Author: Zania

Because Everyone Loves…

A Surprising Fact About Indoor Plants

I’ve been slightly obsessed with nurturing my ‘not-so-green’ thumb this year as well as creating a much more relaxed and cosy space in our home by becoming a ‘plant Mum’. Having not succeeded in the past I was determined throughout Lockdown 2 to get it right (and it was a wonderful distraction to what was going on).I’m sure you already know that plants are really, really good for you (insert new skills, a prettier home and a brilliant excuse to shop) but did you know that they can also help us destress and increase creativity?

Cool plant fact

According to research by a Texan University (I wonder if Matthew McConaughey had anything to do with it 🤔) plants can boost creativity by 15%. Wowza! That excited me so I set myself the task to see if I could increase my own creativity by buying many, many plants in the hopes that my creative drought would suddenly dry up. And to my surprise, it worked.

Creativity seemed to have sparked from somewhere and not only do I have two new products releasing soon, I even picked up my drawing pencils, started knitting (hello cold summer) and I began cooking again, something I have loved for years but that has gone by the wayside since the beginning of 2020.

Is it the plants? Who knows. They sure do make my house look prettier, feel cosier and more relaxed and they’ve given me a new habit, something to distract from the constant boom of Covid news.

Plants are actually really easy to look after – give them a regular routine of love, a little water and a little loving chat goes a long way too (yup, I am one of those who talks to her plants)

My plant collection has grown over the last few months following the guidelines on the best house plants to have in the home. Things like clean air, anxiety reducing and dark light lovers have been my search terms. I’ve loved curating them.

If you need inspiration, LazyFlora, a fabulous small business that sell beautiful plants will post them to your door. And if you sign up to their mailing list you get a free windowsill Basil kit and 25% off, fabulous.

As a ‘plant Mum’ all these new plants join the one and only plant that has survived the years of my notorious houseplant killing spree – our beautiful old Kentia Palm which BTW we have named ‘Destiny’s Child ‘ after yes you guessed it, the very famous band who’s most well known hit was ‘Survivor’. Fitting don’t you think? 😃So to anyone who fancies becoming a ‘plant Mum’, go for it.

A little love goes a long way and they truly are very, very forgiving, very relaxing and make your home so, so pretty.

A Brilliant find

Have you heard of a fabulous FREE app called Candide ? This brilliant app lets you take a picture of a plant and tells you what it is and how to take care of it. It has saved many a plant in my house and has also spurred on many spontaneous purchases.

21 June 2021
Mood Scenting

The alluring power of fragrance and how it can transform your mood, relieve tension, anxiety and boost your energy!

It is scientifically proven that burning a candle can have many health benefits. When you add scent to that candle, it makes it an entirely new luxury that has positive benefits to your home and to you.

Part of living a healthy lifestyle is self-care, taking care of your body and mind. Lighting candles can provide the perfect atmosphere to induce calm and a sense of luxury. Releasing their beautiful aroma, scents within your candles are powerful little molecules that can provide us with hidden benefits including tension release, relaxation, nostalgia, change your mood, uplifting, ease anxiety and even stimulate the brain.

High Quality Oils Makes All The Difference

Providing the oils used within the fragrance are high quality your scented candle not only will impress your friends with it’s unforgettable scent, it has hidden benefits for you too.

It’s not just the power of the flame and low light that creates it’s atmosphere, beautiful scent changes the ambience of a room and can help create whatever mood you choose.

Common scents

Ylang Ylang is renowned for its mood enhancing, sedative, antidepressant properties. Relaxing, calming and liberating the mind.

Lemongrass is light, fresh and can help relieve headaches, improve energy levels and is a beautiful air freshener. It’s also fabulous at chasing away the Monday blues.

Lemon, lime and most citrus are mood boosting, refreshing and research shows it may revitalise your mindset too. A study in Japan found the smell of citrus helped to eliminate emotional stress and boost the mood of participants.

Woods are warm, nurturing, calming and can help you fall asleep and can also help to relieve anxiety and induce positive thinking.

Scent benefits go past the ultimate accessory

We all deserve the luxury of fragrance and scented candles and reed diffusers are a beautiful, contemporary and stylish way to incorporate the power of scent in your home.

It won’t just be your home that benefits from burning candles or placing reed diffusers in your bedroom, lounge or bathroom; next time you buy your luxury home fragrance be sure to consider what mood or benefits you’d like and which rooms in the house you could place them.

30 April 2020
Which Scent Are You?

In our world, no family is perfect but when it comes to the world of scent it’s a completely different story. We use ‘families’ to categorise ingredients, smells. So what are they and why is knowing your scent family such a cool thing?

Traditionally we’re used to categorising what we like, be it books, films, movies or music. And most of us, without knowing it, find ourselves wearing perfumes and buying candles that all have a similar scent.

That’s because we’re naturally drawn to fragrances that resonate with us.

Knowing your scent family can be a really useful insight when buying scented candles, perfumes and fragrances.

Understanding whether you’re a Woody, Floral, Citrus, Spicy or even gourmand person will help you find love at first sniff without the need to smell every single item on the shelf.

An easy way to find out what scent family you may already be in is to google a few fragrances you love. This will tell you what the notes are. You’ve probably heard of Top Notes, Middle Notes and Base Notes. Find out what they are and you’ll get a great idea of similarities – scent families that you like.

For many years I would very confidently say “I am not a floral girl” much to my surprise when I googled the fragrances I love: Flowerbomb (I should have twigged at this one), Miss Dior, Tendre Poison and Jean Paul Gaultier La Femme all have floral undertones as well as Vanilla and Oriental woods.

I love my woods. That’s where I would have put my scent family so to find out that almost all of my favourite fragrances are floral – insert complete surprise – There is nothing more calming than burning Sandalwood, Cederleaf or OUD yet all perfumes I have are placed in the Floral-Oriental family.

However, knowing this opened my eyes to the possibilities of new perfumes and candle scents that I might love and shopping for these is now so much more fun. I’m loving Orange. It’s my new scent. And Lemongrass. That is the cleanest, freshest smell that is so uplifting I burn it every morning while I make a cuppa tea and do breaky.

So go on. Have fun today and google your favourite perfumes and check out what their similarities are in the fragrance world.

If anything, it’s a good excuse to go out and buy new fragrance and scented candles, all in the name of research.
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Michael Edwards Fragrance Wheel
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28 January 2020
How Your Scented Candles Could Be Harming You

They’ve been taking over the news in recent weeks. From The Independent to MSN News; scented candles are apparently causing harm to our health and the environment. Hang on, before you run and blow out your candle burning in the kitchen, read on. There is good news that may just stop you stubbing out that flame. It’s not all scented candles that are the bad guys.

Soya wax is still classified as a clean wax

The key to all the hype comes down to two main things, led in the candle wick (yup, I did say led) and paraffin wax (also called mineral wax): a wax which is literally the by product of crude oil. Its the sludge left behind after the shiny slippery stuff is distilled. Pretty gruesome right?

Paraffin wax has two particularly toxic chemicals, benzene and toluene, which they’re concerned about. They are both found in the sooty residue from burning candles, it’s the black soot you see coming off your wick and landing on your ceiling!

EPA concludes paraffin emits harmful toxins

In 2001, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) concluded that burning paraffin candles emit harmful amounts of toxins in the air that are considered above the excess risk, with multiple exposures. Fast forward to 2019 and here in England Michael Gove has introduced The Clean Air Strategy and will be telling firms that they need to reduce their emissions in scented candles.

And, if you’re like us – you love nothing more than to come home after a hard days work, kick off your heels, let the kids get on with whatever they want to (because you’re so tired you need ten minutes alone to relax and really don’t care what they get up to), go into the kitchen, light your scented candle and wait for the gorgeous aroma to fill the room and send you into a much needed bliss while pouring a well deserved cuppa tea or glass of wine if the PM time has arrived. Isn’t it better to light a candle you know is safe?

You have a right to know exactly what’s going into your candles, what wax, specifically, and that the wick, does not contain led? So before you buy your next candle, simply ask the company what goes into their candles.

Soy wax and cotton candles both make Willow and Tea candles a good burn

Our entire range of W&T scented candles all have cotton wicks and do not contain led or any baddies. Our soy wax is 100% natural and is not a mixture of soy and any other wax which produces a clean burn and burns longer than paraffin. And the natural cotton wicks we use helps maintain the life and burn of your candle right until the very end.

If you’re nerdy like us and like to know what goes into the things you buy, here’s the article from The Independent News (which lists soy as the cleanest wax to use) and the article regarding Michael Gove and The Clean Air Strategy.

12 March 2019
The Best Ever Tips For Burning Candles That Will Save You Money

There is nothing worse than spending your hard earned money on a candle and having most of it remain in the jar – wax stuck all around the edges and a tunnel down the middle.

Or, having a candle with side burns – you know, the wax that doesn’t seem to melt on one side of the candle making it look wonky.

And don’t forget that huge flame that seems to want to travel like something out of Stranger Things towards your ceiling.

These are all really common occurrences that once you know what causes them… will never be a part of your candle life, ever again.

The Best Tip Ever!

Firstly, and this really is the most important tip of all, it is the Coco to Chanel, the Alexander to the McQueen… it’s all about the Melt Pool.

Whats a Melt Pool? It’s when the wax melts all the way across the top of your candle leaving a lovely little pool on the top for your flame to swim in. Not that we want any wicks to be drowning of course!

To create your Melt Pool simply light your candle and let it melt until the wax has melted all the way across. With Willow & Tea candles this can take around 4 hours thanks to the cool burning ability of the soy wax we use.

Creating this Melt Pool stops what is called tunnelling which leaves most of your wax on the sides of the jar as the candle melts down, taking with it your hard earned cash along with it.

Soy wax can sometimes takes two burns to get this melt pool depending on the fragrance used. If you haven’t got a melt pool first time around, even after lighting it for 4 hours, and it’s almost there, it will appear the second time you light your candle.

Trim the wick

We all know this one but not many of us actually do it. I certainly never used to trim the wick until I understood why it was so important.

Before each burn trim the wick to about 5mm. This will give you a cleaner and brighter burn. It will stop that Stranger Things type flame reaching toward your ceiling and will eliminate any black soot that may be coming off the wick and blackening the sides of your jar. You know those embarrassing candles you hide in the kitchen cupboard when you’re hosting dinner parties because they look like you’ve dragged them from the coal mine yourself. This will stop if you simply trim the wick.

Trimming the wick keeps the flame in control. As we use cotton wicks in all our candles, if you don’t have a wick trimmer (great investment BTW) simply cut it to the right size. This creates an even burn all the way down.

I know it would be fabulous to burn those yummy smells all day long, however, it’s best to only burn candles for 2-4 hours at a time. This keeps the wick stable and stops it from mushrooming.

The Side Burns

Keep your candle away from drafts. This is key in preventing what we like to call ‘candle side burns’. If it’s in a draft you’ll definitely know about it, even if its an undetectable draft to us, as the flame will cause your wax pool to look lopsided; one side will be melted more than the other.

Candles don’t like to be left alone

Never leave a burning candle unattended. It’s just not safe and always keep candles away from children and pets.

With a little bit of love, comes long lasting joy!

Happy Customers

I just wanted to say how lovely the candles are! I’ve not even lit one yet but they smell so lovely and they look so fab too!
Lisa, from Ascot

Candles are beautiful. Thank you so much!
Heather, from Yateley

I’m so excited after opening my package today. The Bergamot and Patchouli is absolutely heavenly. Thank you. I’ll definitely be back for more!
Suzanne, Richmond

I can’t believe the smell. Its out of this world gorgeous. I’ve spent so much money on candles over the years and none have been as strong as this one.
Charlie, Epsom

8 March 2019