Fall is coming fast! The time where the weather starts to cool, and we go crazy for pumpkin everything, PSLs and having our homes smell like cinnamon and spice. But not all candles and air fresheners are created equal. So I went on the hunt for all the best non toxic air freshener brands and non toxic candles so we can have our homes smelling like the delicious pumpkin bread we all love – without the toxins! In this guide I’ve collected my top non toxic air freshener brands and their best scent(s) for fall. I’ve also put together my top non toxic candle brands and their newest fall releases! 

[This post contains affiliate links. This means I may make a small commission if you purchase through these links. I’m only going to recommend products that I have tried and love! Sarah is also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.]

Let’s skip to the good part! Top picks for non toxic air fresheners and non toxic candles for fall 2023:

Cleanest ingredients: Primally Pure and Fontana

Best on a budget: Zum and Grow Fragrance

Best at Whole Foods: Caylan Wax Co and Pacha

Most variety of scents: Grow Fragrance 

Most unique candle wax: Open Range Tallow Co (beeswax and tallow)

Most fun candle vessels: L’or de Seraphine 

Best for plug in style: Scent Fill or Enviroscent 

Most eco-friendly system: Enviroscent or Grow Fragrance refillable candle

Table of Contents

Why choose non toxic air fresheners?

Traditional fragranced products like air fresheners and candles can be loaded with chemicals to carry their fragrances, and also the fragrances themselves can contain any number of ingredients and phthalates.

What other chemicals could be lurking in traditional air fresheners and candles?

Toxins in air fresheners:

  • Ethoxylated ingredients
    • Which could be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide which are known carcinogens
  • Polyethylene glycol (PEG) ingredients
    • Which could also be contaminated 
  • Benzisothiazolinone
    • A known skin irritant 
  • Dyes
    • Can emit VOCs
  • Fragrances/perfumes
    • Can contain phthalates and other hormone disruptors
    • Many of the mainstream air fresheners don’t list out what they use for fragrance. In fact, they don’t have to. It’s not required. Meaning, fragrances can be a myriad of ingredients, including phthalates and other hormone/endocrine disrupting chemicals. 
    • Beware! Some of the main brands like Glade and Febreeze are now greenwashing. 
      • They have caught on that we don’t want phthalates and parabens in our products, and I can see on their websites they now say they don’t include these chemicals.
      • When you go to their ingredient lists, they still don’t contain anything natural. Febreze still lists perfumes and fragrance without the sources, amongst a ton of other petroleum, and ethoxylated ingredients. 
      • I still wouldn’t buy these brands anymore because even though they say the buzzwords, they aren’t a clean or non toxic air freshener by my standards.
      • To be on the safe side: Make sure the fragrances are derived from natural sources, essential oils, or if synthetic that they are using phthalate free fragrance oils or comply with IFRA (International Fragrance Association) standards, or test for toxins. Transparent companies will include this information in their product descriptions and/or FAQ sections.

Toxins in candles:

The Waxes:

Paraffin Wax

Widely used is isolated from petroleum, coal or shale – and this could potentially mean that it releases Volatile Organic compounds (VOCs) when burned. These include benzene, toluene and possibly formaldehyde, which are all known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. One article had a great analogy – when you light a paraffin candle you initiate an oil combustion similar to starting a car engine. 

Soy Wax

A byproduct of the soybean industry, has a longer burn time and carries scent better than paraffin, and is considered a safer option compared to paraffin. Locally sourced and/or organic is the best. However, most soy is genetically modified and goes through extensive processing and bleaching. Soy wax could be tainted with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, which can be harmful to the environment and traces might be in the wax. The soybean industry is also linked to environmental issues such as deforestation. 

Stearin Wax

Isolated from animal fat as noted in the history above and more recently vegetable fats – this is considered safer than paraffin as well, and is often added to other waxes for enhancing many properties of the candle such as burn time, hardness, melting point etc. 

Beeswax

Is a naturally occurring byproduct of the beekeeping industry, has a clean burn, a sweeter aroma, and is sturdy. I’ve read it also helps purify the air, not sure if this is myth or truth yet though I need to do more digging! I think it may have to do with positive ions released into the air, will get back to you on that one. This would be, in my opinion, the cleanest wax you could burn!  

Coconut Wax

From coconuts, sustainable and eco-friendly, considered a non-toxic wax, has a clean burn, carries scent well. Downsides: more expensive than others, low melting point often mixed with soy or beeswax or paraffin for enhanced hardness and increased melting point. One of the most eco-friendly and sustainable options outside of beeswax.

Palm Wax

Made from palm trees, is considered a safe and non-toxic wax as well. Downside is that it may not be as eco-friendly as one would think – issues such as deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, make this potentially a less eco-friendly option – you may have to vet where the palm wax is sourced sustainably and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified. It’s also hard to source palm wax outside of a few regions in the world, whereas soy wax can be sourced in the USA. 

Coconut Apricot Wax

I saw a candle company at Whole Foods that uses this Soy, Coconut & Apricot wax blend, which in theory sounds okay to me. Upon further inspection I am seeing a few bulk waxes that are coconut-apricot and contain trace amounts of food grade paraffin for stability. One brand I saw below uses this blend and I emailed to ask them if it contained any traces of Paraffin and they said no. So I’m okay with this blend!

  • One website I found that offers this type of wax in bulk cites some studies that the food-grade paraffin is completely safe – I’ll leave that here from Makesy.com:  – “We add a small amount of food-grade paraffin because we have found it to enhance the performance of our wax and give an excellent hot throw. Scientific studies have proven paraffin wax to burn just as cleanly as soy, beeswax, or palm. And the highly refined food-grade nature of our paraffin puts it in the natural category. You can learn more in this study performed by the National Candle Association.”
Tallow Wax

Sourced from animal fat, a byproduct of meat processing. This might not suit everyone, but it does appear to be another safe burning option, and reduces waste from meat farming practices. 

Thoughts on wax blends

Soy wax + vegetable or plant based wax blends: When I took to Google to find out what else is in these “blends” – it comes up as a mix of potentially coconut, palm or beeswax. When I reached out to a couple companies I mention below, they weren’t able to specify what the vegetable or plant portion was. Although I have purchased a candle like this, but in the future I might prefer 100% wax transparency.

Many Soy blends are blended with paraffin – so be sure to make sure if the candle is a soy blend, that the other wax is something like coconut or palm or beeswax. If it’s a plant or vegetable wax blend, make sure they state they are paraffin free.

Final thoughts on waxes:

Bottom line: look at the sourcing of the wax, and look for 100% pureness or 100% pure blends – even the so-called “non-toxic” waxes could be mixed with paraffin..

If you’re trying to avoid toxins in candles and choose a cleaner option, make sure you read the fine print! Check out the companies FAQ section, check out their blog if they have one. Truly transparent companies are the ones to go for. I do use one company I’ll mention below that uses a Soy-vegetable blend that I am waiting for them to email me back on so I can get that info for you all!

The Wicks:

Make sure the wicks are metal free and only cotton or wood – lead was banned in wicks back in 2003, but would steer clear of metal wicks if companies don’t disclose what it’s made from.

Of note, every candle company I mention here uses cotton wicks, or cotton coated in beeswax – so I don’t mention this again but know they are all safe wicks!

The Dyes

Unless naturally derived, the dyes can also emit VOCs similar to paraffin waxes. Most of the companies I mention below don’t use toxic dyes.

The Fragrance

  • As I mentioned earlier, the fragrances used in many candles are not listed as ingredients and could be loaded with phthalates which are known endocrine disruptors. 
  • Make sure the fragrance oils are naturally derived/essential oils, or if using safe synthetic fragrance oils that they are phthalate free or tested for toxins or comply with IFRA standards- make sure the company has this info in their ingredient description or FAQ section! if they don’t – shoot them an email!
  • Check out my more detailed post on phthalates here

Top non toxic air freshener brands and their best scents for fall

Zum Mist

  • About: I have used a variety of these sprays and always have one in our bathrooms and for our wool dryer balls. I love the simplicity of the ingredients this brand uses and they have a great line of essential oil based products for home and body.
  • Ingredients: water, fragrance (fragrance & essential oils), glycerin
    • Their essential oils are what they use for all their scents – except the Amber and Frankincense & Myrrh scents include a trace amount of phthalate free fragrance oils. Phthalate free is a-okay in my book and I trust their essential oil blends even though they don’t list out every single one on the label. 
  • Cost: $12 for 4oz plastic bottle
  • Best Fall Scents:

Primally Pure room mist

  • About: This brand makes amazing products for skincare, deodorant and home. They use super clean ingredients, and I really love that so many are wildcrafted and organic as well. The deodorant is a fan favorite in the clean beauty world, so it’s no surprise I’m including their super clean room mists on the list! I love that they list each individual oil used for their fragrances too.
  • Ingredients: Distilled water, grape alcohol*, essential oils of cardamom*, wildcrafted orange, blood orange*, cinnamon bark, wildcrafted cacao, wildcrafted ocotea, wildcrafted manuka and roman chamomile*
  • Cost: $32 for 2 oz bottle
  • Best Fall Scents:
    • Warm Citrus Spice Room Spray
    • Crispy Smokey Woods Room Spray

Fontana Home Sprays

  • About: Super simple ingredients – this is the only non toxic air freshener I came across that is MADE SAFE certified – it doesn’t get cleaner than that! They recently shared on their Instagram that customers keep asking for APPLE scented things, and their response was….apple doesn’t have an oil – so there is no such thing as an apple scented essential oil! I love that transparency! They also list out each oil used to create their fragrances which I appreciate!
  • Ingredients: Hammamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel), distilled water, and essential oils (depending on the scent, it lists out which ones) 
  • Cost: $9.99 for 1 oz tube 
  • Best Fall Scents:

Grow Fragrance

  • About: Love the ingredient transparency, and the scent variety. In order to do this, they do use a longer list of ingredients mostly essential oils and safe synthetics and they include where they are all derived. I won’t list them all out because it is more detailed on their website. I appreciate that they list out every single ingredient!
  • Ingredients: Certified bio-based ingredients, made without Phthalates, Parabens, Petroleum & Synthetic Petrochemicals
  • Cost: $14 for 5 oz 
  • Best Fall Scents:

Other brands that I came across and if I would use them:

Scent Fill

  • About: Scent Fill – they make a 100% natural line that is compatible with the plug-in style home fragrance diffusers.  The 100% natural line is probably the main line I would buy from for this company – they state that this is the only line that doesn’t contain synthetic materials compared to the rest of their lines. They have some proprietary blends and are unable to disclose all the ingredients in some of their synthetics per their FAQ section so I probably won’t use those. I don’t see mention of phthalates either in the synthetics so I’d stick to the 100% natural line if you want a plug in style fragrance.
  • Cost: $26.95 for a 3 pack of plug in 100% natural scents and plug in diffuser
  • Best Fall Scents: They have some 100% natural category fall scents, the rest of their fall scents sound amazing but they all contain extra synthetics.
    • 100% Natural Paolo Santo – although it’s a bunch of different oils that make up the scent
    • 100% Natural Juniper Woods
    • 100% Natural Cherry Almond Twist

Freshwave

This claims to be an odor eliminator spray and gel brand. They seem super transparent and include mainly essential oils until you get to their ingredients and they have a trade secret proprietary blend of plant oils they don’t disclose. This bums me out and makes me not want to use them. But otherwise they do look pretty clean!

Grab Green

 At first these seemed like a great non toxic air freshener, and I used to use this brand. I see they have Benzisothiazolinone that can be a skin irritant. I do allow this in my stain remover, but I don’t necessarily want it in something lingering in the air and getting on my skin. They use a combination of essential oils and synthetic ingredients and I have used a few of them in our bathrooms over the years until I learned about Benzisothiazolinone more recently.

Enviroscent

  • About: This company has detailed ingredients you can read on “Smart Label” and they have an extensive “no list” of what they leave out. It looks like they use a mix of essential oils and safer synthetic fragrance and they are all phthalate free. This checks the boxes for a good non toxic air freshener.
  • They also have an eco-friendly refill system, and liquid-free plug in style as well. I would consider this a safer choice for a plug in or stick style non toxic air freshener.
    • Comes in plug ins, reed stick diffusers or room sprays (no fall scents for the room sprays though, only the plug in puck style and stick diffusers)
  • Best fall scents:
    • Vanilla Bean & Pumpkin Chai
    • Honeycrisp Apple + Cardamon

Top non toxic candle brands and their best scents for fall:

Grow Fragrance:

  • About: Such a great reusable votive idea – you purchase once and then get refill candles when needed and its a chic white neutral votive. 
  • Wax ingredients: 100% soy and coconut wax from USA
  • Fragrance ingredients: 100% plant based fragrance and also reusable votives and cotton wicks
  • Cost: $34 for canister and refill, $22 for just the refill, 2 candles and refills for $60
  • Best Fall Scents:

Fontana:

  • About: I love that their wax blend and their use of super clean essential oils and are the only brand here with the MADESAFE certification to be toxin free!
  • Wax ingredients: coconut and beeswax candles
  • Fragrance ingredients: essential oils only
  • Cost: $14.99 for 6 oz tin, $23.99 for 9oz glass jar
  • Best Fall Scents:
    • Cinnamon, Orange, Clove
    • Citrus Peel & Pine
    • Spiced Latte
    • Allspice, Ginger, Vanilla
    • Pure Vanilla

Primally Pure:

  • About: Amazingly clean brand from skincare, deodorant, room sprays and candles. Their candles are only a few scents and pricey, but the only one with Organic and Wildcrafted ingredients in this list!
  • Wax ingredients: Beeswax and Coconut oil candles
  • Fragrance ingredients: organic and wildcrafted essential oils for a super clean candle
  • Cost: $46 for 6 oz and $56 for 9 oz jar 
  • Best Fall Scents:

Open Range Tallow Co

  • About: I came across this brand recently and am so excited to try their soap and their harvest spice candle (I just ordered!) I love their philosophy using and honoring the entire animal, as they use tallow from cow as part of their skincare and candles. 
  • Wax ingredients: Tallow and Beeswax candles 
  • Fragrance ingredients: essential oils
  • Cost: $14.40 for 4 oz and $22.50 for 8 oz jars 
  • Best Fall Scents:

Zum candles:

  • About: I love the simplicity of the ingredients in this brand – made in the USA, it’s just soy wax, and essential oils! I love everything this brand makes honestly! 
  • Wax ingredients: Soy wax
  • Fragrance ingredients: essential oils (and trace amount of phthalate free fragrance oil in the Amber and Frankincense & Myrrh scents)
  • Best Fall Scents:
    • Clove – Orange 
    • Amber
    • Frankincense & Myrrh 

The Beeswax Co:

  • About: Texas beeswax at its finest! 
  • Wax ingredients: 100% beeswax candles from local Texas beekeepers – nothing else added, just natural beeswax scent!
  • Fragrance ingredients: none 
  • They have a seasonal section where they have candles in different shapes – check out this adorable pumpkin one here

Other Candle Companies I would consider but aren’t as natural as the above:

Snif candles:

  • About: Popular perfume and candle company I’ve seen. I do have a candle from here, but upon further inspection they do use a soy and vegetable wax blend (I thought it was just 100% Soy initially).
  • Wax ingredients: soy wax and vegetable wax made in USA 
  • Fragrance ingredients: natural and synthetic sources, and they state specifically no phthalates, parabens, formaldehydes or endocrine-disrupting ingredients.
    • In the future I might only buy from brands that have 100% soy or are more clear on the “vegetable” wax part
  • Cost: $46 for 8 oz candle and goes up from there.
  • Best Fall Scents:

L’or de Seraphine:

  • About: unique reusable vessels and more luxury compared to some other brands. If pretty vessels and more swanky style is your thing these seem okay to me! 
  • Wax ingredients: RSPO certified palm wax
  • Fragrance ingredients: essential oils, phthalate free, no dyes, reusable ceramic vessels. 
  • Cost: $36 for 6.4 oz and goes up from there
  • Best Fall Scents:
    • Joan
    • Billie
    • Aurora
    • Tama
    • Monroe

Candles I found at Whole Foods and would I use them?

Calyan Wax Co

  • Would I use them? Yes! this is the cleanest purest one I found at Whole Foods!
  • About: Handcrafted in Texas, great mission to help survivors of human trafficking – they donate 5% of their profits.
  • Wax ingredients: 100% USA sourced soy wax
  • Fragrance ingredients: Essential oils and phthalate free fragrance oils – No added dyes, no paraffin, no phthalates, no parabens.
  • Best Fall Scents:

Pacha candles

  • Would I use? Yes
  • About: This company uses a lot of essential oils and is pretty transparent as well – They have a great mission and also partner with the Sustainable Certified Coconut Oil Project.
  • Wax ingredients: Soy, Coconut-Apricot wax blend. I emailed to ask if they knew if any paraffin was in the blend and they said nope! 
  • Fragrance: Essential oils and natural fragrances. I can’t find more details into the exact oils in the candles though.
    • When I emailed they responded quickly – that “All of our scents are made from naturally occurring ingredients and are not synthetically created.” And they specified the regulations they comply with the IFRA and provided me with a link. Great customer service here!

Illume:

  • Would I use them? No
  • About: Pretty candles but not much else as far as ingredient transparency
  • Wax ingredients: proprietary – don’t disclose exact ingredient lists. Looks like blends of soy, responsibly sourced palm, carnauba and paraffin. 
  • Fragrance ingredients: proprietary – don’t disclose but state can contain natural and synthetic and no comment on phthalates or toxins they avoid.
    • There are a bunch of beautiful looking candles at Whole Foods which usually has a lot of safe products. I checked out the ingredients and it looks like they don’t share them per their FAQ section. 

Good Chemistry

  • Would I use them? Possibly
  • About: sister company to Illume (above) with better ingredient transparency and cleaner ingredients and very eco-friendly
  • Wax ingredients: 100% sustainably sourced, biodegradable plant-based vegan wax blend – I emailed to get further detail on the plant waxes and they said it’s mostly soy wax and a variety of other plant waxes but couldn’t provide what plant waxes… 
  • Fragrance ingredients: safe synthetics and essential oils – free of Parabens, Phthalates, Propylene Glycol, Dyes, Paraffin, and are Recyclable with Terracycle with a biodegradable formula and packaging.

Lux Naturals

  • Would I use? Possibly
  • About: Decently transparent brand with safer fragrance
  • Wax ingredients: Soy wax blends with other vegetable waxes. When I emailed they said it’s a proprietary soy/vegetable blend from the manufacturer. They don’t have the specifics but it’s paraffin free. 
  • Fragrance Ingredients: Essential oil or synthetics, and free of parabens, phthalates, sulfates, glycols.

Paddywax Candles

  • Would I use? Possibly 
  • About: Love their philosophy that everything is meant to be repurposed, all made in the USA
  • Wax ingredients: Soy wax blend – soy is all USA sourced but not sure what the blend part is from the website. I emailed them to confirm and will update when I hear back.
  • Fragrance ingredients: They don’t specify any anywhere that I can find on the website – just stated that their materials are “free of formaldehyde, phthalates, and animal-sourced ingredients making them safe, as well as cruelty-free”

Non toxic Odor Eliminators:

I have only used the Force of Nature spray, and we LOVE it for its multi-purpose uses. The others on here I wanted to include since I did get asked about one of them and I have also seen Ads for it so I wanted to make sure I looked into it! 

Force of Nature

This is more of an odor eliminating spray, as it doesn’t contain fragrance. This works as not only an odor eliminator but also a disinfectant! I use this on our kitchen counters, baby toys, bathroom, you name it I’ve used it on there and it works great. 

Azuna odor eliminators

  • I see Ads for this often, and it in theory seems like a clean and non-toxic option. 
  • I sent an email to the company to ask more about the plant based polymer they use to make their tea tree gel. This was their response: “All of our treatments include the finest Australian tea tree oil, a natural polymer, water, and each scented option has an added proprietary blend of essential oils! Everything in our products is plant based and all natural!”
  • I honestly don’t know if I would use these as I like to know what the essential oil blends are and they wouldn’t elaborate more and I don’t agree with “proprietary blend” as an answer. 

Moso Natural charcoal and bamboo odor eliminators

  • Uses bamboo charcoal to absorb odor particles from the air. This product actually looks really interesting!
    • Eco-friendly (no plastic, and bamboo is sustainable)
    • Can re-purpose in your garden when it’s time is done as an air purifier (2 years)
    • No fragrances or oils etc so nothing to worry about there

Poo-Puorri

  • A non toxic air freshener post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this brand of course! I used to love them. I really did. But one time my husband got a bunch of them on his hands and got hives all over his hands and face… when I emailed the company they gave me their generic response which is also on their website and I’ll never use their products again unfortunately. I appreciate that there are trade secrets and proprietary blends but when it comes to what I am breathing in and spraying and can get on my body and especially when my husband had a reaction, they wouldn’t disclose still.
    • What they say about their ingredients: “All of our formulas are consciously crafted with ingredients that not only smell amazing but are guaranteed to eliminate odor! Poo~Pourri is made with essential oils, plant-based materials and other proprietary ingredients (that are totally good for you and the world but are also totally top secret so big giant companies don’t steal what our founder generously created!). We’d tell you, but then we’d have to… well, you know the rest.”

Final thoughts

There is surprisingly a lot of thought that goes into non toxic air freshener choices and non toxic candles! Whew that was a long post! From the fragrance oils and the wax ingredients – I hope this helps you determine what sits best with you and your home! 

If you love filling your home with a plug in style, or if you only use an air freshener in the bathroom, you may choose a brand you’re comfortable with differently based on how often you spray or leave plugged in. We mainly use them in our bathrooms, so I typically use a non toxic air freshener spray like the Zum mist in ours. I plan to try Grow and Fontana next!

If you only use candles occasionally you may not care what the wax is or where the fragrance is derived – and that’s okay with me. I burn candles only occasionally in the fall and winter and I do my best to pick companies that use phthalate free fragrances and paraffin free waxes. 

You have to choose what you’re comfortable with and I hope this gives you some great options to try! 

What are your favorite scents for fall?

xo- Sarah