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Editorial policy

How we source facts, and what we left out.

No number appears on this site unless we opened the page it came from ourselves, linked it, and recorded the date we read it. When we couldn't source something, we dropped it rather than softening it — and this page lists what we dropped, so you can tell the difference.

The rules

  1. A figure needs a source and a date. Every guide ends with a list of the pages it draws on and when we last opened each one. Prices and burn times change; the date tells you how much to trust ours.
  2. A maker's claims stay theirs.Wax, burn time, origin and scent come from the maker, in their words, credited. We don't paraphrase a burn time into a rounder number.
  3. No ratings, rankings or badges.We haven't burn-tested these candles side by side, so we won't rank them. "Best for" lines describe who a range suits, drawn only from what the maker publishes.
  4. No invented businesses, people or reviews. Every business named on this site is real and linked to its own website. Nothing here is written by a persona, and there is no personal byline: pages are written and maintained by NZ Candles as an organisation.
  5. Listings are public facts, and removable. The makers on our makers pagehaven't endorsed us and didn't ask to be listed. Each entry carries the page we read, the date, and a link to ask us to correct or remove it. We do that on request, without argument.
  6. Corrections are made in public.Tell us something's wrong and we'll fix it and change the "updated" date on the page.

Claims we dropped for lack of a source

These are things we'd have liked to tell you, and would have found easy to assert. Each one is missing from the site on purpose.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand's specific advice on candles

FENZ's site blocks automated requests and the candle page we were sent to returns a 404. We link to their home fire safety section, but we don't put words in their mouth. If you want official advice, go to the source: fireandemergency.nz.

Any comparison of how much soot different waxes produce

This is repeated everywhere, usually by someone selling one of the waxes. The National Candle Association's page on soot is gone, and we found no independent testing we could read. So this site makes no soot claim at all, in either direction.

"Non-toxic", "clean-burning", "chemical-free" and "eco"

These are marketing words with no agreed meaning. Where a maker uses one about their own product we quote it as their claim, attributed to them, and we never use one in our own voice.

Wholesale margins and minimum orders for any named New Zealand maker

None of the wholesale pages we read publishes terms; each asks for an enquiry. The often-repeated "about 50% gross margin" figure comes from a United States candle-pricing guide, not from a New Zealand maker's terms, so it appears nowhere on this site.

Whether any New Zealand maker will drop-ship

None of the wholesale pages we checked mentions it. Rather than assume, we've built on the basis that we hold stock and pack every order ourselves.

Our own delivery rates, dispatch days and free-delivery threshold

We don't have a courier account yet. Publishing a plausible rate would be inventing a promise, so delivery and returns says "not set" until it is.

Any affiliate or referral income from the makers we link to

We searched for an affiliate programme from a New Zealand-made candle maker and found none. Every outbound link on this site is a plain link, and we earn nothing from it. If that ever changes, the link gets rel="sponsored" and the page says so above the link, not in a footnote.

Search volumes for most candle keywords in New Zealand

We have New Zealand volumes for "candles" and "candle" only. We don't quote made-up demand figures for anything else, on this site or to makers.

A New Zealand safety-labelling standard specific to candles

We looked, and found none beyond the general duties in the Fair Trading Act and the Consumer Guarantees Act. Rather than claim compliance with a standard that may not exist, we say what we actually check: that the maker's own packaging carries a safety warning.

What we don't do with AI

No product photograph on this site is generated, and none will be. No scent description is written by us or by a model; scent is the maker's own copy or it's absent. Where a page has a drawing instead of a photo, it's plainly a line drawing, so nobody mistakes it for a product we hold.

Found something wrong?

Tell us. Include the page and what's wrong, and we'll either source it or take it down.

Standing sources

  1. Commerce Commission — reminder to businesses about 'Made in New Zealand' claims — last checked 15 September 2026
  2. Commerce Commission — 'assembled in New Zealand' is not enough to claim New Zealand made — last checked 15 September 2026
  3. Consumer Protection (MBIE) — your rights under New Zealand consumer law — last checked 15 September 2026
  4. Fire and Emergency New Zealand — home fire safety — last checked 15 September 2026
  5. National Candle Association — fire safety and candles — last checked 15 September 2026
  6. Office of the Privacy Commissioner — the Privacy Act 2020 — last checked 15 September 2026
Made in New Zealand

The shop isn't open yet. Want to know when it is?

One email when the first New Zealand makers are on the shelf, and nothing else. In the meantime, the makers' own shops are open today.

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