Soy vs Palm vs Paraffin

[Mozzie]

I'm feeling very excited because I've just stumbled across a new supplier that offers both soy and palm wax. Having only ever used paraffin before, could anyone out there please tell me what are the benefits and pitfalls of each of the 3 types? I will be making pillars and votives. TIA.

Maureen

[Henryk]

These are my opinions only. I have used all three waxes you mentioned. I like palm for decorative effect only. I just don't like the way it burns. Pillars break apart and containers have to get hot for a good melt pool. Nor do I like soy for pillars, again, I don’t like the way it burns down, unless its blended with something else to make it more pliable, though I do like the way soy pillars look. Soy is great for containers and votives however and is my first choice for them unless I want a darker color or an effect like mottling. I like paraffin pillars not only because of the different effects you can achieve, but, if wicked properly will burn beautifully and consume itself (something I'm still working on myself). I also like the translucency of paraffin. You didn't mention these but beeswax is great for pillars also because of its good burning properties. It needs too hot of a wick though so I don't use it for votives or containers. Finally bayberry is great for tapers, especially when blended with beeswax. Speaking of tapers, palm is too hard to wick for them, and soy is too soft, straight beeswax or beeswax/bayberry is what I think is best for tapers, followed by paraffin.

On the whole natural waxes are MUCH more opaque than paraffin, so paraffin will take color much better than something like soy, beeswax or palm. All paraffin I have used are much more translucent than natural waxes, unless they are pre-blends and then are not straight paraffin.

HTH

[DanaE]

Ditto on what Henry said. Couldn't have said it better myself. I love the look of palm waxes, but they are brittle, they are hard to work with (trying to poke relief holes with brittle wax is tough for me), I can't seem to get them to burn effectively and you can't help the pillar by hugging it because the wax will break.

As far as soy pillars, I like to mix soy container wax with some types of paraffin because it gives a gorgeous creamy look.

There's so many fun things to do with paraffin wax that I could play forever and not run out of new experiments

DanaE

[Mozzie]

Thanks for your great information, disappointing tho' it was to hear as I was hoping for much more from both the soy and the palm. I think that I'll try a little soy for votives and a little palm for pillars just to see how it works. You guys have just saved me a bundle of money as I normally go gung ho for huge quantities and it would have been so frustrating to find that they don't react like paraffin. Thanks again. I love this board.