Why we pour with coconut and soy wax

Wax is the part of a candle nobody talks about and the part that decides almost everything: how evenly it burns, how much scent reaches you, and what is left in the air afterwards. We are asked about ours often enough that it is worth setting out plainly.

What the wax is actually doing

Wax is fuel. The wick draws melted wax up, the flame burns it, and the fragrance oil held in that wax is carried into the room with the heat. A wax that melts too fast burns through the candle and the scent with it. One that melts too slowly leaves a hard ring around the edge and never really fills a space.

The usual options

Paraffin is a petroleum by-product. It is cheap, it holds a lot of fragrance and it throws scent hard, which is why most supermarket candles use it. It also burns hot and fast and tends to leave soot. Soy is a vegetable wax, softer and slower, cleaner to burn, but on its own it can look patchy as it sets and its scent throw is modest. Beeswax burns beautifully and smells faintly of honey, which is lovely until it argues with the fragrance you have chosen. Coconut wax is soft, slow and holds fragrance unusually well, but it is too soft to stand up on its own in a jar.

Why we blend

Ours is a coconut and soy blend, which takes the scent throw and slow burn of coconut and the structure of soy. It melts at a lower temperature than paraffin, so a jar lasts longer and the fragrance lifts rather than scorches. It burns with very little soot. And because both are vegetable waxes, the finished candle is a plant-based one.

How it is made

Every candle is poured by hand in small batches. The wax is melted, the fragrance is added at a set temperature so it binds properly rather than sitting on top, and each jar is poured and left to cure for a fortnight before it is wicked, labelled and boxed. Curing is the unglamorous part and the one that matters most: a candle poured on Monday and sold on Tuesday will never smell like it should.

Reading any candle label

Three things are worth checking, on ours or anyone else's. What the wax is, in plain words rather than "wax blend". Whether the wicks are cotton or wood rather than cored with metal. And whether the maker will tell you the fragrance is free of phthalates. A brand that is happy with its ingredients will usually put them on the jar. Ours are on the back of every label.