Soy Votive Candles

Soy votive candles are popular for a few reasons. First, being votives, the candles are small enough to tuck into small spots, like bathrooms. Second, since soy is a natural candle wax, it burns cleaner than those with a paraffin base.

Third, soy is a renewable resource, and provides crops for farmers. And finally, soy candles hold more scent than almost any other candle making wax.

Know Your Soy Votive Candles

Knowing your candles may sound funny, but not all soy votives are 100% soy wax. Why? A couple of reasons.

First, soy is a very soft wax, really only suitable for container candles. And although votives can be considered container candles in that you want to burn them in a holder, not everyone does.

Since some like to treat votives like a tiny pillar, there are votives that are a little harder; that have a higher melting point. These are generally soy/paraffin/additive mixes.

There are also soy/palm wax votives, which can also be high scented. They are also natural candle wax.

There's nothing wrong with a soy mix; just make sure you know what you're getting, if you want a 100% soy candle.

Candle Burning

Who knew there was a right way and a wrong way to burn a candle? Actually, it's more along the lines of safety and also having your candle last as long as possible.

When you get your soy votive candles home, check the wicks. If they are more than 1/4" long, trim them back (actually, I trim mine even shorter than that). A shorter wick helps the flame being too big for the candle to burn properly.

Burn your candle for no more than 3 hours at a time. If you are burning richly scented soy candles, you may want to have a few that you can burn in rotation, to keep the scent going.

Want more ways to lengthen your candle's life? Check out the candle burning page for more information.