Our golden retriever, Magnolia, came home at two months old and immediately made herself the center of everything. Little did I know that she would single-handedly changed the way I think about what we burn in our home!
Pretty quickly after we brought Mags home, we noticed something wasn't quite right. She was pulling the fur between her paws and on her tail... relentlessly and obsessively, in the way that tells you something is bothering her that she cannot explain (if you're a dog parent, you know this feeling well... its the worst knowing something is wrong and they can't tell us what it is or how to fix it!). We ran through the usual suspects. Her food? Her bedding? Something in the yard? It was spring in Michigan, which meant seasonal allergies were entirely on the table. Honestly, we were not sure. And neither was our vet.
What we eventually landed on, after a lot of trial and error was a recommendation that surprised me: try removing scented products from the home. All of them. The candles, the plug-ins, the wax melts. Clear the air, literally, and see what happens.
So I did. And within a few weeks, Magnolia was noticeably better.
And this is when I started to pay attention as to what was actually in the daily candle ritual that I'd developed over the years!
What Is Actually in Your Candle? (More Than You Might Think)
I had never thought much about what goes into a candle. I bought what smelled good, what looked beautiful, what came in a vessel I liked. It never occurred to me to ask what was in them!
Even more shocking... what I found when I started digging was not about the wax. It was about the scents!
Many conventional candles (even ones marketed as "clean" or "natural wax") are made with scent oils that contain phthalates, parabens, carcinogens and chemicals that appear on California's Prop 65 list of substances known to cause harm. These are the ingredients that make a scent cling to a room for hours, that give a cheap candle its intensity, that produce that slightly-too-sharp note underneath an otherwise pleasant smell.
None of this is required to be disclosed on the label. A candle can be beautifully packaged and warmly named and still contain ingredients that have no business in your home!
I am truly not saying this to alarm anyone. I am saying it because I genuinely did not know and I think a lot of people who love candles as much as I do simply have never had a reason to look. We do pop-up markets often and it never fails that at least one (if not many more!) people will be shocked to learn that candles can be unsafe because of their ingredients... so I've made it my personal mission to help educate others so they can make a well-informed decision about the scents they bring into their home!
Do You Have to Give Up Candles If Your Dog Has Allergies?
Here is the thing. Once Magnolia felt better, I was relieved. Deeply, completely relieved.
And then I started missing candles.
Not just the scent of them, but the ritual of them. Striking a match at the end of a long day. The soft crackle of a wooden wick while winding down for bed. The way a room feels more finished, more intentional, more like home when you have a candle lit. There is a particular kind of quiet that comes with a burning candle that I had not realized I was depending on until it was gone.
I refused to choose between Magnolia's well-being and a home that felt warm and cozy, so instead of choosing, I decided someone had to do better and that someone was going to be me!
What Makes a Candle Safe to Burn Around Dogs?
A small detail that matters here: I started a bath-and-body company when I was twelve. So the idea of making something from scratch, of understanding what goes into a product and why, was not foreign to me. What was new was the specific research into which ingredients were actually safe, which materials burned the cleanest and how to build something I felt genuinely proud to burn in our home.
Heres what I landed on...
Coconut-soy wax. Plant-based, renewable and it holds scent beautifully while burning slowly and evenly. (If you've been around for awhile now, you may remember we actually started with 100% soy wax, but a few years back we incorporated coconut for a longer burn with a more-forgiving nature - if you've burned a 100% soy candle, you know exactly what I'm talking about!).
Uncoated wooden wicks, sourced from FSC-certified mills. They burn with less soot and that soft, unmistakable crackle I had been missing since the day I packed everything away.
Scent blends formulated without the things I was not willing to bring back into our home. No phthalates. No parabens. No carcinogens, no Prop 65 chemicals, no mutagens. Carefully formulated around what should not be in the air around the people and animals you love.
Every candle I pour now, Magnolia is usually somewhere nearby. Napping on the studio floor. Stretched out under the table. Completely at ease.
That is the whole reason any of this exists.
What Should You Look for When Buying Candles for a Home With Pets?
If you have a dog (or a cat, or small children or simply a home where you care about what you are breathing) here is what I would suggest paying attention to when you choose a candle. Not as someone trying to sell you something, but as someone who genuinely went through this:
Look at the ingredients. What we've found (and one of the most shocking discoveries) is that wax matters less than the scents. Look for explicit callouts: phthalate-free, paraben-free, free from Prop 65 chemicals and toxins. If a brand is not willing to say what their blends are free from, that is worth noting!
Trust your nose, and trust your pet. If a candle gives you a headache after an hour, or your dog consistently leaves the room when you light one, or you notice symptoms that seem to correlate... pay attention to those signals. I wish I had connected the dots a little sooner.
You do not have to give up beautiful candles as part of your home decor! This is the part I most want people to hear. The answer is not to stop burning candles. The answer is to be a little more intentional about which ones you choose. When I was looking for a toxin-free candle, all I could find were ones that I didn't love the aesthetic of! This is why our candles come in beautiful vessels and are packaged as a gift... I wanted others to find our candles and know that they can look great AND be good for you!
Can You Burn Candles Safely Around Dogs?
Magnolia is nine now. She has slept through more candle pours than I can count, and she has been healthy and happy and magnificently sassy for years.
I cannot make a medical claim about what changed things for her. What I can tell you is that when I removed the scented products and then reintroduced carefully formulated ones, something shifted. And I have never looked back!
Applewood Candle Co. started with her. With the question of whether I could make something beautiful that I also felt completely good about. Good for our air, good for our home, good for everyone in it... Magnolia very much included.
Her full story is here, if you want to read it: It All Started with a Pup.
And when you are ready to find your scent, the collection she has personally napped through is right here: Shop Applewood.
She approves of every single one <3
