The stall’s story

Beeswax & Bloom grew out of a hive-keeping hobby that got out of hand. Grace and Ilan now keep twelve hives on a smallholding in the Kentish Weald, and every candle begins with the wax those hives and two neighbouring apiaries produce. It is filtered but never bleached, which is why the pillars glow that particular honey colour and smell faintly of the meadow.

The candles are a beeswax and rapeseed blend — both British, both renewable — with cotton wicks and fragrance from essential oils and absolute-rich resins. There is no paraffin and no dye: what looks like colour variation between batches is the wax itself. Scents follow the year: bee balm and mint for early summer, fig leaf and tomato stem for August, smoked pine and clove for winter.

Burn testing is taken seriously. Every new scent is burned through at least six wicks before listing, and each product page states the expected burn time honestly — a 220g tin genuinely gives around forty hours, not the fantasy number on high-street labels. Trim the wick to 5mm before each burn and the first burn should reach a full melt pool.

Tins and jars are returnable through the Famica seller network: send five back and the sixth candle is half price.