Shearer Candles FAQ Blog
Q: What are candles made from?
A: All candles have two main ingredients, wax and wick. At Shearer Candles, we use three types of wax, paraffin wax, beeswax, and natural wax.
Paraffin wax is the wax we work with most, it is a by-product of petroleum and is odourless and colourless. Most of the candles available today are made with paraffin wax; not only is it easier to work with, but it's also less expensive than beeswax and natural wax.
Beeswax candles are also popular, but beeswax is much harder to obtain and is more expensive because of this. It has a lovely natural ivory colour and has a subtle honey scent.
Our natural wax is a blend of soy wax and palm oil wax. This is a popular alternative to beeswax and we only source ethically produced soy and palm wax. It is naturally odourless and has a long burn time. Again though it is a more expensive wax than paraffin based wax.
We also add fragrance to our scented candles and a colour dye to some of our candles too. All our fragrances and dyes are rigorously tested before we use them to check how they burn and interact with the wax and each other. There’s much more science involved than you might think.
