The vegetable wax is a compound particularly sought after and appreciated more and more, thanks to a long series of benefits it can bring compared to the use of waxes that are not natural.
But what is meant by vegetable wax? What are its features and its main advantages?
In our in-depth study we will try to know a little more, discovering everything you should know about vegetable waxes and, in particular, about the most used, based on soy.
What is soy based vegetable wax?
Let’s start with the basics, underlining how soy-based vegetable wax candles are, very intuitively, made with soy wax.
In turn, soy wax is a vegetable wax derived from soybean oil. After harvesting, in particular, the soybeans are cleaned, hulled, peeled, cracked and rolled up. The oil is then extracted from these spots and hydrogenated. In the process, the unsaturated fatty acids present in the oil become saturated, thus altering the melting point of the oil, which can easily solidify at room temperature.
Where does soy-based vegetable wax come from?
Interestingly, soybean vegetable wax was invented by a group of college students in 1996, at Purdue University. It is therefore a relatively recent compound, considering that only 24 years have passed since its conception to date.
At the time, students were asked to develop a birthday candle using a renewable resource. The youth team then chose to use soybean oil. The students figured out how to solidify soybean oil and thanks to their discovery and subsequent applications they managed to win first place in a competition sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Development Council and the Purdue Department of Agronomy.
Of course, the fact that the invention of soy plant wax candles dates back a quarter of a century certainly does not mean that their application was immediate.
In truth, in fact, the candles based on vegetable wax with soy were not marketable for some more time, considering that in the industrial field it was decided to exploit candles with soy vegetable wax only at a later time.
Of course, time was quickly made up for in the following years, when many companies producing soy-based vegetable wax candles appeared on markets around the world starting to sell a product that achieved great fortune, thus signaling the start of a process of a particularly encouraging sale, and still so sustainable today that many new operators have entered the same sector, in search of the fortune that many companies before them have obtained.
It is equally evident that some of the earliest soy-based plant wax candle companies are no longer there, while others still exist. In any case, the market is so dynamic and so innovative that there is no shortage of the best choices that you can opt for, thus satisfying all your needs.
Benefits of soy vegetable wax
But what are the advantages of using soy-based vegetable wax ? Why are there so many ranges of these products? Why might they also be what you are looking for?
The reasons that are pushing more and more people to choose this type of product are very numerous, and are very difficult to summarize. However, we have tried in the following lines, in order to provide you with an even more complete overview of this phenomenon that we advise you to explore on our pages.
First, it should be noted that soybean vegetable wax is derived from a vegetable, soybeans, while its non-natural counterpart, paraffin, is derived from petroleum. It is therefore a contrast between a 100% ecological product and a much more polluting product. Soy wax is therefore a natural and renewable resource, which can be the protagonist of a circular economy that is more respectful of environmental sustainability, being biodegradable and can be cleaned very simply with soap and water.
Soy wax also has a lower melting point than paraffin, which is why soy candles burn slower or longer than their non-natural counterparts. We still remember that soy wax burns without releasing petroleum soot, creating candles that are completely harmless to human health.
In short, there are so many advantages of using soy wax, but what distinguishes vegetable wax candles from other paraffin candles is above all the harmless use that can be done, even in the case in which candles with wax vegetable are substantially integrated with other natural flavors.
Considering that on the market you can find a wide variety of different products that belong to this category, isn’t it worth exploring this topic and trying to immediately identify a product that is right for you? We are sure that you will have no difficulty in finding a base product of vegetable wax that can sufficiently be able to fulfill your every ambition of use.