If you like scented candles, soy may be the best way to go in your future candle purchases. It just so happens the make up of soy is friendlier to scenting than any other candle types. That means they are perfect for aromatherapy and as a buyer you can get much more scent for your dollar by burning a soy candle over other candle types.
To understand how the scenting of soy candles works, you have to understand how the candles are made. As you may have guessed, soy candles are made of soybeans. These beans are harvested and then put in a heated press where they are smashed and crushed to force the oil to come out of them. That oil, when cooled, becomes soy wax.
Next comes the scenting. There are any numbers of essential oils or other fragrances that can be added to candles to make them give off the scents you love filling your home.
When it comes to soy candles, they are very receptive to the scenting process. Many manufacturers are triple-scenting their soy candles, to make sure they have an extra strong scent that will come out when you burn them. The soy wax will allow a higher concentration of scented oil, used to add those great aromas to candles.
Soy candles burn cooler and slower than traditional candles and that can translate to 50% more burning time on a single candle. But that also aids in the expansion of scent from the soy candles. Instead of a small pool of oil around a fast burning candle, there is a larger pool of oil that is melted around the wick of a soy candle. It is this melted wax that lets off the scent from a candle. This larger pool equates to more scenting of the room.
In order to get the best pool, and therefore the best scent, out of soy candles there are a few techniques you need to employ.
The first time you light up your soy candle, you should be prepared to let it burn for a while. The preferred time is to allow a soy candle to burn one hour for each inch in diameter of the candle. For many soy jar candles that would equate to 3-4 hours of burning, as they are 3-4 inches wide. The reason for this is to get the best burn pool going. As it burns you will notice there is a slow spread of the melted oil from the center towards the edge of the jar. You don’t want the candle to go out until the pool has reached the edges.
Soy candles remember how wide their oil pool was in the past, and they will grow to that size in the future. That means if you only burn them a little while the first time around, they will stick to that size burn pool and burn down through the candle, instead of making use of the wax around the edges. Your scent comes from this burn pool. The larger it is, the better the scent.
When putting your soy candles out, dip them down into the wax instead of blowing them out or snuffing them. The motion of dipping them will coat them with wax for the next burn, without causing the soot residue that comes when they are blown or snuffed out.
If you love to create a new environment in your home through all the senses, scent is a very important one of them. Using soy candles you will be able to see more results from these scent-loving wax creations.