When you see artisan candles, you often see the term "100% SOY wax." Why don't we use 100% soy? More importantly, what are the differences between some of the more popular wax materials used in the candle making process.
We use 3 types of wax in our candles.
5% of our material is paraffin. Parrafin has been used in candle making for over 150 years. It is a by product of crude oil production. -It burns quickly (which is why we don't use much), but it is colorless and odorless. It is a good material to mix scented oils with because their aroma comes out effectively through it. It pools quickly, which is why we use it. (the pool is where the scent is released in a candle burn.) This means that our candle develops a pool quickly and begins to woft the aroma of the candle into the atmosphere. However, It creates more soot, which is why we use a limited amount of it.
10% of our material is beeswax. Why do we use it? None of your beeswax! (just kidding!) Beeswax is nearly 10X the cost of Soy wax, which is much more expensive than paraffin. Beeswax burns more slowly than Parrafin. It also has a naturally sweet scent. When it is being melted for candle production it has an amazing scent. We use it because it burns very cleanly, burns slowly and really ties the scented oils together beautifully because of it's naturally sweet scent. Beeswax releases negative ions which react and attract positive charged particles like dust/soot/pollen and other small free radicals. They essentially do what a negative ionizer air filter does. Pretty cool huh?
(photo from pinterest)
85% of our material is soy wax. Why do we use this? It is a naturally made substance. It has a slow burn. It burns longer than beeswax, and nearly twice as long as paraffin. They produce less soot than parrafin. If soy wax drips it can be cleaned more easily with water. This makes it great around the house if it drips into or onto textiles. It has a much higher cost than paraffin, but due to these benefits, we choose to use it in such large quantities.
Why use paraffin at all? Each of our materials serves a purpose. The scent oils added to candle wax have a tendency to not stay blended when they are heated. They then settle. By mixing a limited amount of paraffin into our blend, we believe we are suspending our scent more evenly, even in a long term burn with a large/deep wax pool.
We believe we have the best possible mix of materials that provide benefits to the environment, your immediate environment, and in the consistent scent release in our candles.
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