What Causes Headaches With Wax Melts ?
Posted by andrew sanderson on
We received comments from one of our customers that they liked products made with our fragrance oils. Not only do they like the scents but they noticed that none of our fragrance oils gave them a headache.
This led us to investigate headaches with wax melts a little further.
Before becoming fragrance oil suppliers we used one fragrance oil from another supplier that instantly gave me a violent headache when making into home fragrance products or burning it as a wax melt or candle. We never discovered the root cause of this with the fragrance oil and simply stopped selling that fragrance in our product range.
It could have been scent sensitivity which can trigger headaches. This may be an adverse reaction to a certain scent component or it could be a trigger to a fragrance that causes headaches, in the same way that a fragrance can trigger certain emotions.
Excessive exposure to VOC's (volatile organic compounds) can cause headaches (I remember getting headaches when using 'old school' gloss paint whilst decorating.)
One key area that is known to cause headaches is phthalates which can cause nausea, dizziness and headaches. None of our fragrance and essential oils contain headache causing phthalates.
Parabens have been linked to migraines and are therefore another area that could lead to headaches. Again, none of our fragrance oils or essential oils contain parabens.
As our fragrance oils have none of the two 'nasty' chemicals above, we are reducing the chances that a customer will have headaches when using our products. As always, use home fragrance products sensibly. If you feel unwell and suspect that this is due to a home fragrance item, stop using it and see if the symptoms go away.