Get to know a candle brand: Sanari Plant Based Candles

It’s becoming kinder—to the Earth, to fellow humans, to yourself—to start a candle habit than ever before. One of the reasons is Sanari Candle, a line of organic plant-based candles.

Every time you buy a Sanari candle, you’re not only filling your home with the scent of 100% organic essential oils and a sustainable, vegan coconut and soy wax blend. A portion of your purchase also goes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Rebecca Aghalarpour told me she started Sanari Candle after she got breast cancer herself. “I love candles, but at the time when I was diagnosed, I had to remove all toxins from my home. My research proved that the candle industry is not FDA regulated. I could not find a candle brand that was clean enough for me to burn in my home for myself and my family.”

Her solution? To launch her own candle brand that met her rigorous health and safety guidelines. Rebecca was adamant about working with nothing but natural ingredients. Her candles are vegan, non-GMO, and made of food-grade coconut and soy wax.

“I was determined to make a difference for not only our health but our precious planet,” she said.

Every part of the process is personal. Sanari is a mix of her daughters’ names—Sanam, which means love in Urdu; and Aria, which means air. Her company assembles the candles, small batch style, in her home city of Los Angeles, California.

I received two Sanari candles for review: Aria and Sorbetto. As always, I chose these because Rebecca told me they were Sanari’s top sellers. Aria is a delicate mix of many essential oils, but the main notes I got were eucalyptus, lavender, and citrus. Sorbetto gave me a more robust scent: blood orange, vanilla, and coconut that really did smell like a gelato flavor. Each came in a simple glass votive with an embossed wooden lid. I’m excited to recycle the candle votives and use them as wine glasses, like Sanari’s Twitter suggests!

Both candles had a light, subtle scent. They’d be good for people who are sensitive to powerful smells, but it would take them a while to fill a room. “Our scents are not overpowering because we only use natural plant-based oils,” Rebecca told me.

Rebecca knows first-hand how valuable a non-toxic lifestyle can be, especially when you’re dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Her cancer is in remission now, but as her candle brand indicates, her commitment to health—both for people and the planet—clearly remains.