When "Natural" becomes a marketing word: Reflections from Top Draw 2026

Earlier this week I visited Top Drawer at Olympia – one of the UK’s design-led trade shows aimed at industry professionals, bringing brands together across interiors, home fragrance, candles, diffusers, incense, beauty and wellbeing.

Top Drawer is where retail deals are made, and I was curious. I wanted to see what other candle brands were exhibiting, what their creations were like, how they were positioning themselves, and how the language of wellbeing was being interpreted to the retail buyers in the home fragrance world.

I did not expect to leave the exhibition feeling so deeply - physically and emotionally - affected.

What stayed with me was not the scale of the show or the sheer abundance of candles, but the consistent language used to describe these creations.

Everywhere I turned, the same words echoed back at me: “toxin-free”, “natural”, “from nature”, “clean”, “wellbeing”, “sustainable”, “paraben-free”, “vegan friendly”. These words are comforting. Reassuring. To anyone outside the industry, they strongly imply purity, care, and natural origin. And for most people, “toxin-free” is easily read as “natural” — even though it is anything but. And these terms were being used to market to people inside the industry. And behind much of this language were synthetic fragrance oils.

There was an enormous focus on wax. Soy. Beeswax. Rapeseed. Coconut. Even “mineral wax” — a softer, more palatable phrase for what is paraffin. The wax was positioned as proof of natural credentials, almost as a distraction, while the fragrance itself - the very thing released into the air and breathed directly into the body - went largely unquestioned.

A candle can be made from a plant-based wax. However, If it is scented with fragrance oils, it is not natural. And it is not a wellbeing product.

As the day unfolded, I was spoken to as though I were a buyer. Understandably so. That is the purpose of Top Drawer. I was given the confident, well-rehearsed pitch: “100% natural”, “only natural oils”, “wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do.”

Buyers listened. They nodded. They believed it. Why wouldn’t they? The packaging was beautiful. The language was polished. The story sounded right.

But many of the scents being sold shouldn’t be branded as natural because they do not exist as essential oils suitable for candles. Fig, Pomegranate, Apple, Pear, Chocolate, Cashmere, Sea salt, Honeysuckle, Moss, Lily. These cannot be extracted from their natural state into essential oils, they can only be created in a laboratory and have nothing to do with the plant they represent. In short, they are not essential oils. They are fragrance oils - synthetically created to replicate a familiar smell, not extracted from a plant.

Even oud, so often described as rare and luxurious, tells the same story. True oud is one of the most precious natural materials on earth. It is extraordinarily scarce and a result extremely expensive. It is used sparingly in fine perfumery - it is certainly not being burned in candles at scale. What is sold as “oud” in candles is a laboratory-made interpretation of oud, with no beneficial properties.

Fragrance oils are used for very clear, very commercial reasons; they are cheap, consistent and easy to scale to high volumes. And they allow brands to sell instantly recognisable scents that consumers already know and feel comfortable with — scents that can only exist in candles through synthetic formulation.

This is not accidental. It is a business decision. And this is where the term “toxin-free” becomes deeply misleading.

Fragrance oils may meet regulatory standards, but compliance is not the same as care. “Toxin-free” does not mean a candle contains essential oils. It does not mean it is free from hormone-disrupting compounds. It does not mean it supports the body in any way. It simply means the product is legally compliant.

Many fragrance oils contain hundreds of compounds hidden behind the single word “fragrance” - compounds known to disrupt hormones, aggravate sensitivities, and trigger headaches, irritation, and allergic responses.

And this doesn’t just translate intellectually, you feel it in your body. By the middle of the day, I had a constant headache. A sting at the back of my throat after each candle I smelt. An itchy nose. A growing sense that my body was asking me to stop.

A fragrance oil has no therapeutic function. It does not calm the nervous system. It does not support emotional balance. Its sole purpose is simply to smell like something else.

Essential oils are different. They are extracted from real plant material and have been used for centuries for their physiological and emotional effects - to ground, soothe, uplift, and regulate. They interact with the body because they come from nature, not because they mimic it.

One comparison stayed with me throughout the day. You would not go to a spa for a facial and accept a synthetic fragrance oil being applied to your skin in the name of wellbeing. It would offer no therapeutic benefit and would rightly be considered inappropriate. So why are we so comfortable breathing synthetic fragrance oils - often for hours - and calling that wellbeing? What we breathe in enters the body directly.

If something offers no purity, no therapeutic value, and no genuine support for wellbeing, then it should not be marketed as such.

Another phrase I heard repeatedly was “paraben-free.” Again, reassuring - and again, largely meaningless. Parabens have not been widely used in fragrance oils for years, not because of ethical choices, but because they are unnecessary. Fragrance oils are oil-based and contain no water, so preservatives are not required. “Paraben-free” in this context is simply meaningless.

I could smell the sameness immediately. The same fig note. The same base accord. The same familiar profiles repeated across stand after stand. Different jars. Different stories. But identical scents – and almost certainly supplied by one of a very small number of fragrance houses.

After each pitch, I began to gently ask what was being used. When I explained that I teach candle making to customers with a focus on wellbeing and essential oils, there was often a pause. Sometimes discomfort. Sometimes embarrassment. A moment where it became clear that the story being told to me did not align with the formulation behind it.

It is important to say this clearly: these brands are not breaking the law. Anyone can legally call their candle “natural” or “toxin-free” while using fragrance oils.

But legality and integrity are not the same thing.

Personally, I could not do this. I could not speak about wellbeing while knowingly selling something chosen for its price point, scalability, and familiarity, rather than its impact on the body. And it is precisely because of experiences like this that I am committed to challenging the lack of regulation, and working towards a future where language that sounds caring is rooted in truth.

This is not about attacking brands. There is space for many approaches. But honesty matters. Education matters. And words like ‘natural’, ‘wellbeing’, and ‘toxin-free’ should mean what they say.

People deserve to know what they are burning in their homes.