A white waxy substance, resembling spermaceti, tasteless and odorless, and obtained from coal tar, wood tar, petroleum, etc., by distillation.

It is used in candles, as a sealing agent (such as in canning of preserves), as a waterproofing agent, as an illuminant and as a lubricant. It is very inert, not being acted upon by most of the strong chemical reagents.

It was formerly regarded as a definite compound, but is now known to be a complex mixture of several higher hydrocarbons of the methane or marsh-gas series

Paraffin  derived from petroleum, colorless, odourless, unexpensive, widely available (the straight kind, anyway), easy to manipulate, to proportion and to use, can be used with or without additives to create different kind of candles.