Soy or beeswax: how to choose

We work with two waxes, and customers often ask which is better. They are different materials, and each is right for different things.

Soy wax is made from soybean oil. It is soft, holds scent well and releases it at a low temperature, so a soy candle fills a room with fragrance from a fairly small flame. That is why all our scented jar candles are soy. It needs a container, because it is too soft to stand on its own, and it melts in a wide, even pool when burned well.

Beeswax is made by bees, and ours comes from honey collectors in the Western Ghats. It is hard, dense and burns slowly, so a beeswax candle lasts longer than a soy candle of the same size. It does not carry added fragrance well, but it has its own soft smell of honey. It can stand free as a pillar or a taper, and its flame is bright and warm.

Choose soy if you want a scent in a room: a living room in the evening, a bathroom, a bedroom before sleep. Choose beeswax if you want light: a dinner table, a window at Christmas, a prayer corner, a long evening without electricity in the monsoon. Beeswax costs about three times as much as soy by weight, which is why our pillars and tapers are priced the way they are, and why we sell them unscented.