How to work with Cargill NatureWax C3 Natural Container Soy Wax
100% NATURAL SOY WAX
Soy wax is a highly sought-after wax and appeals to a wide variety of candle makers and consumers. C-3 soy wax offers excellent glass adhesion and holds color beautifully.
Read our lab notes to learn more and get some tips for working with this wax.
OUR PROCESS
We divided our testing into three parts:
- Aesthetics: We test adhesion, frosting, and color retention.
- Fragrance Performance: We look at solubility, retention, and cold/hot throw.
- Burn Performance: We test multiple wick series to find the best burn.
For our fragrance tests, we used fragrance oils with very different densities, viscosities, and ingredients; the variation helps reveal potential solubility and burn issues.
OVERVIEW
- Application: Container candles or wax melts
- Recommended fragrance load: 6–10%
Nature Wax C-3 is a natural blend of soy wax and soy-based additives to help with glass adhesion, fragrance throw, and minimizing frosting. This wax comes in flakes, making it easy to handle, measure, and work with. For the best finish, we recommend pouring at 70°C (+/- 5°C). However, further testing may be required to find the optimal pour temperature for your conditions.
AESTHETICS
Surface and Glass Adhesion
We found that pouring at +/- 2°C around 70°C produced the smoothest tops. Higher fragrance loads, with certain fragrances, caused cracking and surface cratering. Some candles developed cracks, so we used a heat gun to smooth the surface.
The heat gun worked well in most cases, although candles with higher fragrance loads (above 8%) tended to frost during this process.
Most of our test candles showed strong glass adhesion. We poured in 2°C increments from 57°C to 82°C. Those poured below 65°C and above 79°C showed signs of pulling away in large areas of the container. If you’re working in a cooler environment, below 22°C, preheating jars may be necessary for better glass adhesion.
Frosting
As with any natural wax blend, frosting is possible, but we found that adjusting the pour temperature reduced its likelihood.
Candles poured at 70°C showed almost no frosting; those that did frost were limited to small areas, such as the bottom of the container, where it could easily be covered with a label.
We also found that the more fragrance added, the worse the frosting became. Candles with over 8% fragrance showed frosting along the sides. This wax is slightly whiter than most natural waxes, so leaving it uncolored can help disguise frosting if that’s a major concern for your candle line.
Coloring
This wax takes color well, especially for a natural wax. We tested our dyes. Larger amounts of dye and darker shades tended to produce more frosting, regardless of pour temperature.
FRAGRANCE PERFORMANCE
Solubility
This wax can absorb up to 10% fragrance oil, and we found 6–8% to be ideal for hot throw. We always like to see how much we can add before issues like separation or sweating occur.
We tried adding 12% of one of the heaviest and one of the lightest fragrances to see the results. After 24 hours, the candles had a large sinkhole and frosted significantly around the container sides. Some fragrance sweating was also visible, showing that the wax couldn’t fully incorporate the oil.
We tested candles at 6% fragrance load and checked cold throw after 24 hours—the fragrance was very strong. Interestingly, the 12% test candles were not stronger than the 6% ones. Many stronger fragrances perform well at 6%, while lighter ones may benefit from up to 8%, but strength doesn’t seem to improve beyond that point.
After 48 hours, we noticed only subtle differences in strength between 6% and 12%. After 7 days, hot throw tests ranked a solid 3/3 on our scale!
We also tested a candle with 7.5% fragrance, and it was incredibly strong. Even though the wax can technically hold 10%, you can still achieve excellent hot throw with lower loads.
BURN PERFORMANCE
Wicks
Nature Wax C-3 has been on the market for many years, so we’re familiar with its burn characteristics. Historically, we’ve preferred cotton-core wicks for most soy waxes, and they remain our recommended choice.
Overall, this wax performed very well with cotton-core wicks. We found that in containers larger than 8 cm in diameter, two wicks are necessary for proper melt pool and hot throw.
As with most soy candles, the surface tends to become uneven after burning. Unfortunately, this cannot be avoided with natural waxes. It may be good information to share with your customers, especially those unfamiliar with burning natural wax candles.
CONCLUSION
As always, we recommend testing this wax with your fragrances and dyes for the best results. And remember, we’re always here to help if you have any questions.
