depending on the collection. If you want a candle with no paraffin at all, our Wine Down beeswax candle is 100% beeswax with no blend.
Can a scented candle really give me a headache?
Some people report headaches or throat irritation from scented candles, most often in small rooms with no airflow. Fine particles and VOCs from the burn are the usual concern. If it happens to you, follow your doctor's guidance first, and if you still want a candle, choose 100% beeswax with phthalate-free fragrance like Wine Down.
Is beeswax safer to burn than soy?
Beeswax goes from hive to jar with no chemical processing, and it has the highest melting point of any common candle wax. Soy is cleaner than paraffin, but soy blends often hide paraffin. A 100% beeswax candle like Room Service takes the blend question off the table.
How long do beeswax candles actually burn?
Our 5 oz candles have one wooden wick and burn for 40 hours. Our 12 oz candles have two wooden wicks and burn for 80+ hours. Pick the 12 oz for a room you light most nights or a larger room, like the living room where Room Service often ends up.
The clean swap for the room you light every night
Tuscany candles burn paraffin or a soy and paraffin blend, with fragrance oils whose full formula is not published. That means they release compounds a clean candle avoids. The fix is one wax and a fragrance you can name.
For most people reading this, the right candle is the 12 oz Wine Down ($65). Choose the 80-hour size for the bedroom, because that is the room you light most nights with the door closed and the air still. It is 100% beeswax with phthalate-free fragrance, and its two wooden wicks melt the whole top evenly so the scent of Lavender, Chamomile, Sage, Rosemary, Camphor, Cedar, Sandalwood fills the room you sleep in.
The feeling is simple: you light it and stop wondering what you are breathing. As one customer, Paige, put it, “They smell up a WHOLE room during the burn & even a while after blowing them out. I won't buy other candles anymore, they're just that good.”
If the old jar is still on your nightstand, you were going to light a candle in that room tonight anyway, so this is the moment to make the swap.
Get the 80-hour Wine Down beeswax candle for the room you light every night
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