Soy vs Paraffin – Which Is Better?
One of the greatest conundrums facing modern candle makers is the soy vs paraffin wax debate.
Or is it?
Debating soy and paraffin wax is a topic that wanders forums and group discussions, almost weekly, with seemingly no conclusions. Most people enter these talks with a viewpoint in mind, but what they don’t realize is they’ve locked themselves into one or more of the four quadrants for analyzing wax.
We’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s explore what the wax debate is about.
Soy wax comes from the soy bean industry. Essentially, the beans are harvested, squeezed for oil, then formed into a solid structure suitable for candle making. Paraffin comes from refinement of an oil industry byproduct – slack wax.
If the parent industries of these products went to court against each other, it would be a multi-billion dollar fight since it involves two giants: the soy wax and oil industries!
Most discussions of soy vs paraffin happen at a small level, and usually between candle makers – beginners and pros alike. There are only three types of candle makers in this talk:
- People that prefer soy over paraffin, maybe even hating on paraffin
- Others that prefer paraffin over soy, maybe even hating on soy
- Candle makers that appreciate the benefits of both
The longer you stick with the craft and broaden your horizons the more likely you’ll end up as the third kind, however some makers find their candle making niche and never leave.
Which wax is better for making candles? It depends on how much weight you put on each quadrant below.
Four Quadrant Analysis
The number one problem with the soy vs paraffin discussion is a lack of framework for analyzing how each wax stacks up to the other. In this article we’ll cover the strengths and weaknesses of each wax (compared to the other) using the four quadrants for candle wax:
Each quadrant represents a category for the life cycle of the wax, which allows us to analyze it from a Business perspective – a more robust way to learn which wax is “better”.
Although the analysis still requires an opinion in some areas, many of the conclusions about each wax help frame up whether it’s better for your specific hobby or business. Ultimately the right answer for selecting wax comes down to whether the individual benefits of one wax outweigh the risks for your goals.
Quadrant 1 - Sourcing
The first quadrant of the wax life cycle is sourcing, which accounts for the following categories:
- Availability
- Format
- Market Variety
- Price
Availability
Sourcing wax includes all considerations for what it takes to obtain the wax or your craft. Generally speaking, both wax types have enormous support in North American markets.
All the major candle suppliers carry one or both of the primary soy and paraffin wax types, but if you live outside the United States then obtaining soy wax can prove more difficult.
Paraffin seems fairly easy to obtain in most countries, so it gets a slight nod in the availability category of this quadrant. But only a slight nod – a full nod would be too assuming.
Slight winner: paraffin.
Format
The format of the wax refers to what state the wax is in when you receive it. Generally speaking, paraffin ships in a block whereas soy wax ships as flakes. There are definitely exceptions to this, such as IGI 4627 (paraffin) which ships as a gooey petroleum-like material (arguably still a “block”).
For the most part, the difference in formats doesn’t affect much of candle making, but it is easier to measure soy wax flakes with more precision than paraffin. Breaking down the paraffin blocks is a hassle as well, occasionally requiring hulk-like strength when it comes down to pillar-grade wax or IGI 4630.
Winner: soy.
Market Variety
The market variety category covers how many candle types a wax supports:
- Containers
- Wax melts
- Pillars
- Votives
- Tapers
- Decorative
Soy wax without blending doesn’t go much further than container candles and melts. It has a lower melt point, and struggles with stability, therefore doesn’t have many offerings beyond melts and containers. More on that below.
Paraffin wax, which has a rich history in candle making, has a solution for every type of candle. In fact, the paraffin market is so deep in variety you can find wax tailored specifically for your use case – even as specific as “cut and carve” or “cut and curl” wax for decorative creations.
The from a purely “what can I make with this wax” easily goes to one side.
Winner: paraffin.
Price
Current market rates for raw candle wax are somewhat stable because of the industries behind them, even though commodity fluctuations occur. Prices don’t fluctuate like crazy, but for the sake of being evergreen here are approximate market average costs captured during Q4 of 2020 of the most popular waxes:
| Wax Name | Average Market Price per Pound (Q4 2020) |
| NatureWax C-3 (soy) | $1.28 |
| GoldenWax 464 (soy) | $1.48 |
| Golden Wax 444 (soy) | $1.47 |
| IGI 4630 (paraffin) | $1.68 |
| IGI 4627 (paraffin) | $1.78 |
And across a larger cut of the industry, we find the following average costs:
| Wax Type | Average Market Price per Pound (Q4 2020) |
| Soy Wax (all types) | $1.46 |
| Paraffin Wax (all types) | $1.65 |
Looking at them from a cost perspective alone, soy wax is more affordable. The market research above represents the aggregate of many different waxes sold by suppliers, assuming purchase quantities of 40-50 lbs to remove economy of scale.
Winner: soy.
Quadrant 2 - Making
The second quadrant of the wax life cycle is making, which accounts for the following categories:
- Workability
- Shelf Life
- Colors
- Fragrance Oil
Workability
How easy is a wax to work with? Workability refers to how smooth or difficult forming the wax into your final product is.
Soy wax derives from vegetable oil extracted from soy beans. Those oils are transformed into a fatty solid and given an extra dose of additives to tune the properties so they’re more friendly for candle making.
The result?
Soy wax misbehaves a lot at a chemical layer because it’s polymorphic. This means soy wax forms crystals of random sizes in response to time and changes in temperature, which is literally what you do to make a candle: heat up, cool, and wait.
Soy wax is fussy. The crystal formation is often disruptive to finding a path to a smooth top, crater-free product, and requires additional attention during the making process. Not that overcoming soy wax attributes like this is impossible, but it’s an annoyance at times.
Paraffin wax comes from an entirely different source. Manufacturers refine paraffin from slack wax though several processes which creates a final medium with almost no polymorphic tendencies. Most paraffin holds the shape you want, save for a bit of shrinkage.
Some formulas shrink so much you always have to pour a second layer on top to account for the bowl that forms on top, whereas other formulas do exactly what you want with minimal issues.
Overall, making paraffin do what you want is a lot easier than soy, and it all comes from the chemical history and makeup of the respective waxes.
Winner: paraffin.
Shelf Life
Paraffin and soy both last quite a while in storage. For most candle makers, shelf life isn’t a major consideration, but it’s still a valid observation in comparison.
Soy wax loses moisture over time, becoming more brittle. The primary impact is wick sizing, though other undesirable traits like inconsistent fragrance locking or irregular melt patters show up too.
Hydrogenation creates soy wax, and is also responsible for other products we encounter like margarine or other oils used in baking. After about a year in decent, stable storage, soy wax begins to show its life and become slightly more difficult to tame.
Paraffin on the other hand, is largely inert and chemically stable. Most people don’t have problems with paraffin misbehaving within a year of making it, though certain exceptions always exist.
Generally speaking, paraffin will fare better than soy in your workshop through all four seasons.
Winner: paraffin.
Colors
Many candle makers pride their product line on the unique colors found within.
Beginners might not know it, but color differs in soy vs paraffin wax. Soy wax tends to mute the colors, displaying a spread of pastels rather than more true shades of the dyes because the color of the bare wax is already a shade of milky white. Try adding “soy wax white” to any color and see what you end up with.
Paraffin has much less color to it and tends to take on more true forms of dyes added.
However the greatest charge to both waxes is what happens after the candle’s created. Soy wax tends to frost – creating small white crystals. When wax is colored, those crystals stand out much more and they typically look very irregular and undesirable.
Paraffin doesn’t frost, and maintains the consistency of the blend for a long time. Color just works a lot better with paraffin vs soy for that reason.
Winner: paraffin.
Fragrance Oil
Selecting a scent is the entire reason for making scented candles, and the source of this wonderful aroma? Fragrance oil.
The market for fragrance oils, and essential oils, is open to any kind of wax. In fact, a lot of work by chemists ensures oil selections apply across the soap, candle, and diffuser industries quite broadly.
The point is that finding fragrance oils for each wax is simple. No one really distinguishes their intended medium, but that doesn’t mean they work equally well.
Historically, soy wax is a newer player in the candle market compared to paraffin. Paraffin wax was the de facto standard medium after the market moved on from less desirable fats, like animal tallow or whale oil. As the scented candle market matured, fragrance design supported paraffin wax.
This is important because soy wax is often spoken of in the same breath when talking about fragrance oils, but the physical differences in the two bring some challenges with oil performance.
Soy wax is heavier and more dense, which limits the potential performance of the scent in the candle (more on that in Quadrant 4). Some suppliers will caution against certain oil selections for soy because they understand the final results may be less desirable, which somewhat limits reasonable selections for candle makers.
All things being equal, the fragrance market suits paraffin more broadly than soy.
Winner: paraffin.
Quadrant 3 - Selling
A lot of opinions exist in the realm of sales, so consider some of this analysis a bit opinionated. The framework is still here for you to make a judgement of your own if you wish, since it’s not possible to know everything about every market.
However, there are some areas of sales that most candle makers confuse themselves on. Generally speaking, most customer’s aren’t worried about:
- The soy vs paraffin debate
- Whether or not soy candles soot (they do)
- If the “soy” candle is really 100% soy or not
- How harmful burning a paraffin candle is (hint: not any more harmful than a soy candle)
Most customers will lock in on the following traits, though:
- How good the scent in the candle is
- Whether it was made with essential oils or not (most don’t know the difference between FO and EO, but will hang around for EO if called out and it’s important to them)
- What the candle looks like in their home or intended burning area
- Price and size of the candle
These are certainly generalizations that can vary per market, but candle makers have a burden of knowledge on them about each wax type that blurs their ability to see the candle market from the customer’s point of view.
And successful sales starts with understanding who you’re selling to. Ironically, most analysis in the section blends soy and paraffin together because most people aren’t worried about the wax type unless it’s part of the story you’re telling.
That being said, soy and paraffin are largely tied in the third quadrant, which includes the following components:
- Price strategy
- Product reach
- Market saturation
Price Strategy
Building a price strategy begins and ends with finding a profit margin. Without profit you have no business!
At this point, which wax you’re using (or incorporating) helps you find material costs for wax. Soy is more affordable on average, but you’ll need to calculate what you’re spending on raw materials and inventory.
We have an entire article devoted towards helping you find and calculate every item in your operation. Once you know your overhead and material costs, only then can you start discussing what your price should be. Wax is only one component of that massive equation, spreadsheet, or pen & paper calculation.
Product Reach
How many people you can possible sell to is your product reach.
With the internet, you can sell to so many more people than ever before, but this doesn’t mean you should sell to everyone with an internet connection!
Part of building your pricing strategy involves answering the question: who am I selling candles to? The internet isn’t a market – it’s a pipeline to those people. Blindly assuming they’ll find you is a horrible way to approach product reach, so make an effort to understand what story you’re telling and who wants to hear it.
Your wax selection might be part of that story, or it might not. This differentiation doesn’t necessarily set one wax ahead of the other since they both have nearly equal potential. How good are you at story telling?
Market Saturation
Discussing how saturated the soy wax candle market is versus paraffin almost doesn’t matter because the parent industry, candles, is extremely saturated.
Since the early 90s, home candle use has surged. Candles play a role in home fragrance and home decor, evolving into an entirely new market compared to the 80s.
Competing in the handmade candle market is a red ocean of competition, which means you need to identify a micro niche in order to find your people. Soy wax and paraffin have equal potential for niche-creation, and therefore have equal potential in the market saturation analysis.
As an example, a soy wax candle shop can enter a niche of eco-friendly candles that support a specific cause (Strategy #5 of sticking out in a saturated market). The niche market is candles that help the environment with a humanitarian twist. In this case, the wax type plays a leading role in the story being told.
In another example, a paraffin wax candle shop might design bougie containers that appeal to high end buyers. This niche doesn’t really worry about the wax or even the aroma as much as it does the decor aspect. They could switch between paraffin and soy all day and never lose a customer.
The point is that wax selection can matter in competing in a saturated market, but you can also make the soy vs paraffin debate completely irrelevant with the right approach. Therefore both soy and paraffin are equal in this category.
Quadrant 4 - Burning
The final quadrant of analysis brings us to what happens when the candle is actually burning, which is the final phase of a candles life. The analysis here focuses on a few main categories, though many more exist if you explore the craft even deeper:
- Scent throw
- Burn length
- Health
Scent Throw
The only point of most candles is the scent. Hardly anyone wants a candle with no aroma, which means your wax should accommodate and support the fragrance design.
Fortunately, soy and paraffin both perform fairly well in scent throw and fragrance retention. They key that unlocks this performance lies much more in the wick and container design than it does in the wax choice, but wax plays an important role in scent throw nonetheless.
All things being equal, paraffin candles typically throws scent further than their soy counterparts over the course of a burn.
You need to understand density to find out why, though. If you measure the specific gravity of each wax, you’ll usually uncover that soy is higher than paraffin, meaning it’s heavier.
Heavier particles take more energy to move, whether than energy is from a candle wick or an air current, so paraffin locked in with fragrance will travel further in a room than soy can.
Again, there are plenty of factors that influence the literal scent throw, but pound-for-pound, paraffin has an easier time getting around. This isn’t meant to suggest you can’t build or find a soy wax candle that knocks your socks off, or find a dud paraffin design, but all things being equal, paraffin has an edge in the chemistry department here.
Winner: paraffin.
Burn Length
If you make a candle but it only lasts for a short while, is that even worth it?
Burn length is a deceptive category because of the limited studies that exist around soy vs paraffin burn times. Many claims that soy burns longer than paraffin candles exist, but they’re anecdotal and don’t carry much real scientific weight.
The claim that soy burns longer than paraffin probably comes from the physical makeup that soy is more dense than paraffin, and would move up through the wick with more resistance than a paraffin equivalent. There’s no denying the physical properties of pure soy, but the assumption that soy wax candles and paraffin wax candles are designed the same way is entirely wrong.
Selecting a wick that compliments the thermal properties of a wax blend is the most critical component of designing a successful candle that burns safe and performs well. Great candles pass an industry safety test from top to bottom, and also throw scent really well.
To that end, paraffin candles require wick designs that melt the wax and regulate the temperature of the candle differently than soy wax candles. The final wick for those candles provides heat to the wax at an appropriate rate to control the safety and performance elements of the candles.
That’s a really long way to say that you’ll use different wicks for each to achieve the same goals. Burn length is ultimately a function of heat, which is regulated by the wick.
Different wicks = different heats. The density discussion doesn’t matter unless the candles are literally the same except for the wax, which hardly ever happens. If they were, soy would likely burn longer, but a more thorough scientific approach to this idea needs to happen before marketing that material as fact.
For the most part, similar volume soy and paraffin candles will burn for roughly the same amount of time when properly designed.
Winner: both.
Health
How good for the human experience is burning a soy vs paraffin candle?
The impact of candle burning on human health is the center of much debate in the industry, and it seems to favor soy over paraffin. Many smaller candle shops make claims about soy candles as part of the story they tell, which essentially boils down to two statements:
- Burning paraffin wax candles is generally harmful to your health
- Soot is dangerous, and soy wax doesn’t soot. Paraffin does.
Many of these claims are made in passing on an “about us” page or social media post with very little data (if any) to support it. Taking a much closer look at the first claim, no studies have found that burning paraffin wax candles, as found in modern day candle making, is harmful to your health.
The toxic elements of candles where the metal cored wicks (that are now banned) and potentially the fragrance oils used. Neither of these has anything to do with the wax.
The second claim revolves around soot, which is a product of incomplete combustion. Candles use wax as fuel, whether that’s paraffin or soy doesn’t matter. When there is an imbalance to the combustion process, whether that comes from too much or too little oxygen, fuel, or heat, the combustion process releases black smoke.
This is soot.
Soot is completely unrelated to the wax, and is controlled mostly by the overall candle design (wick, wax, fragrance oil, container, room conditions, etc). Paraffin wax candles soot, but so do soy wax candles. Make a few errant candles of either type and the point proves itself.
Without deeper studies into the topic of candles on human health (most are from too long ago to really lean on anyways), the best interpretation of the knowledge we have is that candles made today are safe, regardless of wax choice.
Winner: both.
Soy vs Paraffin - Who Wins?
In the above analysis, paraffin seems to have an edge over soy in a few additional categories, but the truth is not every category is equally weighted.
For candle makers that sell candles, the third quadrant impacts them more than all the others. Without sales, your effort will die. And both waxes compete equally in sales!
However, if you’re purely focused on building a high performing candle and literally nothing else, then Quadrant 4 makes a bigger difference, and you would probably lean towards using paraffin wax.
Ultimately, both waxes have a place. Every story is different, and every candle serves a different purpose. The framework allows you to explore each wax in a focused attribute, but doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for “the job”.
And if you’re really torn – just combine them or buy a blend that includes both waxes.
Items like IGI 6006 are insanely popular because you can leverage the benefits of both and leave a lot of the undesirable aspects behind. Soy vs paraffin really isn’t a debate if you’re focused on customers and your sales experience. As a hobbyist, you’re in one of the three categories anyways, but if you want to take the craft to the next level, respect the 10 Commandments of Candle Making and branch out!
How Do Candles Work?
Fragrance Oil Blending: A Primer
