All About Candle Wax - Beeswax VS Paraffin VS Soy Wax
When it comes to choosing candles for your home, there are mountains of options to choose from. From fragrance to color to shape to wax type, these decisions can feel insurmountable if you aren't sure about what these differences actually mean. In this blog post let's dive into the fundamental aspect of what a candle is: the wax.
What is paraffin?
Since you are here you probably already know the answer to this question. If so, scroll on. But if you're new to the holistic spaces of the internet, allow me to be your guide on this.
According to our master and overlord Google, paraffin wax is defined as:
a flammable, translucent, waxy solid consisting of a mixture of saturated hydrocarbons, obtained by distillation from petroleum or shale and used in candles, cosmetics, polishes, and sealing and waterproofing compounds.
The keywords here are "distillation from petroleum or shale". To make it easy to understand without getting into the nitty gritty, paraffin is a byproduct of crude oil refinement. As the oil is refined, paraffin wax crystals form which are harvested, further refined, and then sold in big blocks. You may have also noticed that candle wax isn't the only thing paraffin is used for. It's in your makeup, your polishes, anything that says "waterproof" might be coated in it, etc. But of course it's also used for cheap candles.
To make a sort of vulgar comparison, paraffin wax is a cousin to plastic. And burning it, as one would expect from burning plastic, can significantly deteriorate your indoor air quality. Poor air quality and increased airborne toxins can and often does lead to declining health.
In short, paraffin wax is what has a lot of people screaming that "candles are toxic", because it (along with the petroleum based fragrances and dyes used) is extremely toxic, especially in a closed space with low air circulation. Like in your home, during the cold weather months, when most people burn candles.
Paraffin is toxic, that's obvious. What about soy?
Soy wax is all the rage right now, and I can see why. It's cheap, it's plentiful, it's not a petroleum byproduct, and it can look suuuuuper cute if you use molds or whip it up. Dessert candles are super aesthetic, that's for sure!
But there are three things about soy that put the brakes on for me.
The first is where soy-- and by extension all vegetable waxes-- actually come from.
Soy is a bean, and like all beans it is not waxy. Certainly not waxy enough to actually harvest wax from in a slow and healthy process. Instead soy wax comes from soybean oil. The oil is taken, hydrogenated (the process of adding hydrogen to change the chemical makeup of the wax, making it burn slower and become solid at room temperature), refined and then sold as candle wax. And soybean oil is made by sending soybeans through an extensive mechanical and chemical process, including a solvent chemical like hexane, which is extremely toxic not only to ingest (I won't talk about consuming seed oils here though) but to breathe. This process is not only for soy, but for ANY seed oil that is not cold-pressed.
And while many experts say that these chemicals disappear after processing, leaving the final refined product- either the oil or the wax- completely safe, I can't help but wonder a little bit at that claim. Personally I wouldn't want to take the risk that even a minute amount of hexane still existed in my wax, and therefore my candle or wax melts.
The second reason why soy wax concerns me is the amount of adulteration which occurs with it. There is a tremendous amount of deceit in wax production, and so often what you think you're buying isn't what you're getting. There have been many articles about how soy wax has been tampered with and sold as "soy wax" when it is actually largely scented paraffin. This problem exists to a high degree with beeswax as well (never EVER buy beeswax off Amazon) but it is so easy to tell. You can smell and feel the difference, and the burn is drastically different between adulterated wax and pure beeswax. It is, however, much more difficult to tell when vegetable waxes have been tampered with. Unless the person you're getting your candles and melts from is extremely fussy and jumping down the manufacturers' throat for transparency, you can never be sure if what you're getting is the real deal or not.
The final reason why soy wax is a no-go for me is because it is not environmentally friendly. Now I know you're probably saying that soy wax is eco friendly because it's renewable and doesn't come from big petroleum. While both of those things are true, so it's better than paraffin, there are a lot of major environmental concerns which surround soy production and therefor soy wax. Notably that it causes deforestation, it is a GMO crop farmed with a bunch of pesticides resulting in a lot of damage to local ecology including water contamination, and mono crop farming all on its own has damaging effects on soil health and biodiversity. And soil health and biodiversity are what make our food good for us, so we want as much of both as we can get, which we don't have with monoculture farming.
There is one partial exception to all this...
Coconut wax is a new kid on the block when it comes to candle wax. While the process of making coconut wax is very similar to that of soy wax, there is one major difference.
You do start with coconut oil, but coconuts are actually quite fatty all on their own so you can cold press coconut oil from them. That means no chemical extraction, and therefore no hexane and other extremely toxic solvents. While most coconut waxes aren't made from cold pressed oil, it is possible to find them so you're not exposing yourself to those chemicals.
However, like waxes which start as an oil, coconut oil is typically hydrogenated to make it firmer at room temperature, which in turn increases its burn time. And because of the qualities of coconut wax it's very rarely used as the exclusive wax in any candle. More often you will find coconut wax blends in candles, which is usually a blend with soy wax or, less commonly, beeswax.
There are also still environmental concerns about coconut oil production, namely in clearing forest and natural habitats in order to make room for coconut farms. We're still looking at monoculture farming to meet demand, which results in monoculture practices- typically bad ones. And the only way to hydrogenate these oils is in factories or labs, so you're back to requiring big industry to produce this wax.
So while coconut wax is certainly an improvement on soy wax, it isn't a miracle wax and it still needs to be paired with something else to make a functional candle.
Okay fine, so soy wax and vegetable waxes aren't the best. Let's look at beeswax!
You're here on a beeswax website so you know there's bias here, but I can make my case pretty easily and then you may find yourself having a bias, too.
We have learned that there are extensive mechanical and chemical processes required to render vegetable waxes and paraffin. Both of them need a factory, or several, to get from their original form to a product used to make candles.
Beeswax stands apart in that it does require a chemical process... that bees do all on their own! You see, beeswax is produced by glands in the worker bees' bodies. They consume honey, and these glands (known as the wax gland or mirror gland) turn that honey into wax, which is secreted from the underside of their abdomen. Once enough wax has been produced, the bee then gathers it up, chews it to make it soft, and then sculpts it into the hive structure to build up the hive and comb.
When the beekeeper harvests honey from their hives, which a good keeper can do without harming their hives or bees, gathering the comb is just a part of the process. The comb and cappings can be cleaned, melted down, and filtered to give you a beautiful beeswax block ready for use in candle making. And don't be fooled: when I say "cleaned, melted down, and filtered", the entire process can be done in your home with nothing more than a big pot of water and some cheesecloth. No chemicals, no industrial equipment, heck you could do it over a fire if you were so inclined.
It is the simplicity of this process, with no synthetic or toxic chemicals required, that makes me feel very safe using beeswax not only in my candles, but in any of my products. And while I did mention above that beeswax has a tendency to be contaminated or an outright lie from certain suppliers (seriously, NEVER buy beeswax from Amazon) I know for a fact that my products use 100% pure beeswax, clean and golden and beautiful with that delightful honey scent only real beeswax can offer.
It is this purity that makes my products and those of others like me worth the hype. Even hyper sensitive people are able to enjoy these candles, which warms my heart.