Candle Making Wax …What kinds are there & where do they come from?

Paraffin Wax… Paraffin wax is commonly used for candle making. It was developed in the 1800’s and is a by product of the petroleum industry. It is found mixed in with the crude oil. Plants coat their leaves and stems with a waxy substance to protect them from extreme weather. When plant and animal material accumulates in large quantities and is slowly cooked under pressure deep beneath the earth’s surface for millions of years it becomes crude oil.

These waxes are inert and water repellent (that’s how they protected the plant so well) so the rotting/cooking plant and animal material doesn’t react with them. Even after 100’s of millions of years they just float in the crude oil.

Oil companies pump up the crude oil and ‘refine’ (which is to say they change it) it into such things as gasoline and motor oil. Wax isn’t good for these things so they sort out the wax and sell it.

Tallow… Historically speaking this is the candle making wax of choice used for hundreds if not thousands of years Made from rendered animal fat. Basically it’s the stuff that you skim off your hamburger when you brown it. I did this once and you can take my word for it rendering fat is a NASTY process. Avoid it if you can! Tallow is no longer widely used for candle making except for historical re-enactors and historians as it gives off tons of soot and has an unpleasant smell.

Bees Wax… Honey bees make this wax to create containers to store their honey in. It is really a ‘refined’ form of honey. First a female worker bee eats some honey. Her body changes the sugars in the honey into a wax. This wax is then excreted from her body in the form of scales under her abdomen.

Next she’ll pull these scales off and chew them up. This mixes the wax with her saliva making it pliable enough for her to stick onto the comb under construction and mold it into shape. Each bit of wax is often picked up and chewed by several bees before being added permanently to place on the comb. Once a cell of the comb is completed it is filled with honey and capped off with more wax.

We get the wax after the honey has been harvested and squeezed out. So bees wax is a byproduct of the honey making process just like paraffin is a byproduct of the petroleum making process. Bee keepers (both ancient and modern) save up the cleaned wax until they have enough to process into candles or sell..

Today this candle making wax can be purchased in both yellow and white forms. It usually comes in pellets for easier melting. Beeswax tends to be sticky so if you’re using a mold I suggest a rubber one.

Bayberry wax… Early colonial women looking for an alternative to tallow candles (link to candle making in colonial times) discovered this candle making wax. Bayberry wax is made by boiling bayberries MANY of the tiny bluish grey berries that grow on bayberry shrubs. In fact it takes from 3 to 15 pounds of bayberries to make 1 pound of candle making wax. The wax is skimmed off when it floats to the top.

On the upside there is no need to add fragrance or color to this candle making wax. It dries an olive green color and has a pleasant fresh scent. The down side is it’s very hard and brittle.

Palm wax… This rare candle making wax comes from palm trees as the name suggests. Palm wax is 100% natural. It is a hard wax with a high melt point around 140. It can be used as a stand alone candle making wax or as an additive to other natural or synthetic waxes. When hardened it has a crystalline appearance. When shopping look for it in flake form.

Gel Wax… This is definitely a modern candle making wax. This is the stuff we see in those candles that look like little fish bowls complete with fake fish suspended inside. Made from mineral oil and a gelling agent it is clear and totally transparent. Used exclusively in container novelty candles it has a rubbery texture when set.

Gel wax is one of the most dangerous candle making waxes to work with. It is difficult reach it’s melting point in a double boiler so most folks put it in a pot directly on the stove. I can not emphasize enough how dangerous this can be! Do not take your eyes off it for a minute. If you pass the melt point and reach the flash point (which can happen faster then you think) you have a dangerous and explosive situation on your hands.

Remember if you do decide to try out this candle making wax, start off with low heat and slowly increase the temperature until you reach your desired heat. And there is a plus to heating slowly like this… the longer you heat this candle making wax, the less bubbles you will get. Also don’t add any fragrance or color as this affects the melting and flash point.

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