Monday 26 March 2012

ESSENTIAL OIL SOY CANDLES

I had been thinking about making Soy candles for a such a long time which began way back when a muddle puddle (Mum B) said her daughter (Miss J) would like to make candles. I Kind of put it on the back burner. Then just a week ago I was passing a soy candles shop & thought why not! I went into said shop, & bought my supplies.
Then, next up was a shopping bonanza to the op shops to find containers to hold these candles. This is the beginning of a friendship between multitudes of op shops & me.......
I already had plenty of aromatherapy oils as at one point in my life I was very into aromatherapy, read & knew most of all the healing benefits etc. However will need to update my knowledge on these oils &  purchase new ones as they do go out of date & don't hold the same healing qualities as if they are new. With what I did have in my aromatherapy supply, I was able to make a few LOVE combination candles.Once I had all my supplies, I couldn't wait to get started, A little Miss M wanted to join in too, so she made one as well (more on that later)
I did a little research on Soy candles vs Paraffin candles. As I was never too 
fussed or worried about heading into my local $2 shop to supply my home with candles, even though I did know some information about Soy candles & did kind of know they were better for our environment, I couldn't see the sense in buying more expensive Soy candles. However, Knowledge is Power, so I read what I could find about SOY vs PARAFFIN, There's a heap of information out there but what I can gleam from that information & to put it simply Soy is made from Soy beans, Paraffin is made from crude oil. I know which one I would rather have burning in my house even if Paraffin is claimed to be just as safe as Soy. I had heard lots of claims, the biggest one is that soy candles don't burn soot or leave black soot, well there is no such thing as a soot free candle however more than likely the soy candles will burn a white grey or a beige colored soot - very hard to see, whereas the soot that paraffin puts out is black. Any candle will soot if it's burning inefficiently - that is, if the balance of wick, wax and container is off. (candle is placed in a drafty area)
The fact that crude oil/Paraffin is not a renewable source & to process it causes pollution, makes it environmentally unfriendly. Soy is renewable, so long as their are farmers out there willing to farm Soy Beans, Soy wax will be made. Soy candles will also last twice as long as the cheap Paraffin ones do.
As far as the wicks go, they are cotton, there has been much said about lead wicks, these are banned in Australia. Cotton lead free wicks are what is available to candle makers here in this country.
The only downside with Soy candles is that its impossible to make freestanding candles like the Paraffin ones as the Soy wax is too soft, Soy has to be poured to containers
So far for us here at muddle puddle the making process has been lots of fun, can't wait to see whats on the horizon for this candle making caper, stay tuned............

1 comment:

  1. Oh, so much fun to be had! Both making and in the op shop xx

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