Candle & Home Fragrance Journal

Walk into any candle shop or scroll through Instagram and you'll see dozens of brands claiming their wax is the best. Coconut wax, soy wax, rapeseed wax, beeswax, paraffin — the options are endless and the marketing claims are often confusing.

We're a candle brand, so we're obviously not entirely neutral here. But we've genuinely tested and worked with multiple wax types before settling on our coconut and rapeseed blend — and in this post we'll give you an honest breakdown of what each wax type is actually like to burn, so you can decide for yourself.

The Main Candle Wax Types Explained

Paraffin Wax

Paraffin is the most common candle wax in the world — cheap, widely available, and easy to work with. It's derived from petroleum, which means it's a fossil fuel byproduct. When it burns, it can release trace amounts of soot and volatile compounds. In a well-ventilated room with a quality paraffin candle this isn't usually a concern, but it's why many people are moving away from it.

On the positive side, paraffin is excellent at holding and throwing fragrance — many perfumers prefer it for its scent performance. It's also very affordable.

Soy Wax

Soy wax became popular in the 2000s as a "natural" alternative to paraffin. It's made from hydrogenated soybean oil, burns more cleanly, and is biodegradable. However, the picture is more complicated than it first appears. Most soy wax comes from the USA or South America, where soya farming has been linked to deforestation — particularly in Brazil. It's also often genetically modified.

Soy wax burns well, has a good fragrance throw, and is genuinely better than paraffin. But "natural" and "sustainable" aren't always synonymous.

Coconut Wax

Coconut wax is made from the cold-pressed oil of coconut meat, hydrogenated into a solid form. It's one of the highest-quality natural waxes available — it burns very cleanly, has an excellent fragrance throw, and is considered more sustainable than soy (coconuts are a low-impact, renewable crop).

The downsides: it's significantly more expensive than soy or paraffin, it has a soft texture that can make it tricky to work with in some containers, and it can develop a natural frosting effect on the surface (cosmetic only — doesn't affect performance).

Rapeseed (Canola) Wax

Rapeseed wax is made from rapeseed oil — a crop grown abundantly in the UK and Europe. This makes it one of the most locally sourced, low-carbon-miles wax options available in Britain. It burns cleanly, holds fragrance well, and supports UK agriculture. It's less well-known than soy or coconut but growing in popularity among UK candle makers.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Why We Use a Coconut & Rapeseed Wax Blend

After testing several wax types, we settled on a blend of coconut wax and rapeseed wax for our Sweet Wild Scents candles — and here's the honest reason why:

• Coconut wax gives us an exceptional fragrance throw and a beautifully clean, slow burn

• Rapeseed wax is UK-grown, which significantly reduces our carbon footprint compared to importing soy from the USA

• The blend is softer and easier to work with than pure coconut wax alone

• Together they give a better scent throw than rapeseed alone

• The result is a clean-burning, long-lasting, vegan candle that smells exactly as intended

It's more expensive than soy or paraffin — which is reflected in our prices — but the performance and sustainability credentials are genuinely better. We think it's worth it.

The Bottom Line