CANDLE HISTORY
For more than 5,000 years, candles were known and used as a source of light. It illuminated many celebrations in the past, including religious ceremonies like Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and Easter services.
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The earliest use of candles is often attributed to the Ancient Egyptians. They made rush lights and torches by soaking a core of reeds in melted animal fat or tallow.
In China, their early candles are reported to have been moulded in paper tubes using rolled rice paper for the wick, and wax from an indigenous insect that was combined with seeds. In Japan, their candles were made of wax that was extracted from trees. In India, they made candle wax by boiling the fruit of a cinnamon tree. In America, their first contribution to candle making was discovering that boiling the berries of bayberry bushes created a sweet-scented wax that burned cleanly.
types of WAX
As you can imagine a pillar candle would need to have a stronger wax than a container candle in order to stand.
Soy wax is soft and therefore not effective in many moulded, pillar or votive candles, as a result Soy wax is predominately used in container candles.
Typically commercial pillar candles are made with paraffin wax.
Paraffin wax is a hard translucent wax that takes both colour and fragrance well.
In more recent years, wax blends developed for specific uses have become more popular choices than the traditional paraffin.
Palm wax is also harder than soy and can also be used in container, moulded and pillar candles.
Palm wax is a natural wax and doesn’t contain chemicals like paraffin.
Soy remains the primary wax used in container candles and fragrant melts, although fragrant melts can now be made with a specifically formulated soy blend wax.