Candle Wax

What is candle wax in BDSM?

Candle wax (also called wax play) is melted wax that gets dripped onto bare skin during temperature play, for a short searing feeling that fades again right away. Candle wax names the material, wax play the practice. How hot it lands depends on the type of wax and on the height you pour from.

Why the type of wax matters with candle wax

Because the difference between two candles on the shelf can be twenty degrees.

The encyclopedia lays out the melting points. Soy wax melts around 46 to 57 °C and paraffin around 47 to 65 °C; those two are the usual choice. Beeswax (62 to 65 °C) and microcrystalline wax (63 to 93 °C) are listed as “unsafe for wax play”. Scent, dye, and oil in a candle push the melting point up, by the way.

Stearin belongs in that list of ones to avoid, and plenty of guides get this wrong. Stearic acid, the substance a stearin candle is made of, melts at 69.3 °C according to the data at PubChem. That is hotter than beeswax.

Those numbers matter because they all sit above the point where skin takes damage. From Martin and Falder’s review in Burns: just above 43 °C it starts to hurt, and at 44 °C in the lowest layer of the epidermis there is injury. A drop of soy wax at 50 °C is already well past that. The reason it still goes fine is that a drop like this is small, cools on the way down, and sets on the skin right away. At 69 degrees that math no longer works.

Why people use candle wax

For the jolt, and the warmth that follows it, in that order. Blindfolded, you do not know where the next drop will land, and that puts the skin on alert in a way no touch can match. The way it hardens afterward, and the peeling once it is over, are part of it for a lot of people.

Candle wax is messy. It gets into the sheets and into your hair. It ends up on the floor. For a lot of women that is exactly why they try it once and never go back to it.

What to watch for with candle wax

The distance, more than the candle.

As my own article on hot wax says: hold the candle at least thirty centimeters above the skin, test every new candle on your own arm first, and let the wax fall instead of squeezing it. Back, belly, thighs, and buttocks are good places to start; the face, the eyes, and mucous membranes are off the table. Keep water within reach. And if it does go wrong, cool it per Thuisarts.nl for ten to twenty minutes under lukewarm running water of 15 to 30 degrees, and put nothing on it.

Where this fits on this site

Candle wax is on my published list of what is possible, spelled out plainly, and it is one of the things women ask me about most without ever having done it. How an evening like that gets built up, and what we go over beforehand, is on the page about the BDSM date.

Sources

• Wax play. Wikipedia. Supplies the description of candle wax as a form of temperature play where wax from a candle is dripped onto bare skin, the melting points per type of wax (soy 46–57 °C, paraffin 47–65 °C, beeswax 62–65 °C, microcrystalline wax 63–93 °C), the “unsafe for wax play” label on the last two, the note that dye, oil, and scent raise the melting point while mineral oil lowers it, and the finding that candle wax done wrong can cause burns that need medical care.
• Stearic acid (CID 5281). PubChem, National Library of Medicine. Supplies the melting point of stearic acid: 69.3 °C according to the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (95th edition) and 69–72 °C according to the ILO-WHO International Chemical Safety Card.
• A review of the evidence for threshold of burn injury. Martin & Falder, Burns 43(8), 1624–1639, 2017. Supplies the threshold: in adult skin, pain is felt just above 43 °C and a burn forms once the basal layer of the epidermis reaches 44 °C, after which the damage rises logarithmically per degree.
• Ik heb me verbrand. Wat moet ik doen?. Thuisarts.nl, Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap. Supplies the cooling advice: ten to twenty minutes of lukewarm, gently running water of 15 to 30 degrees, cooling only the wound and putting nothing on it.

Related terms

• Ice cubes. The cold half of the same game, often in the same scene right after candle wax.
• Fireplay. The fierce side of temperature play, with a flame instead of cooled wax.
• Sensation play. The umbrella that candle wax is the warm corner of.
• Temperature play. The practice that candle wax is the material for, with the temperature above which skin gets damaged.
• BDSM. The broader entry above it.
• Blindfold. The item that gives candle wax its effect, because you do not see the drop coming.
• Foodplay. The other kind of play where something warm lands on the skin, with a temperature that is harder to control.
• Moxa. The reverse temperature curve: a smoldering herb that gets hotter along the way instead.
• Peppermint oil. The same game without real temperature: only the cold receptor is triggered.
• Shaving. Better done a day earlier than right before, because freshly shaved skin is open skin.
• Wax play. The companion entry on this same subject, with the physics behind the heat and its clinical use.