In an effort to provide candle companies and consumers with more accurate means of deciding on the possibly preferred principle medium used in the production of wax and/or the potential hazards/benefits of vegetable oil and petroleum (paraffin) based waxes, vegetable oil and petroleum (paraffin) are being compared side-by-side with respect to their emissions and burn lives. The claim is made by some that vegetable oil candles are a safer and more economically and environmentally friendly alternative to paraffin candles. Lumi-Lite Candle Company, Incorporated has provided four different candles, all of which containing different wicks, to be tested in side-by-side comparisons. Of the four candles, candles 112006-1 & 2 are composed of paraffin wax using Exxon's 127 melting wax with wick types CD-4 & CD-10, respectively. Candles 112006-3 & 4 are composed of vegetable oil using Cargill's C-3 Blend with wick types HTP-105 & HTP-1312, respectively. In the side-by-side laboratory testing it has been found that of the candles sent by Lumi-Lite Candle Co., the candles from lot 112006-3 burn cleaner, with less dense black soot depositions. It has also been found that candles of lot 112006-1 burn slower, losing less grams of wax to burning within a period of an hour. It should be noted that while all candles give off at least small amounts of soot, which can possibly cause harm to person and property over a long period of time.