Candles, explained — not sold
Section 01
What the different waxes actually are, how they behave when they burn, and why the choice of wax shapes everything else.
The most widely used candle wax in the world has a reputation built almost entirely by people trying to sell you something else.
The story on the tin is about sustainability and clean burning. The story inside the tin is more complicated.
Lock the vessel, the wick, and the fragrance load — and suddenly what the wax actually does becomes visible. Here is what paraffin, soy, and coconut wax look like under genuinely identical conditions.
That crater in the surface of a new candle is not a manufacturing flaw. It is physics.
The most expensive common wax earns some of its reputation — but not all of it.