Beyond the Candle Vessel
What goes into a Temple13 candle?
What's in our candles (and why it matters)
We craft all of our candles using a premium plant-based blend of organic olive and coconut wax. It gives a beautiful long-lasting burn that we're genuinely proud of.
Our fragrance oils are phthalate, paraben, and sulfate-free, and they're formulated to give you a gentle, well-dispersed scent that won't trigger headaches—something we know matters a lot to people who've had bad experiences with overpowering candles.
Our philosophy: Our focus is on making safe products we'd be happy to burn in our own homes, being transparent about our ingredients, and taking the time to do things right. That's just our baseline standard.
A note on essential oils: We get asked about this often, and here's our honest answer: we don't use them in our candles and here's why:
While essential oils have wonderful uses in other applications, they're not ideal for candle-making. They're highly flammable, break down with heat, can release VOCs when burned, and some (like tea tree and citrus) are actually toxic to pets.
The fragrance oils we use are specifically formulated and tested for candle safety and heat stability—which means they're actually the safer, more effective choice for this particular use.
Olive wax? That's a bit different.
It is! Olive wax is a natural wax made from, yep olives.
Olive wax has a high melting point, similar to beeswax, which basically means a longer-lasting burn and you get to enjoy your candle for longer. As it is a harder wax, to ensure it doesn't crack, a bit of coconut wax (which is a softer wax) is added, resulting in a smooth, creamy candle.
Olive wax has a subtle natural scent that pairs well with fragrance.
Bonus: it is hypoallergenic, making it safe to use.
Olive trees are resilient, grow with little fuss and stick around for decades. The older they get, the more olives they bear. The olives which are not used for the food industry are used for industrial purposes. The wax for our candles is made from the pulp that is left after the oil extraction by special processes.
With the complete utilisation of the olive, this wax is one of the most sustainable raw materials in our industry. It's our small way of supporting sustainable agricultural practices.
You might be wondering about soy or palm wax...
Soy and palm wax are often marketed as eco-friendly alternatives, but the reality is more complex. They come with some nuanced environmental challenges.
Palm cultivation often involves clearing important forest habitats, and soy crops are often genetically modified and require significant agricultural resources.
Olive wax offers a different approach - it's a by-product that makes use of existing agricultural processes without additional land use or intensive farming.