Wax is the foundation of the candle. Everything else, the wick, the fragrance, the cure time, the vessel, works in relationship to the wax. The choice of wax type isn't aesthetic; it's structural. We use 100% soy wax, and the reasons are specific.
What Soy Does
Soy wax is a softer wax with a lower melt point than paraffin. That softness is what makes it work with our approach. It binds fragrance oil more fully at the ratios we use, which means the fragrance integrates into the wax rather than sitting in it, and that integration is what produces a consistent scent throw across the life of the candle rather than front-loading the fragrance in the first few burns.
Soy also burns cooler and more slowly than paraffin. A slower burn means the melt pool develops gradually and evenly, which is important for getting the candle to reach full pool diameter on the first burn without the flame running hot. It also means the candle lasts longer. Soy also burns cleaner than paraffin. Its combustion produces fewer of the particulates and VOCs associated with petroleum-derived waxes. See What Makes a Candle Burn Well.
What Soy Doesn't Do
There's an honest downside. Soy wax is more temperature-sensitive than paraffin. It can develop surface imperfections (frosting, sinkholes) if the ambient temperature changes significantly during or after the pour. This is part of why our pour environment is controlled and why we're consistent about cooling conditions after each small-batch pour. See What It Means to Pour at the Right Temperature.
Soy wax also produces a softer surface finish that can show fingerprints or slight denting if handled roughly. We accept this because the performance tradeoff is worth it. The candle is for burning, not for handling, and when it's burning, soy performs.
Why We're Not Changing It
We work in 100% soy, and only soy. For the scents we've developed and tested, blended from individual fragrance oils and cured for a minimum of two weeks, soy is the material they were built around. Changing the wax would mean re-evaluating every fragrance blend from scratch.
The candles you buy from us will always have some of the character of handmade soy production, which includes the minor surface variation that comes with a natural wax. We consider that part of what they are, not a flaw in them.
Every candle in the collection is poured in 100% soy.