The problem with most candles is simple: they hide what's in them. The majority list one ingredient, “fragrance,” a legal black box that can hide hundreds of compounds, including phthalates linked to hormone disruption. Most candle wax is also paraffin, a petroleum derivative. At Dolva, every ingredient is responsibly sourced, sustainable and natural. No synthetic fragrances, no petrochemicals.
No synthetic fragrance.
The majority of candles list one ingredient: “fragrance,” a word that is a legal black box and can hide hundreds of compounds, including phthalates linked to hormone disruption. At Dolva every ingredient is responsibly sourced, sustainable and natural. No synthetic fragrances, no petrochemicals. Every scent ingredient in a Dolva candle is a named natural essential oil or plant absolute — cedarwood, frankincense, vetiver, amyris, labdanum resin, bergamot, clary sage, juniper berry, green tea. If we can’t tell you what it is and where it came from, it doesn’t go in the wax.
A higher quality wax.
Most candles are made with paraffin, a petroleum derivative that can release volatile organic compounds when burned, including toluene and benzene. At Dolva we use a higher quality coconut-soy blend, fully plant-derived, cleaner burning and longer lasting. Coconut wax is the cleanest-burning of all plant waxes, made from hydrogenated coconut oil, a renewable and sustainable crop that burns cool and slow. Soy wax gives the blend structure, raising the melt point slightly so the insert holds its shape in warm weather and releases cleanly. A domestically grown crop in the US, soy is fully biodegradable with no petrochemicals or petroleum derivatives.
Cotton only. Nothing else.
We use natural cotton wicks with no metal core, no zinc and no lead, matched in size to the piece diameter so you get a full melt pool across the top of the insert without overheating the wax or producing excess soot. Metal-core wicks — common in cheaper candles — can release trace amounts of heavy metals when burned. Cotton is cleaner, simpler, and does the job properly when sized correctly for the vessel.
Named, sourced, traceable.
We focus on sourcing sustainable and responsible ingredients. Every essential oil supplier, every maker. If it goes in the candle or ships with it, we know where it came from and we’ll tell you. Our essential oils are sourced from Shay & Company in Portland, Oregon. Our absolutes — labdanum and green tea — are sourced from Eden Botanicals and Sunrise Botanics. Every ingredient is named on this site. There is no “fragrance” anywhere in a Dolva candle.