Burning Clean with Luxury Candles

Lighting our way through thunderstorm mishaps, lifting the spirits, and setting a romantic mood, candles are an ultra-functional part of everyday living. However, purchase the wrong candle and you'll suffer the effects of indoor air pollution, which can affect your health and even compromise objects in your home – like your computer. Petroleum-based products (such as paraffin), lead cores, and metal wicks create candle soot and cause pollution at the manufacturing level. The healthiest choice for the environment and our health is to select luxury candles made from pure beeswax, vegetable oil bases, and soy. A few worthy candidates include: Voluspa Candles With cotton wicks and intoxicating scents, Voluspa Candles offer clean-burning candles in a variety of distinct collections. Following in the footsteps of traditional methods, Voluspa gains inspiration from European candle makers. Fine fragrances plus exclusive wax equals luxury candles you can be proud of displaying and burning in your home. Choose from the following collections: Basic Black, Basic Cream, Floraison (inspired by flowers in full bloom), and Japonica (Japanese floral designs paired with fragrances). A sampling of Voluspa Candle scents includes Genoa Lemon Basil, Vervaine Olive Leaf, Clove Pomander, Hawaiian Maile Vine, Sake Lemon Flower, and Pehari Mango Leaf. Aquiesse During early production, Aquiesse candle scents drew inspiration from the coastal region of Central California – filling rooms with citrus fruits, florals, the ocean, and mountain air. However, after tapping into centuries-old candle making techniques, the company was able to create a soy wax blend using organic soybean oil and lead-free wicks. Highly fragrant and delivering impressive burn quality, Aquiesse candles still mirror the beauty of California living, but have expanded to include captivating exotic scents, including items found in the Portfolio Candle Collection, such as:

• Bamboo Teakwood: Green bamboo, Hawaiian violet, and Asian teakwood
• Mandarin Tea: Fresh mandarin, ceylon tea, and exotic woods
• Pomegranate Sage: Fresh pomegranate, green sage, patchouli, and teak

Botanicus Want a 'Day at the Beach' right in the middle of your home? With long-lasting, highly fragrant Botanicus candles, fill your personal spaces with fine perfumes and soy wax. All candles are hand poured in jars, tins and votives with carefully centered wicks (a double wick in many cases for a better burn). The company uses proprietary food-grade paraffin wax, which has the ability to hold a great deal of fragrance. When burning, the scents morph into a lifelike experience. Using the rare blue bamboo as inspiration, the Botanicus Blue Bamboo candle offers a soft orange-citrus and bamboo scent blended with undertones of cedar, sandalwood, amber, and musk. The Botanicus Guava candle takes its lead from fruit originating in South America with an inviting aroma comprised of apricot, wild strawberry, honeydew, banana, passion fruit, and cyclamen. Additional Botanicus scents include Champagne, Green Tea, Lemongrass, Tobacco Leaf, and Night Jasmine. For a complete list, visit Botanicus. Bluecorn Naturals Providing a bevy of eco-friendly tea lights, tapers, pillars, votives, and aromatherapy selections, Bluecorn Naturals uses pure beeswax for the production of their candles. Raw beeswax candles offer a honey scent with coloring courtesy of pollen. This is the purest form of beeswax to select and is often referred to as 'natural.' Ivory beeswax is highly filtered but does not undergo a bleaching process. This selection has little to no honey scent. Using safer dyes (perfect for people with sensitivities), Bluecorn Naturals provides colored beeswax with a raw beeswax base. For an aromatherapy experience, choose lavender (for relaxation); cedarwood, ylang ylang, nutmeg and lavender (for well-being); lavender, geranium and tangerine (for uplifting); palmarosa, ylang ylang and patchouli (for sensuality); lemongrass, cinnamon and rosemary (for tranquility); and eucalyptus, orange and lavender (for clarity). Image Credits: Candle Delirium

VivaTerra – Living in Harmony with Nature

Helping consumers live a healthy life and make the world a better place for future generations, VivaTerra (which translates into 'living earth') is dedicated to marketing products that promote a harmonious existence with nature. Supporting VivaTerra means embracing a company committed to delivering high-quality, organic, sustainable products that highlight eco-friendly materials, designs, and intent. Below, enjoy just a sampling of what you can find on the VivaTerra website: Home & Garden Filled with lighting options, outdoor décor, and door mats made out of recycled flip flops, VivaTerra offers an extensive roster of home and garden products, including the eye-catching, wooden birdcage design shown above – perfect for bird lovers. The Birdcage Lamp makes a grand conversation piece and comes complete with a sliding door and bottom. Please note that this lamp works well with energy-saving 13-watt CFL bulbs. Eco-Accents When looking for a fresh and earth-friendly way to decorate your home, Vivaterra is filled with candleholders, glass lamps, lanterns, and hand-embroidered pillows. Other eco-friendly décor to consider includes the Boatwood Clock (made from dismantled Thai fishing boats) and the Round Stone Mat (a collection of flat stones polished by natural waters). Kitchen & Dining Whether you're entertaining your next dinner party or wish to add centerpiece excitement to your dining room table, VivaTerra has an assortment of kitchen décor to choose from, as well as flatware, recycled glassware, and this attractive Entwined Leaf Candelabra. Surrounded by metal limbs with sprouting leaves that stretch out to display nine recycled glass cups, it's easy to enhance your ambiance with the addition of decorative tapers or seat tealights. Bed, Bath & Spa VivaTerra also helps consumers add an extra special touch to their bed and bath settings. With the Ivory & Gold Suzani Bench, it's hard to ignore the beauty of antique, decorative tribal textiles made in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and other Central Asian countries. As part of the VivaTerra eco suzani collection, this striking bench is comprised of 100% organic cotton, eco-friendly dyes, and sustainable sheesham wood. Fashioned from rejected cans and containers, you may choose to decorate your room with brightly textured tin letters that provide inspiration and certainly liven up your surroundings. Joining the Misprint "Dream" Letters, you will find kitchen and gardening themes, such as 'eat,' 'grow,' and 'go! green.' Women's Department With handbags, jewelry, and clothing, VivaTerra also carries goods made specifically with the earth-friendly woman in mind. Just one of the VivaTerra standouts in the women's department includes the Hand-Embroidered Organic Cotton Rabbit Bag. Easily impress your friends with alluring pre-historic animal designs decorating 100% organic cotton bags. A couple of bag features to note include a pouch for phone or glasses, and decorative fringed sash. Photo Credits: VivaTerra

Ting Creations

Who's in the driver's seat when it comes to eco-forward product ideas? Enter TING creations, a company that uses seatbelts to sculpt masterpieces in home décor and on-the-go fashion. With an assortment of colorful hammocks, luxury bags, and decorative pillows, TING turns one of the most common features of your car into sustainable products and accessories with a sleek, clean appeal. Decorate Your Home Woven from reclaimed seatbelts, TING cushions are not only visually intriguing, but also help reduce the amount of waste that millions of discarded, old cars produce each year. Interestingly, there are no zips or seams used in the construction of this cushion, which makes a pretty decent conversation piece amongst family and friends. Offering colors, such as pink, beige, blue, and black, I personally think the floral print cushion is absolutely amazing. Another product of the TING Home collection is this decorative cube (shown in lime), which falls under their line of home and interior accessories. Shown: Camel/Orange ($185); Floral Print On-the-Go Convenience TING Orange Label also produces a collection of luxury bags using seatbelts as a primary material. Tough, attractive, and ultra-durable, TING seatbelt bags offer designed pockets to carry around your precious Ipod, cell phone, and keys. Popular styles include satchels, messenger bags, laptop bags, and totes. Past clients that have enjoyed the TING Orange Label include Sketch Restaurant & Bar, London; Pilsner; and film and television companies, such as Warner Bros. Shown here is the small cosmetic bag, which comes in red, electric blue, turquoise, hot pink, orange, camel, chocolate and black. Relax and Reflect Providing stylish décor for trendy bars, restaurants, boutique hotels, as well as photo shoots, TING's colorful hammocks are increasingly making fashionable guest appearances in homes around the world. During the Spring 2008 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, TING unveiled ideas for upcoming designs for their home collection – I can only imagine what's in store for us. About TING TING is the brainchild of Inghua Ting, who established her company in 2000 after graduating from the Royal College of Art. In Japan, Ting worked on developing fabrics of the future and pushed for innovative ways to embrace sustainability in design. Turning recycled materials into luxury products, Ting gained inspiration from old leather belts, reclaimed seatbelts, vintage leather saddles, tie silks, and salvaged fabrics. The rest is TING history. Today, vegetable tanned leathers and vintage leather belts are transformed into belts, satchels, weekend bags, and wallets of various sizes and shapes. The only left to say is 'bucket up' and enjoy a stylish ride through sustainable design with TING creations. Photo Credits: Ting