M&J Ethical Candles || Bavarian Winter

I recently found out about the candle brand M&J London while hunting for more candles. You know me and my love for candles, it's a never-ending hunt. Anyway, M&J London popped up because a few of my friends had tried them and loved them which of course piqued my interest in the brand. Further research told me that their candles are inspired by worldwide travels. They have varied fragrances that seemed to be a little bit more in depth than a standard high-street candle. For example, you'll not find any standard single note scents like Lily, Vanilla or Rose in their collection.

After asking the brand a few questions I was kindly offered the opportunity to try one out, of course, I said yes because I was all set for purchasing. I'm so glad I initially emailed them to ask a few questions because I spoke to Jennifer who is the company owner. She gave me insight into the personality behind the brand and I found out that Jennifer is also a hard-working mum too.

What was clear throughout our conversation was just how much she clearly loves her customers. She also feels strongly about her brand offering products that are going to instigate some sort of emotion, that smell wonderful and finally, this is the big one - are ethical, eco-friendly and earth-friendly.

Here's what she said during one of our conversations:

''We are passionate about the high quality and knowing where each aspect of our product is sourced and manufactured making sure to be as ethical with our choices of suppliers in both social and eco-friendly ways. We feel the consumer has a lot of power to good with purchasing things that help society instead of hurting it.''

How amazing is she. I love that she feels so strongly about this because we all need to take steps to make the world that little bit friendlier.

The candles are also poured in London using eco-friendly soy wax, nothing like shopping locally (UK) to make you feel good about yourself. There are also no nasties inside the candles and no nasties outside of the candles. You can be sure what you're burning isn't going to be carcinogenic or pollute your home air.

The brand source packaging materials that are recycled and ethical too. They also make sure that the international workers that they source some supplies from are paid a living wage. Even the ink they use for printing comes from vegetable inks! They really have considered every aspect of their creative process and how friendly it is on the earth.

The Bavarian Winter candle contains cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, and blackcurrant notes. Cold sniff it's a unisex, spicy and earthy scent - it's wonderful. It, however, becomes a whole different entity once lit and warmed. The scent changes as you're hit with the notes individually, once it's pooled for a few hours the scent merges together and is wonderfully festive in the winter seasonal sense rather than a Christmas scent.

The scent travels also. It will fill a large room quite easily but it's not in your face. It does travel throughout one floor in a home especially areas with minimal traffic. It's not strong enough however to envelop a whole two-floored home. It's really gorgeous and something quite unique.

And finally the cloche. Actually, check that, it's a recycled glass cloche. These are so on trend right now, you can fill them with flowers, pop them over some crystals, put incense inside of them, pop it over your favourite ornament and well, you're limited only by the size of the cloche and your imagination. M&J London offers these as an additional extra so that you can really turn your luxury candle into an l-u-x-u-r-y candle.

I do use my candles (and crystals) as ornaments. I like functional, simplistic and beautiful decorative pieces in my home and you can't really beat candles, can you. Now I can use the cloche to not only protect my favourites but to highlight to visitors that it's a decorative piece. It's chunky, simple and so gorgeous, don't you think?

You can check out the candles and the cloche over on the M&J London website. How about the Sweet Beginnings Candle which contains notes of lavender, Manuka honey, and cocoa to get your 2016 off to a great start?

Elyse

* Kindly provided for review consideration - all words are my own and the candle was chosen by me too *