Do Yankee Candles Have Lead Wicks?

Yankee Candles are extremely popular in America, and it seems like a lot of people really love them. I was the assistant manager at a Yankee Candle retail store for just over 5 years, and I really liked the job. During those years, I learned a whole lot about what goes into making a Yankee Candle. I also learned that many customers have heard lots of different things about Yankee Candles, and some of those things are simply not true. I had a customer once tell me that she had heard that Yankee Candles cause cancer, and I had another woman insist that two candles with the same fragrance but different colors smelled differently. You would not believe some of the things I heard during my time working there!

One of the most common questions I got asked by our store customers was whether or not Yankee Candles contain lead wicks. Some lower quality candles have wicks with a lead wire in the middle, and this is obviously a problem since lead is potentially a health hazard. It is not uncommon for candles made in China (or "dollar store candles") to have wicks that contain lead. Apparently some of our customers at my store had been informed by their Partylite consultant (or an employee of a competing candle store) that Yankee Candle Company used lead based wicks. This infuriated me, because it is absolutely, 100 percent false. Yankee Candle Company has never, and will never, use lead wicks in any candle that they make!

The Yankee Candle lead wick issue is sometimes confused further by the fact that, on some Yankee Candles, the wicks have what appears to be a metal wire in the middle. However, this is not a metal wire, but rather a special twisted paper stick that is completely non-toxic and helps the wick stay standing up and centered during manufacturing. This is standard across many premium candle brands and is not unique to Yankee Candle Company. Customers can rest assured that their Yankee Candles are made from only the finest quality, safety-tested components and never, ever have a lead-based wick. For more information about Yankee Candles, visit the company website listed in the resources section of this article.