Soy vs. Soy Blend

What is soy wax?

Soy wax is a vegetable wax made from the oil of soybeans. After harvesting, the beans are cleaned, cracked, de-hulled, and rolled into flakes. The oil is then extracted from the flakes and hydrogenated.

The hydrogenation process converts some of the fatty acids in the oil from unsaturated to saturated. This process dramatically alters the melting point of the oil, making it solid at room temperature. The leftover bean husks are commonly used as animal feed.

The U.S. grows the vast majority of the world's soybeans, primarily in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

Source: https://www.candlescience.com/learning/what-is-soy-wax/

What is soy blend?

Soy blend wax takes the soy wax and blends it with food-grade paraffin wax.  Paraffin has long been regarded for its easy burn and amazing scent throw.  The industry has been trying to capture the "best of both worlds" for years.  Most of your commercial type candles are made with a soy blended wax.

There are many types of soy blends.  Some are 70/30 paraffin/soy while others are 52/48 soy/paraffin and many in between.  In our testing we have found the 52/48 soy/paraffin blend to be the best for both cold and hot throw so this is where we landed.  The soy is well known for it's clean burning, long lasting effects but the scent throw can sometimes be a little challenging to achieve.  By adding a percentage of paraffin to the mix you not only get the fantastic burn characteristics of the paraffin wax (mainly strong scent throw) but you also get smooth tops and long lasting candles, thanks to the soy.

Please note not all candles are available in the soy blend.  We do extensive testing on our candles and not all candles have been through this rigorous process.  Once a candle has been thoroughly tested, it will be added as an option to the website.  If you would like to suggest a particular scent in the soy blend, you may request it and I will bump it up in the testing process which still could be several weeks out.  In conclusion, the candles are tested for safety and scent throw and we have determined that the best scent throw is in the soy blended wax.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, we offer both 100% soy wax candles and soy blend candles. We do this because, quite simply, it makes the best burning and best scented candle without any additional environmental impact. If we make a 100% soy candle, it will be clearly labeled as such. Otherwise, we label it as soy blend.