Waxes ain’t waxes

So we all know that I bang on constantly about not all waxes (paraffin, soy, palm and beeswax) being equal… well, that applies to beeswaxes too.

A few weeks ago a customer bought a ‘pure beeswax candle’ for me from Dusk.  It is sold at a discount to a the smallest Queen B hand-rolled honeycomb candle (theirs is about 20% narrower and would have less labour as it is not finished properly).  A part of me was thrilled that this purveyor of paraffin (petrochemical wax) candles now had a natural beeswax candle as part of their range, but I was a little disappointed to see that they were using what appeared to me to be very dirty beeswax, using the wrong wick and that the candles were messily made and unfinished.

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – pre lighting

 

Aesthetics first (because that is how you get a customer to notice your product in the first place): by not finishing the candle top and bottom it doesn’t actually sit straight and, in addition, most house proud people don’t want candles that look dirty.

And now on to the performance – which is really driven by the wax and the wick.  When bees make beeswax it is white, so any colour in beeswax is impurities.  A little of that is great… a little honey residue is what gives beeswax candles their natural honey aroma.  But a lot of impurities are a disaster waiting to happen in terms of a candle doing what a candle is supposed to do… ie provide light with a lovely, large flame.

It’s one thing to have a theory (and a decade of pounding your head against a brick wall to learn what you’ve learned :-0) and quite another to see that play out.  So we fired them up.  Notice the respective sizes of the flame upon being lit (and that the Dusk candle doesn’t sit straight).

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – just lit

 

After 30 minutes… wick used in the Dusk beeswax candle is beginning to drown… (the clean beeswax and cotton wick in the Queen B candle are performing well… happy queen).

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – 30 minutes

 

An hour and a half in, the difference is even more noticeable.  If I were the Dusk customer I would now be thinking that beeswax candles are cr*p and don’t burn properly.  I’d be very disappointed.  I’d be thinking twice and thrice before forking out my hard earned money on beeswax candles again.

Queen B vs Dusk pure beeswax candle – 90 minutes

 

2 hours in…

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – 120 minutes

 

Two and a half hours…

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – 150 minutes

 

Three hours… You really have to wonder how rigorous their testing procedures are… or do they just not care?

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle- 180 minutes

 

Three and a half hours…

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – 210 minutes

 

Five hours burning now.  Dusk have a very disappointed customer and beeswax candles are now unfortunately tarred with the same brush…

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – 5 hours

 

And after seven and a half hours I’d seen everything that I needed to see.

Queen B vs Dusk beeswax candle – 7.5 hours

 

Anyone who knows me knows that anything that I say, I will say to someone’s face.  Brutally honest?  Yes.  Two faced?  No.  Three days ago, armed with my tests and photographs I called Dusk to try to speak to their product development people or the relevant buyer.  I was told by the Help Desk that they couldn’t give me those details for “privacy reasons” and to rather send an email.  I sent an email the same day – firstly alerting them to the problem (selling a product that didn’t perform, destroying their own brand and damaging the reputation of beeswax candles) and secondly offering to make their beeswax candles for them.  ”Don’t just give me problems, give me solutions”!  I received a response telling me that my email had been sent on “to the appropriate persons who will be in touch should they wish to discuss further”.  The “appropriate persons” haven’t been in touch yet.

What’s not to discuss?

And that brings me to price.  Yes, there are beeswax candles on the market that are cheaper than Queen B candles, BUT I can say hand on heart (and having not increased our prices in over 6 years despite all of our costs increasing every year) that if they are cheaper they just aren’t the same quality.  Now, that is a BOLD statement.  It may even seem arrogant.  I genuinely don’t mean to be, I just know the cost of making pure beeswax candles.  Here’s what makes Queen B candles different:

1. we only buy 100% pure Australian beeswax (which is the most expensive beeswax in the world because it is free from the chemical residues that other beeswaxes have as we are free of the varroa mite)

2. we only buy beeswax from specific honey flows, from specific beekeepers and we have searched far and wide over the past decade to find those beekeepers who are producing the best beeswax available… and we pay well above the market rate so that they earn a premium for the premium product that they sell.

3. we then clean that wax (which beekeepers consider clean) properly ourselves over a period of 48 hours (using water and filtration)

4. we spend literally months on wick testing before we launch a candle on to the market.  With literally hundreds of pure cotton wicks at our fingertips there is a lot of testing to be done.  The difference between the wrong wick and the right wick is often only evident several hours into burning… or in certain weather conditions… or on a particular surface.  It’s not a craft, it’s a science.

5. we hand make every Queen B candle.  Sure you can churn them out of a machine faster (and cheaper) but you forgo quality and you forgo the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes a hand made product special.  Not sure how hippy you want to be about these things but I can be a bit out there and to me there is a certain magic in a candle that has been made by a person.  Sure it costs a little more.  Many a well intentioned person has advised me to look at mechanising our process or moving production off shore.  But to me it is untenable.  We have focused on being outrageously efficient and every single person who has ever worked at Queen B has understood very early on that if we aren’t all efficient we are out of business.

Designing and hand-making pure beeswax candles is a craft.  Ensuring they burn properly is a science.  At Queen B we try to do both with excellence, and THAT is the difference between a Queen B pure Australian beeswax candle and any other beeswax candle on the market.  Being a complete perfectionist has many, many drawbacks and one very obvious benefit.  The drawbacks are primarily mine to deal with, the single benefit is the greatest gift that I can give our customers and the bees that make the beautiful wax that goes into Queen B candles.

Thanks to you for your support.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter how good our wax is, how comprehensive our wick testing is or how much perfectionism we bring to the job, if no one is prepared to buy your wares you don’t have a business.  Thank you for letting me run this business.  I consider it a great privilege to do what I am passionate about every single day.

Cate xx

 

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Isn’t every day ‘Mother’s Day’?

To be honest, posts like this make me feel a little torn.  On the one hand I really dislike being seen to be flogging ‘stuff’ and think that a lot of the problems we’re experiencing in the world are because we have too much ‘stuff’, but on the other hand, I know that people are going to be buying gifts for their mum and if they’re going to buy something then it would be remiss of me as a business owner and Australian manufacturing activist to not remind people that we’re here and we make light and other goodies that are useful, beautiful and that actually has an employment and planetary benefit when bought.

If you’re anything like me, you’re still wondering what to get your mum for Mother’s Day this Sunday (and if your mum is like my mum, she is telling you that she doesn’t want/need anything).  Thankfully my mum loves beeswax candles and still manages to muster a smile when I give them to her (for the umpteenth time)… although I do try to give her variety!

Of course we all know that we should live every day as if it were Mother’s Day/Valentine’s Day/Father’s Day etc, but we get busy and so a day that reminds you to tell the important people in your life what they mean to  you and that you love them is never going to be a bad thing in my books.  [As an aside, I have a (relatively undemonstrative) sister who was living and working next to Ground Zero in New York on 9/11 and since that day every conversation ends with a 'love you'.  My conversations with mum have always ended that way.  I am very demonstrative (!!) and love that].

Anyway, so this is just a gentle reminder that IF you are looking for something lovely for your mum for Mother’s Day then giving her Australian made, bee-created light would be a really lovely gift.  I reckon it’s pretty difficult to go wrong with the Jam Jar Tealights, our Bee Lights (the Mini-Marilyn, Australian made, holders are one of my favourite things we make) or any of the beautiful candle holders.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mum’s out there – we literally wouldn’t exist without you.

Wishing you sweetness & light and all things bright,

Cate xx (mum to thousands of beeswax candles, surrogate mother to tens of thousands of bees on my balcony and motherer to many friends… and lucky daughter of Joanie B).

The Queen’s Mother

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Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax, a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles, tealight candles and pillar candles that light up lives, create jobs in Australia, support Aussie beekeepers and the regional communities in which they live and benefit our environment.

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Creating a bee beard… at the Royal Easter Show

Each year the NSW Apiarists Association has a stand at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show.  It is the single biggest fund raising initiative annually and the funds raised keep the association going.  Staffed entirely by volunteers, most of whom are beekeepers with a wealth of knowledge and experience, it is a great educational initiative. [There are also a few of us with very little beekeeping experience but a bucket load of passion for bees!]

The goal of Honeyland is to educate people about bees and honey.  It sits alongside the entries for the National Honey Show showcasing honey, beeswax, beeswax candles, bee pollen, frames of honeycomb, mead and all manner of other bee-created goodness.

Whilst we all like to eat fruit and veggies, and most of us like to eat honey, our bee sisters have suffered for many years with a bad reputation.  Like most people, insects and animals, honeybees have a mechanism for communicating their displeasure if they feel like they are under attack… they sting.  Much like you or I may shout or lash out if someone trod on us, a honeybee will sting when they feel threatened.  Thankfully European honeybees don’t generally attack if they’re not provoked and most people aren’t even aware of their work in our gardens and parks every day.  They are absolutely necessary if we want to live in a green city. Recognising this, a few years ago the NSWAA established a “Bee-Zeebo” to do live bee demonstrations to educate people about bees and honey.

Live bee demonstration in the Bee-zeebo at Honeyland (Royal Easter Show)

One of the primary educators is Bees In The City‘s very own bee whisperer, Bruce White OAM.  Like watching or listening to anyone who is extremely skilled in their chosen profession, watching and listening to Bruce is mesmerising… particularly if you’re interested in bees!

My fabulous business partner for Bees In The City, Bruce White

This year, for the first time, a beekeeper, Craig Klingner, demonstrated a bee beard.  To make a bee beard, the queen bee is put in a ‘queen cage’ (with a few attendants) and hung around the beekeepers neck.  Her progeny (worker bees) are then let out of the hive where they will climb up the beekeepers and gather around their queen.  With over 10,000 worker bees clustered around his neck and face it was a great demonstration of the safety of working with bees (if you know what you’re doing) and their in built mechanism to gather around their queen (much like you see when there is a swarm).

Craig Klingner demonstrating a bee beard in the Bee-Zeebo at Honeyland (Royal Easter Show Sydney)

Craig Klingner demonstrating a bee beard in the Bee-Zeebo at Honeyland (Royal Easter Show Sydney)

Craig Klingner demonstrating a bee beard in the Bee-Zeebo at Honeyland (Royal Easter Show Sydney)

 

Oh, and did I mention that our 45cm dipper beeswax taper candles won first prize?!  Happy days.  We don’t have them available online because we can’t find a box suitable to ship them in (any box that long is as wide and high and thus we get killed on postage), but they are available at the hive and some of our lovely retailers.

Did I mention that our 45cm tapers won first prize?!

Next time you’re at the Easter Show, remember to pop into Honeyland to taste the honey’s for sale and support the NSW Apiarists Association and the beekeepers that keep us nourished (and naturally sweetened)!

Cate xx

 

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More Jam Jar Tealight goodness

Our surprise hit of 2012 was the product we collaborated with Joost on – Jam Jar tealights.  A perfect illustration of 1 + 1 = far more than 2.  A glass jam jar + a pure beeswax tealight candle = hours of loveliness.  A jar full of romance?  And ampule of ambience?  A window of perfection?  Oh, don’t get me started… I’m just back from a great break and I’m feeling the love.

Anyway, the break gave me an opportunity to get to some of the 1,000 unread emails in my inbox (whoops) which made me realise that you wanted more options.  Of course, options mean me holding stock (so that we can ship out your goodies outrageously fast), but the brain cells have brainstormed and they all agree that this is a fabulous idea.

So, with no further ado, we have two new options available in the Jam Jar tealights… a box of 8 Jam Jars tealights (8 jars + 8 candles)

Pack of 8 Jam Jar beeswax tealight candles with 8 jars

And a box of 60 Jam Jar tealight refills (which is a great complement to our Jam Jar tealight Party Pack).

With that many pure beeswax Jam Jar tealights you can create beauty like this

For your valentine (or wedding candles)

 

or this…

 

For the directionless

Wishing you a very happy, beeswax candlelit 2013.

May your Valentine (be that you or someone else) shower you in natural, golden light, poured by hand from the loins of Australian bees.

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Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles, tealight candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

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9 Kris Kringle gift ideas for under $25

10cm narrow pillar – honeycomb ($24.95), King Nutcracker candle ($19.95), Eco-bulb candle ($24.95), Pack of 10 Bee Lights ($24.95), Burning Love ($24.95), Square votive in ceramic holder ($24.95), Pack of 2 Small Christmas Trees ($24.95), Porcelain candleholder ($14.95); Small or Large Beehive candles ($24.95)

 

See over 60 Kris Kringle gift ideas for under $30 here.

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Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles, tealight candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

 

 

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More Jam Jar goodness

Well it appears as if there are more jam jar obsessed people than we realised… or is it beeswax candle in glass obsessed people?… or is it quirky, sustainable gift people?… or is it fans of Joost?… Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, we’re just happy being slammed and knowing that regardless of your own particular bent, these Jam Jar Tealight beauties will never disappoint.

While a mother isn’t supposed to have favourites, I have told my big sister’s for years that I was mum’s favourite (that’s the baby’s prerogative  right?!) and as the baby of the Queen B range, I have to admit that the Jam Jar Tealights are my new favourite.  That probably leaves the Bee Lights with middle child syndrome, which based on my experience means they will move to London where they can truly feel loved!

Anyway, of course no sooner than we had them launched (and mum and dad had been called on to pack emergency supplies because we couldn’t keep up!) than the calls started about refills and bulk supplies for parties and events.  Being the nimble, agile, sleek, athletic, customer-focused, (very, very good looking) bees that we are at Queen B, we’ve put them together too.

So, with no further ado, we’re proud to announce the launch of our Jam Jar Tealight Refills pack (there are 15 candles in the beautiful, Australian made box with the 100% recycled, chlorine free kraft label!).

Jam Jar Tealight refill candles x 15

And, for those of you who think that 2 jars isn’t nearly enough and you want LOTS, or you’re having a big party, or you want to give a few as gifts, or you love jam jars a lot, or you’re running a restaurant called the Greenhouse by Joost and you want to light up the entire dining area with pure Australian beeswax tealight candles in jam jars, we’ve also put together a Party Pack of 60 Jam Jar Tealights (all in jars).

Queen B pure beeswax Jam Jar Tealight Party Pack… more fun than you can poke a stick at

And just in case you didn’t realise how gorgeous our new babies are, here’s another take on them…

It’s a play date! Joost’s baby girl with Queen B’s baby.

Yep, we think Joost & Jen make good babies too!

Kat (who packs your orders) banned me from offering a discount, so we negotiated (got to love a democracy) and we’re doing 20% off for 24 hours only (offer finishes 11.59pm, 5th December 2012).  As a few people have realised recently, no the discount end date/time is not negotiable.  It is a gift to our early adopters which are consistently the people who know and love and spread the word and it’s our way of saying thanks.  We genuinely appreciate it.

That means that those of you that only read our newsletters will miss it.  Those of you who like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog are in on the secret!

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Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles, tealight candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

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Jam Jar Tealights – the wait is over

Back in March I blogged about Joost’s Melbourne Greenhouse and our pure beeswax Jam Jar Tealights which lit the way – the second eco love child of our long term collaboration with Joost.  We’ve been inundated with requests for them ever since, but it took until now for them to get to the top of the list of things for us to do.

So (drum roll) it is with great delight that we announce the launch of our Jam Jar tealights.  The story of Joost’s life – bucket loads of great ideas focused on sustainability (+ an obsession with jam jars) and the need for people to execute.  The story of my life – the love of execution (+ an obsession for beeswax candles that burn perfectly).  It’s a match made in heaven.

Queen B beeswax Jam Jar tealight candles

Each pack contains 2 x Glass Jam Jars + 8 pure beeswax tealight candles (4-5 hour burn time).

To reuse the glass jars, simply flick out the metal wick sustainer when the tealight has finished burning and pop in a new tealight.  To clean the jars use hot, soapy water.

Here’s how they look when they are lighting up the Greenhouse by Joost…

Jam Jar tealights lighting up the Greenhouse by Joost at Melbourne Food and Wine Fair

Everyone looks better looking by beeswax candle light?

Queen B Jam Jar tealights lighting up the Greenhouse by Joost at Melbourne Food and Wine – notice that apart from the legally required safety lighting, the entire dining area was lit purely by beeswax tealight candles.  Go bees.  Joost, the diners & the planet thanks you.

 

And here are trays of these beautiful little lights freshly poured from an enamel teapot at Queen B.

Trays of Jam Jar tealight candle refills

Jam Jar tealight candles in reusable glass jam jars

If you’re looking for a eco gift that is Australian made, supports our regional communities, will light up people’s lives, smells good, looks great and isn’t going to end up as landfill, look no further.

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Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles, tealight candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

 

 

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8cm solid pillars – perfect for shorter hurricanes, large oil burners (or 20 hour dinner parties)

These 8cm solid pillars have literally been on my list of things to do for almost a year.  All it took in the end was an order for 200 of them!  We had moulds done, wicks sorted, embossing tool made and packaging solved in a matter of weeks.

So, for those of you who thought our existing range of solid beeswax pillars were too tall…

our pure beeswax tealights too small…

our beeswax dinner candles too narrow…

our beeswax votives in glass too glassy…

and you just wanted a shorter, wider, un-glassier candle, we’ve finally done it.

These bee-uties are 8cm tall.  Approx 4.5cm wide and burn for around 20 hours each.

They are perfect for the Page Thirty Three Essential Oil Burner.

To celebrate their launch we’ve got them at 20% off for 48 hours – until 17th November 2012.

You can get them in a pack of 2

8cm solid beeswax pillars – pack of 2

 

or a pack of 6

8cm solid beeswax pillar – pack of 6

 

and because it is actually all about the flame, here’s what they look like when they’re lit (sorry about dodgy photograph)

8cm solid beeswax pillar candle lit

 

and here’s the Page 33 Essential Oil Burner that became the trigger that got this project off the ground.

Page Thirty Three Essential Oil Burner

 

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Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles, tealight candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

 

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Kosher candles

For some months now we’ve been working closely with a Rabbi from the Kashrut Authority on getting Queen B candles kosher certified.  Many of my friends are Jewish and I’ve been blessed to be a part of plenty of their celebrations.  All of which seem to feature candles.  All of which (without exception) were lit by paraffin candles – unless I provided the beeswax ones!

It seems a travesty to bring your loved ones together to breathe in the fumes from petroleum by-product candles.

I figured there was no point in whingeing about it.  So we’ve done something about it.  We’re delighted to now have Kosher Certification for our entire range of candles.

So what, you may ask, makes a candle kosher?

‘Kosher’ means ‘fit to use’. It is a term most commonly applied to food that meets certain requirements, but can also be applied to other products the meet the requirements of being fit for use.

From a candle perspective there are 3 relevant considerations:

1. the fuel must be from a kosher source – pure, unadulterated, natural beeswax gets a tick.  Since it is not a food (ma’achal) its status as a product secreted from bees (yotzei min hatamei) does not make it non-kosher. Beeswax is considered kosher provided that no non-kosher solvents are used in its processing (at Queen B we use water), and it contains no non-kosher additives (we use no additives at all).

2. the wick must be pure – cotton wick gets a tick

3. the candlemakers – we got a tick there too.

Whilst our tealights, tapers, solid pillars and Bee Lights are all perfect for Shabbat candles, the Rabbi has also been advising me on the requirements for specific occasions.  Some of those are taking a little longer in testing than others!  First to be ready are our Chanukah candles.

Our bundle of 45, Kosher Certified, pure beeswax Hanukkah candles come in a 1.5 hour burn time option

Bundle of 45 Hanukkah Beeswax candles – 1.5hr burn time

or a pure beeswax, Kosher Certified, Chanukkah candles 3 hour burn time option

Bundle of 45 Chanukah Beeswax candles – 3hr burn time

And just in case you think I’m being tricky and these are just Bee Lights by another name, they’re actually not.  They are slightly fatter (to fit in the standard Menorahs in which they were tested) and slightly shorter to meet the burn time requirements.

We look forward to adding new products to our range for specific occasions or specific requirements.  Stay tuned.

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Roll Your Own Christmas trees

Winter has decided to join us again in Sydney for the day, so it seemed like a great time to do a craft project which has been on my lovely long list of things to do and share.  These roll your own beeswax Christmas Tree candles are a great craft activity to do with kids (or inner children), make great gifts for teachers/friends/family/hosts or you could simply use them to decorate your own table.

Step 1 – Cut the sheets of beeswax in half

 

Step 2 – lay 3 sheets of wax end to end

 

Step 3 – use a straight edge (eg a wood mounted photograph from your trip to Africa) from the top LH corner to the bottom RH corner

 

Step 4 – cut the sheets as shown

 

Step 5 – roll the wax over the wick starting at the widest point of the beeswax sheet (be neat… it will determine whether your tree is round or not)!

 

Step 6 – Join the second sheet on where the first sheet finishes and keep rolling

 

Step 7 – Join the third sheet on where the second sheet ends… you’re almost there now!

 

Step 8 – marvel at the brilliance of what you and nature can create together

 

Step 9 – Bee created festive season ambience. Clever bees. Clever you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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