Soy Wax Candles
Here at Scented Designs Candle Company, we've been featured in publications like Forbes, Huffington Post, Inc., and Homes & Gardens both for our fabulous soy candles and for our candles expertise. If you're new around here...welcome!
We've been making our hand poured soy candles in our California studio for 6 or 7 years now, and we've learned a thing or two about candle wax in this time. From the very beginning of our candle business, our wax of choice was soy wax, and we continue to use American-grown soy wax for all of our candles.
Over the years, a common question we've heard from customers at crafts shows or online is if soy wax is skin safe, or even if soy wax is good for your skin. In this blog post, we'll take a look at why soy wax should or shouldn't be used on your skin.
Can Soy Wax Be Used On Skin?
Yes and no on this one. To start with, yes, soy wax can be used on your skin. Rich in Vitamin E, it can be used as a natural moisturizer. And, since soy wax has a low melt point, a soy candle burns at a lower temperature than, say, a paraffin candle, melted wax will be cooler on the skin, with less of a chance of a burn (though you should always be careful anyway!).
That being said, it's wrong to assume that all soy candles can be used as moisturizer simply by burning the candle and then using the melted wax on your skin.
Here's why:
If it's a scented candle, not all oils used to scent candles are body-safe. So, even if you have a scented soy wax candle, the oils may not be safe for your skin.
This means that if you do decide you want to use soy wax as a moisturizer, you need to exercise caution and know what you're getting into.
Secondly, even if the oils used are body-safe (here at Scented Designs, the oils we use in our scented candles are body-safe), the concentration of oils in the candle may be higher than what is recommended for use on your skin.
Soy Wax Candles
This important distinction is why we do not promote our soy candles as being safe to use on your skin as moisturizer even though the oils are body-safe. In order to get the best, strongest-smelling candle, we put in our oils at a 10% fragrance load.
While this high oil concentration is fabulous for a strong smelling candle, it's higher than the recommended concentration to be used in body products, like soaps or lotions (the recommended load of these oils for use in body products is generally just 1-2%).
My personal recommendation? Pick the best non toxic candle for your candle needs and pick the best body product for use on your skin rather than trying to have the wax pull double-duty.
Instead of using up candle wax on your skin, let melted soy wax reharden in its container after you blow out the candle in order to maximize the burn time and get the most burn for your buck. Oh, and don't forget to trim the wick! At the end of the day, why combine a candle and a moisturizer if you don't need to?
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Learn more about which types of wax are most ecofriendly, the benefits of soy wax, how to keep candles from tunneling, why smell is connected to memory, and lots more!
