Soy candle history

In 1991 Michael Richards founded Candleworks to manufacture beeswax Candles. As he entered the Candle industry with beeswax products he realized there was a growing demand for natural Wax Candles. However, there was a huge economic barrier. Namely, the cost of beeswax was 10 times the cost of petroleum Candle Wax (paraffin). In July, Michael Richards started experimenting with a wide range of plant waxes and vegetable oils to find a natural Wax that could be cost-competitive with petroleum Wax. He completed thousands of hours of tests with tropical plant Waxes such as carnauba and candelilla Waxes, plus domestic oils such as corn and soybean oil.

In 1992, this testing resulted in the first vegetable Wax Candle, made from a blend of Vegetable oils and natural Waxes. At that stage of development, the vegetable Wax was hard and brittle. To obtain a softer, more pliable Wax, Michael started to aquire and test a wider range of tropical and domestic plant oils. This included partially hydrogenated coconut, palm,and Soybean oils. Michael Richards continued working on two parallel tracks:

Research and development for other vegetable Wax Candles. In 1994 Michael started blending beeswax with Soybean oil to achieve an economical natural Wax Candle.

The body Shop, a national chain of stores that was Candleworks' main beeswax Candle customer, issued the first purchase orders for a line of natural Wax aromatherapy Candles from Candleworks. For the first three months, the content of the Body Shop Candle wax was a blend of beeswax and almond oil. Because of the increasingly high cost of almond oil, Michael then started blending Soybean oil with the beeswax. He completely replaced almond oil with Soybean oil in all comercial production of Candles in May 1995.