Olive wax is an up-and-coming natural wax for eco-conscious candle-making. Made from olive pomace oil, this aromatic green wax offers a sustainable alternative to standard waxes. Its source, production method, properties, and uses make olive an exciting ingredient to explore.

What is Olive Wax?

Olive wax starts with olive pomace oil, the oil extracted from crushed olive pulp using chemical solvents after initial pressing for olive oil. Wax gets filtered out from this low-grade olive oil to produce food-grade wax. The resulting green-hued product comes from natural olive oil components.

Where Does Olive Come From?

Olive wax traces back to olive pomace oil, utilizing what’s left after mechanically extracting higher-quality olive oil from whole olives. Key producers like Spain, Italy, Greece, and Tunisia harvest vast tons of olives yearly for olive products. Olive draws from pomace oil production from these regions before getting shipped globally.

How is Olive Wax Made?

Producers use chemical solvent extraction to remove additional oil from leftover olive pulp, pits, and skins from initial pressings, yielding crude olive pomace oil full of wax. After solvent recovery, producers use chill filtration to separate purified wax from the pomace oil through temperature crystallization. The crude wax then gets bleached and deodorized into refined olive wax.

What are Olive Candles?

Olive candles incorporate natural wax filtered from olive pomace oil without any petroleum-derived or synthetic waxes. The wax lends the candles a rich green color and subtle herbal aroma resembling green olives. Beyond candle making, olive also finds use in cosmetics like lip balms and lotions.

Is Olive Wax Good for Candles?

Olive makes an excellent natural wax for container candles. The mid-range melt point allows versatility in candle making and burning temperature. Olive also exhibits excellent hot and cold scents through with pure, even burn. Easy color infusion and strong glass surface adhesion offer more benefits for candle making as well.

Benefits of Olive Candles

• Lovely Green Color – Olive lends candles an attractive natural pale green hue.
• Subtle Herbal Aroma – The fruity, grassy fragrance resembles fresh olive oil.
• Strong Scent Throw – Olive wax fully absorbs and emits aroma oils, even unscented.
• Non-Toxic and Non-Allergenic – Natural olive offers respiratory and skin sensitivity safety.
• Sustainable Agricultural Byproduct – Olive pomace wax reduces waste from olive oil production.

Best Olive for Candles

Seeking cosmetic-grade olive helps ensure purity for candlemaking. Reputable suppliers like Cargill, Bashas’ Candles, and Wooden Wick test olive wax quality specs including odor, melting behavior, and appearance. Testing samples also helps assess scent and hardness. Consider blended waxes too like olive-soy and olive-coconut to modify properties.

Olive Candles DIY

Making homemade olive candles only requires basic materials like wax, wicks, molds, dye, and essential oils or fragrances. Gently melt wax using the double boiler method to 150°F before adding several drops of dye to color the wax. Then mix in scents sparingly and carefully pour into containers holding wicks. Allow candles to fully cure 2-3 weeks before the first burn.

Why is Olive Wax Used for Candles?

• Lovely Natural Color – Pale green olive wax needs little added dye for decorative candles.
• Subtle, Pleasant Aroma – The light fragrance resembles earthy olive oil.
• Excellent Hot/Cold Scent Throw – Olive evenly releases top and bottom fragrance notes.
• Safe Burning Wax – Natural olive offers respiratory and skin sensitivity safety benefits.
• Sustainable Agricultural Byproduct – Olive pomace wax reduces waste from food production.

How to Use Olive Wax for Candles

Melt olive wax using the double boiler method, stirring slowly to 150°F. Remove from heat and mix in candle colorants and fragrance oils at no more than 5% total by weight. Carefully pour colored wax into heat-safe containers holding wicks centered. Allow candles to fully cure and solidify for 1-2 weeks before burning, which yields optimal performance.

Why is Olive Wax So Expensive?

Given smaller production levels currently, olive costs exceed major commodity waxes like paraffin or soy wax. As a specialty byproduct of olive oil production, global supply remains limited. Specialized filtration methods to purify wax from pomace oil also make production costs higher currently. As more companies commercialize olive, future economies of scale should lower pricing.

Olive Candle Recipe

This natural herbal container candle features olive blended with soy wax and essential oils. Makes one 6 oz candle.

• 4 oz olive wax pellets
• 2 oz natural soy wax pellets
• .5 oz mixed herbal essential oil blend

Directions

Melt waxes fully in a double boiler to 150°F. Remove from heat and quickly mix in the essential oil blend. Carefully pour into a heat-safe container holding a centered wick. Allow the candle to fully harden for 1-2 weeks before burning.

Environmental Impact

As a byproduct of olive production, reusable olive pomace wax offers sustainability advantages over petroleum-based paraffin wax. Further commercialization of olive reduces waste from food manufacturing. Yet solvent extraction methods used to filter wax from pomace oil carry environmental impacts if recovery rates lag.

Beeswax vs Olive Candles

Source

Beeswax is 100% natural, made by honey bees for building honeycomb structures. Olive gets filtered as a byproduct from olive pomace oil production.

Scent

Beeswax lends candles a strong, sweet, honeyed aroma, which comes through along with added fragrances. Olive wax has an earthy, slightly herbal scent reminiscent of olive oil.

Color

Natural beeswax ranges in tone from pale yellow to dark brown depending on filtering methods. Olive wax has an attractive pale green hue from olive oil components like chlorophyll and polyphenols.

Burn Quality

Dense beeswax makes excellent slow-burning long-lasting candles. As a high oil-content wax, olive wax also promotes consistent burn pools and thorough wax melting.

Price

Beeswax is scarce due to small-production methods, giving higher costs for beekeepers and candle makers. As a food industry byproduct, smaller batch olive wax also demands a price premium currently over major waxes.

Sustainability Concerns

Beeswax aligns with eco-production as a renewable beekeeping byproduct. Olive wax similarly utilizes production leftovers, making both waxes attractive green alternatives over paraffin wax from fossil fuels.

Soy Wax vs Olive Wax Candles

Source

Soy wax comes from hydrogenated soybean oil. Olive wax gets filtered as a byproduct from olive pomace oil production.

Scent

Soy wax has a faint, nutty aroma resembling raw soybeans. Olive wax lends candles an earthy, grassy fragrance reminiscent of olive oil.

Burn Quality

Soy wax throws scent very well and burns cleanly. As a plant wax, olive wax also burns evenly with good wax pooling for full melts.

Appearance

Soy wax looks opaque off-white to yellow. Olive wax has an attractive natural pale green hue from olive oil compounds.

Price

As a mass commodity wax, soy wax is very affordable for candle making. Small-batch artisanal olive wax costs noticeably more currently.

Sustainability

Both soy and olive wax come from agricultural industry byproducts, aligning with eco-standards for biodegradability from renewable sources.

Conclusion

Nascent olive wax makes an eco-friendly natural choice for herbal oil-scented or unscented candle crafting. Tapping into olive oil production byproduct streams helps reduce environmental impacts compared to standard waxes. The lovely green color and excellent scent properties also differentiate olive candles. Expect wax innovation to continue as more industries access this promising plant-based material.