Inspirational eco candles do more than just light up a room. They give jobs to the homeless, empower women refugees, and send kids to school in India. This winter, light up not only your home but also someone’s life with these stunning eco candles that shine so bright.

1. Keap Wood Cabin Candles  

Want to bring that iconic wood cabin scent into your home? Created by master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, the warm woody scent is full of “deep cedar wood notes, smokey undertones, and crisp pine and moss to round out the ambient forest.” The packaging is whimsical, fun, and reusable. And candles are made with slow-burning coconut wax. Every candle purchased gives the gift of light via solar lamp to those without access to the electrical grid.

2. The Giving Keys “Black on Black” Hope Candle

This dramatic black-on-black candle is designed to “inspire community through scent, illuminating the spirit and filling your space with meaning.”  Made from a coconut and RSPO-certified palm base. The Giving Keys employs people transitioning from homelessness in LA. The HOPE candle beautifully blends vanilla, sugar, and musk while signifying hope for a better life for all.

3. The Pumeli Candle Collection

With inviting packaging and an endearing personal note from your courageous candlemaker, the Pumeli Collection made with calming essential oils and GMO-free soy blended candles will light up the room and your heart. Empowering women refugees in the U.S., these hand-poured beauties are fair-trade and come in a reusable decorative tin with a personal note to keep in touch with the beautiful soul who lovingly made your candle.

4. Thesis Candles

Made from the organic skincare line Thesis, these stylish apothecary-style jars are made of recycled glass with cork tops. The candles are poured with pure non-GMO soy wax. Scented with organic essential oils, the invigorating pure aromas are the perfect companion for a relaxing bath. Or a night spent dreaming by the fire.

5. Sundown Pillar Candle

Available through TenThousandVillages.com, this gorgeous fair trade cinnamon-scented candle is ethically sourced. Handcrafted in Honduras by women working with the non-profit Actions for Popular Development, every candle shines brightly to help women create a better life.

6. Bloom Candle Collection  

These lovely botanical-patterned non-toxic all-natural candles are available in five delicious scents: Earth & Sweetwater, Green Fig & Bamboo, Black Coconut & Amber, Blue Coral & Driftwood, Tobacco Flower & Ginger. The pretty ceramic containers are encouraged to be upcycled. And when purchased from Bambeco.com, the company will plant a tree in America.

6.  Larissa Love White Label Collection

Gorgeous, elegant, and classy, Larissa Love’s White Label candles are environmentally-friendly. Made from natural essences, organic coconut oil, and shea butter, they burn clean up to 150 hours. Clean and green line, everything is made with love including the luxurious scents: Dark Amber, Madagascar Peony, Pikaki, Santal, and Patchouly.

7. Elderflower Farmacy Peace Candle

Upon lighting this candle you may experience a greater sense of peace and calm. Perhaps, it’s Elderflower Farmacy’s legacy in international homeopathic traditions. Or the partnership with DoPeace.org that sends children in Bangladesh to school. Either way, your senses will be delighted to experience these candles made with fresh local honey infused with grapefruit, neroli, and vanilla essential oil.

8. Benjamin Soap Company Handcrafted Soy Candles

With delicious winter aromas such as Birchwood + Pine, Cashmere, and Cinnamon Chai, these hand poured small-batch candles have lead-free cotton wicks and are made from pure essential oils. No dyes or chemicals for an eco-friendly clean burn.

9. Honest Earth Pink Rose Onyx Candle 

In alignment with their company motto “Good for You, Good for the Earth” this luxury candle line is scented with only therapeutic grade essential oils: lavender, lavender rosemary, lavender tea tree, and lemongrass. The scents lift your spirits and the wax can be used as a body moisturizer.

10. Skin Owl High Tea Candle 

Naturally chic, this candle evokes the notion of cozying up with a cup of hot tea. Naturally made with non-toxic ingredients, its fresh herbal scent is meant for relaxing and like a cup of hot tea – enjoying the comfort of delicious aromas. It looks gorgeous displayed on a coffee table or nightstand.

11. Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange Candle

When PACIFICA candles, vegan and cruelty-free, are purchased via LOVE GOODLY’s e-commerce shop, a donation is made to Farm Sanctuary, the farm animal rescue and education organization. Both juicy and spicy scents blend with strawberry and raspberry notes with Italian sweet orange. Candles burn clean for approximately 50 hours.

12. Boho Candles 

Want to light up the room and contribute to cleaner air? For every purchase through Bambeco.com a tree is planted. Natural soy wax is hand-poured into hand-painted ceramic bowls that are too pretty not to be up-cycled. Non-toxic ingredients and cotton wicks make for a clean burn. Scents such as Earl Gray & Lavender, Sea Salt & Sage, Passionfruit & Guava, Black Coconut & Amber, Blood Orange & Bergamot, Jasmine & Bamboo, fill your home with delicious aromas.

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If you’re going to update your wardrobe this summer, consider investing in one of these charitable companies that are also fashion forward.

Let’s face it, whether you love it or hate it, the majority of us have to shop at one time or another. So wouldn’t it be nice to know that the retailer you’re giving your money to is also working behind the scenes to do good for the causes you care about?

Whether the focus is on animals or people, these companies have their hearts in the right place.

1. Sevenly

Sevenly’s name is a hint to the company’s charitable process. “Recognized as one of the world’s leading ‘social good’ companies,” fashion forward graphic tees is what the brand is known for, and each purchase will donate 7 percent of every sale to the Sevenly Foundation, with 100 percent of that amount going to one of 7 different charities. To date this business has donated more than $4 million to various organizations See the trend yet? Sevenly’s “epic causes,” or charitable groups, change throughout the year, but the choice of where your money goes is up to you, so long as the design falls under one of the easy to navigate charitable categories on the website.

2. Lemlem

Founded in 2007 by supermodel, actress, and maternal health advocate, Liya Kebede, Lemlem not only dedicates its business practices to empowering traditional weavers by sourcing products from women in Ethiopia, but the company also donates 5 percent of sales to its sister non-profit organization, The Liya Kebede Foundation, where members “work to address the top health concern of women in Africa – access to lifesaving maternity care.” Midwives are then trained to provide assistance in order to make childbirth safer near where Lemlem sources and manufacturers products.

3. Olsenhaus

Vegan shoe company founded by designer and animal advocate Elizabeth Olsen in August of 2008 in New York City, “was created to illustrate plundering, cruelty, and greed are not synonymous with true style.” The business creates beautiful footwear while also focusing on transparency and unwavering ethical and social values, so it’s no wonder that “Olsenhaus works with and donates to the country’s leading animals rights organizations for education and rescue,” often donating product for auction at fundraising events.

4. Freedom of Animals

With products that are “animal-free and made consciously in the U.S.A.,” Freedom of Animals carries a beautiful line of luxury handbags that any woman would be proud to own. In addition to its partnership with the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, cruelty-free products, ethically run factories, and eco-friendly materials are what this business stands by. The handbags are “named after the orphaned elephants who were brought to the Shedrick Foundation after losing their mothers to poaching,” and as the company grows, Freedom of Animals aims to donate a percent of each sale.

5. FASHIONABLE

“Beautiful products by women who have overcome” is the motto of FASHIONABLE, and what a great concept it is. This company believes in the power of charity and in the relief it gives individuals who are often in unbearable circumstances. And although it is not a “charitable model of business,” what FASHIONABLE does believe is this: “What we seek to ‘give’ to those living in poverty is opportunity by purchasing goods from them, and helping those businesses grow and employ more.” By doing trade with companies in Africa the role is to hold those businesses accountable for their employment practices, ensuring they’re fair and positively reinforced.

6. Pura Vida Bracelets

When two Southern California friends, Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman, embarked on a college graduation trip to Costa Rica, they stumbled upon two bracelet peddlers who fashioned accessories that “seemed to capture the essence of their journey.” Before leaving they asked the men to make 400 bracelets that the two then placed in a boutique shop in San Diego. After selling out within days, the partners had an epiphany about how they could help the bracelet makers, who at the time were living in a cramped, single room with three beds for their entire family. Today, the Pura Vida is thriving, and “every bracelet purchased helps provide full-time jobs for local artisans in Costa Rica.”

7. The Elephant Pants

With a soft spot for Elephants, this boutique online retailer that caters to women and kids was founded in 2014. With awareness of illegal ivory poaching and a 50 percent decline in population over the last 35 years, The Elephant Pants made it the company’s mission to help save elephants and “feel damn good while doing it.” A portion of every sale is donated to the African Wildlife Foundation, which educates about the effects of the ivory trade, supplies park rangers with adequate training for tracking animals and apprehending poachers, and pays African land owners to keep their land open rather than sell to developers. To date, more than $100,000 has been donated to the AWF and other charitable organizations.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our roundup of charitable companies. Share your thoughts about this post on the EcoSalon Facebook page!

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Image of  Woman With Heart via Shutterstock

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