Hey Everyone!!

I hope that all of you are enjoying the amazing summer weather today! The sun is shining and it finally feels like SUMMER!! *time to get my tan on!*

When I created this blog, I wanted to focus on networking and reviewing/sharing Canadian based companies to the rest of social media (to the best of my abilities at least). I find that it is extremely important, to recognize and purchase from our local businesses, especially small businesses (by that I mean not those big-boxed, franchised businesses that are all run by some big corporate entity)... one of my loves is to always tour farmers markets, especially when I'm up North, or to visit little stores here and there, looking for local artisans and to make a conscious effort to purchase locally.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Brian, a truly amazing artisan, he is kind hearted, generous and super friendly. He really takes the time to get to know you, hear you out and answer all of your questions. All of his candles are smokeless and drip-less, they are hand poured, hand-dipped and then finally handcrafted by Brian - which means that each product receives the ultimate quality control. The candles are made with the highest quality 100% pure Canadian beeswax cappings.

A little excerpt from Brian's site:

What Is Cappings Grade Beeswax? 
First we need to know where wax comes from. Honeybees produce hundreds of thousands of freshly minted sheets of beeswax throughout the honey season. The hard, white sheets of wax are extruded from small glands on the belly of the female bees. After being chewed and softened, they are ready for use to build their honeycomb palace. 
Now, get this. After filling each hexagonal honeycomb cell with liquid honey, the bees seal it with a protective wax cap created solely from the newly produced sheets of wax. We call this wax cap its capping. Every capping is crafted by the bees using these tiny and freshly minted beeswax sheets. Cappings grade beeswax is gathered by the beekeeper throughout the year and kept separate from older sources of beeswax which are darker in color and of comparably poor quality. This is why cappings grade beeswax is so much better than any other grade. It is new and it is clean.

I only harvest a couple pounds of cappings grade beeswax from each hive per year. Unfortunately, I simply do not have enough hives to produce the amount of beeswax that I sell every year. I purchase the remainder of our wax from other beekeepers and clean it myself, in-house.

My wax is perfectly clean and and burns beautifully. But, not all wax is the same. Avoid purchasing brownish beeswax or beeswax candles at all costs. Brown beeswax does not come from buckwheat honey or any other exotic honey. I have personally had my bees feed on fields of buckwheat. Believe me, buckwheat honey is black, but the wax is orange, once it is cleaned by me. Brown and black bees waxes are low quality waxes that make very low quality candles. Brown wax can only come from three possible situations or sources:
1. Dirty old black brood comb containing dozens (possibly hundreds) of chemicals,
2. Beeswax that has been burnt due to poor processing,
3. Or by staining, which is the result of using iron equipment to improperly process the wax.

As you can see in the image above, when the candle is lit, it is burning clear, there's no black drippings or black smoke. The best part is, the smell of the sweet fragrant honey that fills the room - it's so heavenly. There's nothing more that I hate when burning a candle, is to smell that plastic or waxy smell, or even worse - artificial fragrance/perfume smells - those give me headaches!!

I really hope that you will all visit Brian's store on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/EpicBeeswax

All of his products are so beautifully handcrafted and most of all, for all the work that is put into making these candles, the prices really are reasonable. You're getting quality here people :)

I will definitely be purchasing these candles on a continued basis once I'm done these :)

XO-M