Monday, April 22, 2024

Vegan Candles: 21 Soy and Plant-based Candles for Beginners


Vegan Candles is a tutorial/crafting guide with recipes for vegan friendly candles by Delphine Reposeur. First published in French as Bougies vegan: Recettes à faire soi-même, this English language translation from Rowman & Littlefield on their Stackpole Books imprint is 80 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

This is a beginner-accessible tutorial book with step-by-step guides to 21 different projects and recipes for vegan friendly soy-based candles with lots of scents and uses. It has a logical and easy to follow layout, with a very short history of candles and uses, an introduction with a survey over the available plant based materials options and necessary tools, and the general tutorials and specific project tutorials (including candles of course, but also wax melts and other projects).

Each tutorial has an introduction, bullet list of ingredients, step by step instructions and multiple color photos. Ingredient measures are provided in imperial (American) measurements with metric in parentheses (yay!). Small background info tidbits and tips and tricks are provided in highlighted text boxes throughout the book. 

The book includes a short FAQ section for some troubleshooting help, but no index or links/reference lists. The ingredients will likely be obtainable from any large retail crafting outlet in North America, or from the internet. 

The translation work is not 100% seamless; there are a couple awkwardly translated lines, but nothing egregious and it doesn't interfere with comprehension at all. 

The book has an honest emphasis on non-GMO, vegan friendly, earth friendly ingredients and a sustainable aesthetic which will appeal to the target reading audience. 

Four and a half stars. It would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, for the home crafter's library, maker's groups and similar.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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