The Ultimate Guide to NatureWax® C-3 Soy Wax
NatureWax® C-3 wax is a commercial candle making wax manufactured by Cargill, Incorporated.
Most commonly referred to as “C-3”, it is primarily soy wax combined with additives that make it more candle friendly.
In this article, we’ll cover the basics of working with C-3 such as:
- Market price
- Scent performance
- Color brilliance
- Specific gravity
- Wick design
- Ease of use
Market Price
Generally speaking, the larger quantity you purchase the better unit price you’ll get.
For home candle makers that don’t order by the pallet, prices when purchasing roughly 50 pounds are approximately:
| Low End | $1.20 per lb |
| High End | $2.00 per lb |
| Average | $1.50 per lb |
Global supply chain issues around soy will impact C-3’s cost, as evident by the 17% increase in unit price per pound from Q4 2020 to Q2 2021 which happened during a global crisis.
Comparatively, GW 464 soy wax is roughly $1.87 per pound and paraffin is typically more expensive per pound than soy.
Use these numbers as a rough estimate, and research different suppliers to see where the market is when you need to buy more.
An average 8-ounce candle will cost roughly $0.61 of wax to make.
Estimated using a 6% fragrance load and a total weight of 6.49 oz.
Wicking
C-3 is a vegetable wax derived from soy wax and is fairly dense and viscous.
The most effective wicks on the market for C-3 wax are ECO and CD series, followed by HTP. They’re designed to handle the viscosity and composition of liquid soy wax, and are well recommended by suppliers and the general candle community.
| Source | Recommended Wick Series |
| CandleScience | CD / ECO |
| Cierra Candle & Soap Supplies | HTP |
| Candle Shack | CL / CD |
| Armatage Candle Company | CD / ECO |
You’re certain to find more ideas among others, but always test yourself to find what works best for your chosen fragrance load and type.
Color Brilliance
Unfortunately soy wax is not known for being very “true” to a color.
Fortunately, you can use any dye or color block made for candles (oil soluble) in C-3 wax. Below is a comparison of two candle dyes, in two different concentrations, to the natural color of the wax.
NatureWax® C-3 is a creamy color, meaning any colors added will combine with the off-white color to produce the final result.
Dying the wax white isn’t a great option, unfortunately.
Most colors used in C-3 will be slightly muted from their intended colors, forming a mostly pastel palette of colors compared to other waxes.
Candle Types
C-3 is intended for use in container candle design and not much else.
You can definitely make wax melts or molds from it, but C-3 doesn’t have the best properties for those designs.
Container wax, like C-3, adheres well to the vessel sides and uses its low melting point to maintain a consistent shape throughout the candle life.
When used in wax melts, the adhesion properties make it difficult to remove from melt packaging and wax warmers compared to wax designed for melts.
Additionally, the lower melting point of the wax means dealing with C-3 as a wax melt during transport carries risk of premature melting in the packaging or sloppy appearance.
You can successfully use C-3 for wax melts if you’re careful with transportation.
This can also happen for container candles, although the candle is usually confined to the vessel to help.
Pillar candles require a significantly stronger wax than C-3.
For the same reason that C-3 works well in containers (the fluid nature) it is terrible for pillars, votives, and decorative candles. It lacks the structural support required for successful pillar candles.
Frosting also impacts coloring and appearance, which is a desirable feature of most non-vesseled candles.
| Candle Type | NatureWax® C-3 |
| Container | Yes |
| Wax Melt | Sometimes |
| Pillar | No |
| Votive | No |
| Decorative | No |
Specific Gravity
Armatage Candle Company testing has found C-3 has an average specific gravity (density) of 0.86.
Meaning, you can convert to wax weight by weighing the desired container with water and multiplying the water weight by 0.86 to find the total weight.
Read more about calculating wax weights here.
Scent Performance
Out of all the primary soy waxes on the market, C-3 seems to be the highest performing wax.
This is merely anecdotal, given that hot throw is a function of more than just wax, but many candle makers will agree.
It doesn’t easily out-perform parasoy blends, paraffin, or palm wax thought because it is generally more dense and requires greater wick power to throw equivalently.
More wicking means more problems, because properly balancing combustion and safety is harder with larger wicked or double wicked candles.
This isn’t to suggest you can’t create a powerful scent throw from C-3, but just that it seems to be harder compared to other non-soy waxes.
Among “pure” soy wax blends, C-3 is one of the best for building a strong hot and cold throw if you can tame it (more on that below).
Armatage Candle Company Arbitrary Scent Throw Rating System
| Factor | Rating (1-10) |
| Cold Throw | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Hot Throw | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Ease of balancing safety vs scent throw | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Agrees with fragrance oils | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Agrees with essential oils | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Work-ability & Ease of Use
One of the chief complaints about soy wax is how hard it is to work with, and C-3 is no exception.
One of the primary struggles with soy wax is frosting: white crystallization that appears on the sides and top of the candle.
These crystals form due to the “polymorphic” nature of the medium. As time passes, and when the wax undergoes drastic changes in temperature, white crystals irregularly form.
This cannot be avoided in soy wax, but there are some things you can do to lessen the impact of frosting on your work.
Another issue with C-3 are craters and cracking on the surface after pouring and curing the candle.
NatureWax® C-3 is notoriously sensitive to temperatures, especially the pour temp into the vessel.
While it is technically a single pour wax (meaning you don’t need to reserve any wax to pour a final layer on top), you’ll still have to experiment with different temperatures in your process to find out how to optimize the final candle profile to minimize surface defects.
The final barrier with C-3, and much of the soy wax on the market, is the lot consistency. Given that the wax comes from natural sources, many of the batches have variances in moisture and quality that can impact the wicking process.
You should have strong testing notes of the wax without fragrance and dye in your vessel to lessen the impact of supply chain changes.
Overall, C-3 is harder to work with than other similar soy waxes. You might find it fussy or outright frustrating, but the performance characteristics are worth the frustrations in the end.
