Sustainable Stories: eco friendly indie makers Hazel & Blue Soy Candle

As an indie sustainable beauty brand, we're always interested in discovering local businesses with the same ethos as ours. So we've decided to start a new series of blogs: Sustainable Stories with Hairy Jayne.

Becky Avery from Hazel & Blue Soy Candles is very serious about sustainability and is heavily inspired by nature. She makes hand poured scented candles in her Wiltshire Farm Studio, near Bath, using all natural and sustainable ingredients sourced within the UK. Her candles are ethical, vegan and eco friendly and the packaging is 100% recyclable.

Becky also teaches candle making workshops throughout Wiltshire and Bath and has beautiful candle making kits for sale online, encouraging customers to refill their empty candle containers themselves. We love that!

The fragrance oils she uses are free from palm wax, beeswax, petroleum, herbicides and pesticides for clean burning candles. The natural wicks are made from cotton and linen. Becky has blended her passion for making handmade candles with her love of nature and scent.

1. Why did you start your eco friendly natural candle business?

I started Hazel & Blue because I wanted to create really good quality eco friendly soy wax candles. At the time there wasn't a huge variety of soy candles in the market so I wanted to showcase the benefits of using soy wax in your home.

I knew that once people had the opportunity to smell and test the candles, they would see the benefits for themselves. I specially wanted to make candles with scents inspired by nature so no artificial scents, just lovely nature seasonal scents in our soy candles.

2. Why did you decide to make sustainability a big part of your small business?

Right from the beginning, I wanted to use the best quality eco friendly ingredients available, as not only would it benefit the customer, it would also benefit the environment. Sustainability is at the core of our products and before we create anything new, we ask how does this product affect the environment? How can we recycle or reuse it?

3. How does sustainability come in to the day-to-day running of your small business?

We are in the process of going through B corp certification (we are right at the beginning) so it comes into everything we do, from suppliers, staffing, our studio environment, our packaging and how we recycle everything. We are building a foundation of sustainability so it can branch out into all aspects of our business, we still have a lot to do, but we feel positive about making the right changes and implementing the right things as we grow.

4. What's a small creative step you've taken behind-the-scenes to be more eco friendly?

We encourage our customers to reuse their candle vessels after they have burnt their candles. We have quite a few customers that return their vessels to us to refill and it is a win win as they only pay a small amount and it is better for the environment. We also use reusable coffee and tea cups and plates for our candle making workshops which our customers love.

5. Tell us a little about your favourite Hazel & Blue product and why it's important to you

Our soy candles are our favourite products, but our soy candle making kits are just as important. I created our soy candle making kits based on how I teach in our soy candle making workshops, they were definitely a labour of love! I wanted to create our candles in the form of a kit using the eco friendly ingredients we use.

The packaging is FSC certified, we do not use any filler, recyclable glasses, cotton and linen wicks and vegan friendly candle oils. We have 14 variations of candle making kits in our collection, from essential oils to calming cosy scents, candles with dried flowers and crystals. We also work with other small businesses and collaborate with them using there handmade pots for our customer to make candles in them at home. I love our Sea Salt and Wood soy candle, it was inspired by my childhood in New Zealand and reminds me of home and the beaches I use to swim in.

6. What's the next step you are taking to ensure your small business is kinder to the environment?

Starting our B corp journey will really help build solid sustainable foundations for us here at Hazel & Blue. Lots of work but it will be so beneficial to our customers, our business, our community and of course the environment.

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Find out more about Hazel & Blue and Becky's candle making and candle refill workshops in Wiltshire and Bath by visiting their website:

https://www.hazelandbluecandles.co.uk/

Or following them on Instagram @hazel_andblue and Pinterest at Hazel_andBlue