When we poured our first forty candles at the kitchen table, we used the soy wax everybody used. It was clean, it was easy, and it had come a very long way to reach us.
What a wax does
The wax is the fuel. The wick draws it up, melted, and the flame burns it. A wax that melts cooler burns slower, throws scent better at a lower heat and leaves less soot on the ceiling.
Paraffin, soy and rapeseed
Paraffin is what most candles are made of: cheap, bright and drawn from oil. Soy is a plant wax, but most of it is grown a continent away. Rapeseed is a plant wax too, and the yellow fields it comes from are a morning's drive from the boathouse.
A rapeseed candle burns a little cooler and a good deal longer. You notice it on the third evening, when there is still most of a jar left.
Why we still blend in a little soy
Rapeseed on its own sets hard and can crack in a cold boathouse in January. A fifth of soy keeps the surface smooth. We tried eleven blends before we stopped there.
What it changes for you
A large jar burns for about fifty-five hours instead of forty, the scent fills the room at a low flame, and the glass comes clean with warm water when you bring it back for a refill.
