When you pick up a candle, what’s the first thing you do?
If you’re anything like me, you smell it.
We talk so much about fragrance when choosing candles, whether we want something fresh and citrusy, warm and woody, sweet and comforting or something that makes the whole house feel like autumn.
But have you ever stopped to wonder:
What is actually inside the candle you’re burning in your home?
At Kilimanjaro Candles & More, the answer matters to me.
Long before one of our candles reaches your home, I’ve made decisions about the wax, fragrance, wick, fragrance percentage, pouring temperature, curing time and how that particular combination burns.
So today, I want to take you behind the scenes and explain what actually goes into a KCM candle, and why I’ve chosen the ingredients I use.
Let’s Start With the Wax:
Coconut Oil & Rapeseed Oil Natural Blend.
Every Kilimanjaro Candle container candle begins with a rapeseed and coconut wax blend called EcoSystem RCX.
It’s a plant-based candle wax made from rapeseed and coconut oils and blended in Europe.
One of the things I particularly love about this wax is what it doesn’t contain.
Our RCX wax is:
✓ Paraffin-free ✓ Soy-free ✓ Palm-free ✓ Beeswax-free ✓ Free from synthetic additives ✓ Vegan-friendly
According to its manufacturer/supplier information, RCX was specifically developed as a container candle wax and is designed to combine plant-based ingredients with good candle and fragrance performance.
For me, it was a natural fit for KCM.
Why Rapeseed?
Rapeseed may not be the first ingredient that comes to mind when you think about candles.
Here in Britain, however, most of us have seen it without necessarily thinking about it, those enormous fields of tiny yellow flowers that appear across the countryside.
The oil extracted from rapeseed can be processed into a wax suitable for candle making.
When blended appropriately for candle use, it can produce the smooth, creamy appearance I love in a KCM candle.
Our particular wax is blended in Europe, which was another consideration for me when choosing the materials I wanted to work with.
And Why Coconut?
Coconut oil forms the other part of our wax blend.
Rather than choosing a pure single-source wax, RCX combines coconut and rapeseed oils to create a wax formulated specifically for container candles.
One of the reasons candle makers pay so much attention to wax isn’t simply how it looks.
Wax has to work with the fragrance and wick.
It needs to melt correctly, carry fragrance effectively and behave consistently as the candle burns.
Our RCX has a strong scent performance and a smooth finish when handled correctly.
And that brings us to something people often ask me about.
Are Kilimanjaro Candles Candles Soy-Free?
Yes.
Our current EcoSystem RCX container wax contains no soy.
It also contains no paraffin, palm or beeswax.
I know some customers specifically look for soy-free candles, which is why I think it’s important to tell you exactly what we’re using rather than simply putting the vague words “natural wax” on a product page.
Transparency matters.
If I’m asking you to light something in your home, I want you to know what I’ve chosen to make it from.
Does Coconut & Rapeseed Wax Burn Differently?
Every candle wax has its own characteristics.
And plant-based waxes aren’t magically perfect.
That’s actually something I think candle brands should talk about more.
RCX can react to its environment. Temperature during production and cooling matters, and plant waxes can sometimes develop small surface imperfections.
You’ve probably seen me talk about sinkholes, cooling temperatures and candle tops before.
So when you see me pouring candles and then leaving them sitting untouched in the KCM studio, there’s more happening than simply waiting for the wax to become solid.
I’m controlling the cooling process.
Then I’m checking them.
And sometimes correcting them.
Because handmade candle making involves a surprising amount of science alongside all the beautiful fragrances and jars.
Then Comes the Fragrance
This is where candle making becomes really interesting.
Because wax on its own doesn’t create The Hearth Room, Café Mocha, Spiced Apple Crumble or any of the other scents you know from KCM.
For that, we need fragrance.
At Kilimanjaro Candles & More, I use carefully selected fragrance oils and essential/natural oils (coming soon), depending on the product and scent I’m creating.
Many of the fragrance oils I work with are professionally developed for home-fragrance applications, with some designed in France.
And there’s an important distinction here.
Fragrance Oil vs Essential Oil, What’s the Difference?
These terms are often used interchangeably online, but they’re not the same thing.
Essential oils are aromatic compounds obtained from botanical materials.
Fragrance oils are formulated fragrances created to produce particular scent profiles.
And fragrance oils allow perfumers to create something much more complex than simply making a candle smell like one plant.
Think about a Kilimanjaro Candle scent inspired by a cosy room, coffee shop, baked dessert or autumn afternoon.
There isn’t an essential oil called “warm kitchen while apple crumble is baking.”
That fragrance has to be constructed from different aromatic notes.
And that’s one of the things I love about fragrance.
It’s storytelling through scent.
Top, Middle and Base Notes
A beautifully constructed fragrance isn’t necessarily one smell.
It can unfold in layers.
You’ll often see fragrance descriptions divided into:
Top notes — the first impression when you smell a fragrance.
Middle or heart notes — the character that becomes more noticeable as the fragrance develops.
Base notes — deeper notes that give a fragrance warmth, depth and longevity.
That’s why you may smell one of our candles cold and notice one particular note, then discover something slightly different once the candle has been burning.
Fragrance is much more complex than simply adding “a smell” to wax.
What About Fragrance Safety?
This is another area where I think transparency is important.
The fragrance oils I purchase come with technical and regulatory documentation.
The company provides IFRA documentation, Safety Data Sheets, allergen declarations and CLP information for its fragrance oils. Its fragrance oils are vegan-friendly, cruelty-free and paraben-free.
Individual fragrances can have different compositions and different permitted usage levels, which is why candle making isn’t simply a case of deciding that “more fragrance must mean a stronger candle.”
It doesn’t.
Each fragrance has to be used appropriately for its intended application.
And that’s another reason I test.
More Fragrance Doesn’t Automatically Mean a Better Candle
This surprised me when I first learned candle making.
It would be easy to assume:
More fragrance oil = stronger candle.
But candle formulation doesn’t work that way.
The wax has a range within which it is designed to carry fragrance effectively.
So I don’t simply pour as much fragrance as possible into the wax.
The wax, fragrance and wick need to work together.
Then There Is the Wick
Such a tiny part of the candle.
Such a huge job.
KCM candles use carefully selected candle wicks, including cotton-based wick systems appropriate to the candle formulation.
The wick isn’t simply a piece of string that you put into wax and light.
Its size and construction influence how the candle burns.
And changing the fragrance can sometimes mean reconsidering the wick too.
This Is Why I Test Every New KCM Scent
This is the part you don’t necessarily see when a beautiful new candle appears on Instagram.
Before launch comes testing.
And more testing.
Sometimes I can go through four jars trying to get a candle where I want it.
Sometimes it can take twelve.
I test different combinations because changing one part of a candle can affect another.
A new fragrance may behave differently in the wax.
A different fragrance percentage may affect the burn.
A wick that performs beautifully with one scent may not necessarily be my final choice for another.
Then I have to burn the candle.
And not just for ten minutes to see whether it lights.
A proper candle test means watching how it performs as it burns down through the vessel.
That takes time.
And Then We Wait
Once a candle has been poured, it isn’t necessarily ready to be packed into a box the following morning.
It needs to cure.
Curing gives the wax and fragrance time together before the candle is evaluated for its full scent performance.
For EcoSystem RCX, current technical guidance recommends an initial setting period of around two days, followed by a longer 7–14 day curing period for optimum scent throw.
So sometimes when I’m impatiently looking at rows of beautiful finished candles in the studio…
I’m waiting too.
They may look ready.
But I’m not rushing them simply because they look pretty enough for a photograph.
Cold Throw and Hot Throw — What Do They Mean?
If you’ve spent any time in the candle world, you may have heard these terms.
They’re actually very simple.
Cold throw is the fragrance you can smell from a candle when it isn’t burning.
Hot throw is the fragrance released when the candle is lit and the wax has formed a melt pool.
A candle can smell beautiful cold, but I also need to know how it performs when burning.
That’s why curing and burn testing are such important parts of developing a KCM fragrance.
Why Handmade Candles Take Time
Melt.
Measure.
Mix.
Pour.
Cool.
Check.
Correct if necessary.
Cure.
Test burn.
Evaluate.
Sometimes change something.
Then start again.
That’s the part of handmade candle making that doesn’t always fit into a beautiful 15-second Instagram Reel.
There is a lot happening before one of our candles ever reaches your home.
And I’ve learned not to rush that process.
So, What’s Actually Inside a Kilimanjaro Candle?
At its simplest?
Rapeseed & coconut wax. Carefully selected fragrance. A carefully selected wick.
But I think what’s behind those ingredients matters just as much.
The testing.
The waiting.
The batches that don’t make it to launch.
The candles I burn myself to see how they perform.
The fragrance combinations I reject.
The pouring temperatures I adjust.
The candles that sometimes need correcting.
And occasionally the four, eight or twelve test jars it takes before I finally say:
Yes. That’s the one.
More Than Wax in a Jar
The longer I’ve made candles, the more I’ve realised that handmade doesn’t simply describe where something was made.
For me, it describes the care involved in making it.
When you buy a Kilimanjaro candle, I want you to know what you’re bringing into your home.
I want you to know why I chose coconut and rapeseed wax.
I want you to understand why your candle has been sitting quietly curing before I send it to you.
And I want you to know that the fragrance you’re falling in love with has probably been through far more testing than you’d ever imagine.
Because by the time you light it…
I’ve already lit quite a few before you.
Discover KCM Candles
Explore our collection of hand-poured coconut and rapeseed wax candles, made in Devon with carefully selected fragrances and wicks.