All About Coconut Wax
Wax is the largest component of the candle (and one of the most important!), therefore it's worth it to understand how wax is produced, and ultimately burned since you will be enjoying the candle in your home or office. Read on to find out why I chose to use coconut wax in my line.
Coconut Wax - First off, it's important to know although coconut wax is derived the meat of a coconut and turned into wax, there is NO coconut scent in the wax! Coconut wax is
- Sustainable: made from a sustainable, easy renewable crop - the coconut!
- Scent: scent throw is typically higher/better than soy wax
- Burning Time: burns cleaner and longer than soy
- Overlooked: Coconut wax has often been passed up by candle manufactures as it's more expensive than the alternatives.
Please bear in the mind that we can't say coconut wax is 100% coconut wax. This wax is blended and fortified with a small amount of natural vegetable, soy, beeswax and about 8% of food-grade paraffin waxes. Unfortunately, 100% coconut wax is too soft to work alone without a bit of support from its friends! I do add a small amount of white beeswax to harden the wax.
Other Types of Waxes
Soy - Soy has been a favorite among the all natural candle community for quite some time. Although soy is better than paraffin wax, it does come with some challenges. It can be difficult to get a good scent throw and it can be an unsightly wax (creating uneven tops, "milk" stains on jars, etc). Furthermore, because soy is derived from the soy bean crop, it is almost impossible to find a 100% non-GMO soy wax, despite what many candle labels will read.
Paraffin Wax - Paraffin wax has been around and used to make candles for many years. It is low cost and is known for it's wonderful scent and burning properties. However, since paraffin wax is a by product of the oil industry, it is not sustainable in any way. There have been some studies pointing to the health hazards of paraffin, however, the studies are rather inconclusive. Most likely, a human would have be exposed to extremely high levels of paraffin to suffer any negative consequences. Many large candle manufactures use paraffin (or paraffin blends) to produce their candles.
Beeswax - Similar to the honey in your pantry, beeswax comes from the hives of bees. Beeswax does come with a lovely honey color, but can be difficult to incorporate scents in to. Personally, I wanted a whiter color for my candles so chose not to use beeswax.