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Waxes

Candelilla Wax

INCI Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax. Also: Euphorbia cerifera wax, Euphorbia antisyphilitica wax, INS 902, E 902.

Calculate a 100 % Candelilla Wax bar

Published values

Saponification value43–65 mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator54.0 mg KOH/g (midpoint)
SAP for NaOH0.0385 g/g
Iodine value
INS (SAP − IV)
Melting point68.5–72.5 °C
Unsaponifiable matter

A bar made of 100 % Candelilla Wax

Hardness 0 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 0 below 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 0 below 16–48

Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.

Fatty-acid profile

Fatty acidPublished range, %Used
This is a true wax — esters of long-chain acids and alcohols rather than a triglyceride — so a fatty-acid profile in the soapmaking sense does not describe it.

Where these numbers come from

FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), FAOCandelilla Wax - JECFA specifications monograph (FAO JECFA Monographs 1 / FNP 52 Add 13, 65th JECFA 2005) · read 2026-09-20

PURITY section (Melting range, Acid value, Saponification value, Lead) and DEFINITION section; PDF text extracted with pdftotext. Year of specification: 2005.

Values are the JECFA purity specification limits for food-grade candelilla wax (revised at the 65th JECFA, 2005; published in FNP 52 Add 13): melting range 68.5-72.5 C, acid value 12-22 mg KOH/g, saponification value 43-65 mg KOH/g, lead <= 2 mg/kg. Candelilla is a hydrocarbon-rich wax (odd-numbered n-alkanes C29-C33 plus esters of even-numbered C28-C34 acids and alcohols, free acids, free alcohols, sterols and resins), so only a fraction of its mass saponifies; treat the SAP as an ester+acid value, not a triglyceride SAP. The monograph gives no iodine value, fatty-acid composition or unsaponifiable-matter limit, so those fields are null. INCI name is the customary CosIng entry but was not re-verified on CosIng in this session.

This record is part of the open ingredient database (ODbL). Found an error or a better primary source? The dataset is on GitHub; corrections with a document link are welcome.