Paraffin vs. Palm vs. Soy

[Daves'sHomemade]

I have been creating candles for about 4 months now. I have used 4794 for votives and 4630 for glass containers. Having always been one to burn candles almost daily, I originally started to make them so I would not have to keep buying Yankees. All of my votives burn and smell great and have only made one bad batch (will not use that FO - Color combination again). All of my glass has been 8 oz. so far and also a few tins. Recently here I saw some examples of containers using Glass Glow and wow what a beautiful look. Then I see so many people using Soy. I am so pleased with the results using Paraffin. How many of you started with Paraffin and switched to Palm or Soy or do you all seem to use it all? Very interested to hear your responses. I do recycle and I do not litter but I am not out to save the world one candle at a time. So far all of my candles have been used personally or given as gifts (disguised as testers), however the quality of what I am producing is I believe as good (so my wife and testers tell me) as Yankee.

Thanks, Dave

[Judy, USMC]

Started out with paraffin a decade ago. As some of my customers started asking for soy did my testing and developed that line. I loved the look of palm so I started playing with that also.

So far the paraffin sells the best to my long-time customers. Soy accounts for about 25% of the business. And, since palm containers require extra TLC during production, I only offer them around Christmas.

[ChrisR]

I actually started out with soy about 10 years ago (came in a 5 lb. pain in the butt bucket then) and used paraffin for my votives & pillars. I switched to my own soy/paraffin blend about 5 years ago, as I like that it gives a strong scent throw and isn't so fussy on what FO with actually throw.

[mparadise]

I too started with Paraffin and switched to Palm about 3 years ago. I am REALLY glad I started with a preblended one pour paraffin because it took away alot of the "ifs" you get with some of the other waxes and let me focus on figuring out how to get the right wicking, wax to FO ratios, etc down without having to deal with all the finicky things that wax can do. I still miss the ease of my J50 but my customers all want natural waxes and the palm makes my customers happy so that is the route I chose. If you, your family and friends are happy with paraffin then don't switch. It is as simple as that. There are plenty of things that you can do to make the paraffin burn cleaner (make sure the wick size isn't too big, keep it trimmed regularly, etc) so if that is what makes you happy stay with it. I still have a small stash of J50 that I use to make candles for personal use once in a while too just because I CAN:) .

[Georgia]

I actually started with soy in containers, switched to paraffin, then went to a para/soy blend. I use a blend with a different ratio for votives and melts. I like the blend because I get the best properties of both. My pillars are still paraffin.

[topofmurrayhill]

Use what you like--there's no candle wax that helps the planet or protects anyone's health or property. That's just trendy fiction (or, more accurately, marketing hype from the soybean growers associations and agribusiness corporations).

The palm waxes automagically give you that crystalline look, which is a pretty cool gimmick although they don't give you the best burning candle in the world. Candles made exclusively from vegetable oil (aka "pure soy") don't always come out looking the best and have the annoying quality of morphing over time.

The best and most versatile candlemaking material ever discovered is paraffin, so that's what most candles and most of the best candles will continue to contain. However, candle waxes (and especially container waxes) are often blends of different substances in addition to paraffin. Sometimes it's all petroleum-derived materials, but vegetable fat can work very well as a blending material. Thus, as someone mentioned, "parasoy" waxes can make a candle that works well and looks nice and doesn't turn crappy over time.

[Stella1952]

We began candlemaking with soy and then added palm wax to the lineup. Of the two, I actually prefer palm wax. The palm wax candles (especially pillars) are very long-lasting, have great scent throw, burn very well for us (using CDN wicks), and the wax can be manipulated by varying the temperature to give both a crystal effect or a plain, semi-translucent effect. The wax is very hard, so it's prone to cracking/crazing and jump lines (especially when poured cool). Palm pillars need to sit up for about a week to harden - the corners are easily crushed when fresh. The pillars can then be polished to a high gloss (we don't polish crystal ones generally). I also like the fact that palm wax doesn't have any discernable fragrance of its own, whereas soy has a "creamy" smell to it. Palm is far more forgiving, easier with which to work generally and it's structure is far more stable than soy (although it will exhibit some polymorphic changes - especially in containers - from time to time).

Nonetheless, I love my soy container candles and they continue to sell very well for us. Soy wax is slightly less expensive, so that's good! HTH

[Daves'sHomemade]

Thanks for all of your insights! Dave