10 Facts You Need To Know About Wax Candy, A Vintage Favorite

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It's impossible to tell what trends are going to capture the hearts and minds of social media's biggest content creators and their millions of followers. Still, if anyone had suggested that 2025 was going to feature the viral rediscovery of the retro favorite that is wax candy, we're not sure we would have believed it. Here we are, though, and we're just going to roll with it.

There are an almost shocking number of videos — many with millions and millions of views — on platforms like TikTok, featuring influencers and creators who are trying wax candy for the first time. It's become an incredibly popular subject for ASMR videos, especially frozen wax candy. It's getting the kind of attention that the newest trends would, but it's far from new. Wax candy has been around for decades, puzzling trick-or-treaters and parents alike for generations.

So, we wanted to take a closer look at wax candy, because let's be honest: It's weird. Who would have thought that liquid- and gel-filled pieces of wax would make a great candy that has tons of fans and a longevity that's wildly impressive? There are a lot of popular candies that are way older than you think, and wax candy could be among those ranks. Let's talk about exactly what it is, where it came from, and how you're supposed to eat it.

Wax candy is exactly that — wax — and we'll get into the details in a minute. We do want to say that if you've ever wondered just what you're supposed to do with these things, you're not alone. When we headed to Reddit to see what kind of fun, nostalgic stories people had to tell about this candy and just how many people list this as a favorite, there were a lot of people still confused about the most socially acceptable way to eat it. 

And we get it. There are a lot of foods and drinks with deceptive names, so you might think it's not really wax ... maybe? Candy should be eaten, after all, and we found that many of the sites that sell wax candy are aware of this weird learning curve and still have directions on how to eat it. There are a few ways, starting with simply biting off a section of wax and drinking the liquid (or gel-like) center. 

So far, so good. Some places also note that you can put the whole thing in your mouth and chew on it like an oddly textured gum. The liquid center flavors the wax as you chew, but there's a caveat here. Some manufacturers don't recommend doing this because you are, after all, chewing on wax. That can leave a waxy film on your teeth that can be hard to remove, which isn't ideal.

It's a bit of a weird story just how wax candy was invented, and no one is entirely sure when it happened. What's believed to be the earliest incarnation of wax candy is still popular today: the Nik-L-Nips wax bottles. They're credited to someone named Vinny Cavallo, but that's literally all the real information out there.

As to the when, here's where things get even more vague. Most places suggest that the W. & F. Manufacturing Co., Inc. started selling them in the early 1900s, while other sources get a little more specific and say that they became popular during Prohibition. Prohibition led to the development of a number of classic cocktails, and finger foods ruled the speakeasy scene, but it's believed that wax candy was linked to a surprising industry that was, around that time, progressing in leaps and bounds.

Way back in 1859, Edwin Drake's quest to find oil in Pennsylvania ended when he struck black gold. The oil discovery kicked off a whole new industry. At the time, one of the biggest sections of the industry was making kerosene for lamps, and it also created paraffin wax as a byproduct. That proved just as useful as the kerosene itself, and one of the seemingly unrelated industries that found use for paraffin wax was the candy-makers. Somewhere in that time frame, wax candy became a thing.

The idea of using paraffin wax for a candy isn't that strange, and at the same time, kerosene refining was kicking into high gear, confectioners were experimenting with making chewing gum out of the wax. Chewing gum has some truly ancient origins, and attempts to give it a 19th-century upgrade eventually fell out of favor, largely because of a less-than-stellar texture. 

Fans of wax candy know that it's not exactly the same as chewing gum, so that makes sense. So what, exactly, is paraffin? Like other petroleum products, it ultimately traces its origins back to marine life that predates the dinosaurs. 

It's often repeated that we're fueling our cars of today with the dinosaurs of yesterday, and that's not exactly true. Petroleum's name as a fossil fuel is a little misleading, and it's actually formed from the ancient remains of plants, bacteria, algae, and even organisms like plankton. Those dead organisms sank, were mixed with rocks, and then buried beneath more rocks and more remains. Then, the combination of a largely oxygen-free environment, heat, pressure, and the passage of time turned organic matter into the material that ultimately becomes petroleum and paraffin wax — and your wax candy. Some petroleum deposits are up to 252 million years old, so yes, there's a limited amount of it.

One of the most popular brands of wax candy is the little, liquid-filled bottles called Nik-L-Nips, and let's talk about that name for a minute. Interestingly, no one's entirely sure where it came from or what it means, but it's often suggested that the "Nik" comes from the fact that, for a long time, four bottles cost a nickel. Ah, the good ol' days.

What about the other part? While it might be a purely innocent reference to the way many people eat wax bottles, it's also said that there might be a reference to Prohibition. Some sources suggest that originally, the wax bottles were meant to be a throwback to whiskey bottles. You may have heard someone refer to taking a small drink of whiskey as taking a nip, and given the shape of the bottles and the little bit of liquid inside, we'd say that absolutely makes sense.

Here's another fun fact: In addition to being a small sip, a nip also refers to a unit of measurement, and it's also specifically applied to alcoholic beverages. It's the equivalent of a half-pint, and the full term is a nipperkin. That helps support the idea that the name of these little wax bottles is rooted in alcohol terminology, and we'd like to share one more fun fact: In many Irish pubs, women were historically served not pints, but only these half-pint measurements of beer. (That's no longer the case.)

There are a lot of retro candies and Halloween treats that are still popular today, and we can't talk about wax candy without talking about those fun and funky wax lips and wax vampire teeth. We're often told not to play with our food, but in this case, we're going to say that life is short, find your fun when and where you can. Now, we'd like to take a quick detour here.

Those wax lips — and other wax candies — are made from food-grade paraffin. That basically means it's safe to chew, and it's not a new thing. Origins of food-grade and food-safe wax go all the way back to the 12th century, when it was used to cover oranges and protect them from the rigors of a journey along trade routes. Fast forward to the 1920s, and it was the Buffalo, New York-based John W. Glenn who envisioned a line of novelty treats using this food-grade paraffin.

It was the perfect place for it, too, just a stone's throw from a massive refinery where he could source wax from. His company was eventually folded into another local company called W. & F. Manufacturing, and those wax lips are, of course, still made and sold today. Not all of Glenn's old-timey products survived, though, and we can kind of understand why wax vampire teeth surpassed his wintergreen-flavored horse teeth.

When it comes time to talk about how food actually makes it onto your plate, there are a lot of complicated processes. You might wonder how beef hot dogs are made, and that's an excellent question with a complicated answer that is, however, public knowledge. The process to make wax lips, on the other hand, might seem like it's a straightforward one with no real trade secret involved, but it was a top-secret sort of thing.

One of W. & F. Manufacturing's sources for paraffin wax was the Emlenton Refining Company in Pennsylvania, and at the height of wax candy's popularity, so much wax was needed that it was brought in from multiple refineries and suppliers. (The company also made novelty candles that are still popular collector's items.) Multiple storage tanks holding thousands of gallons of wax supplied production lines, putting out as many as 30 million pieces of wax candy a year. The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserved an interview with one of the paraffin salesmen, Barney Lewis. 

He recalled going to the W. & F. Manufacturing facility, and said that even though he was one of the suppliers, he wasn't allowed to see how the wildly popular products were actually made. He did, however, always get some freebies when he visited, and that's almost as cool as seeing the process first-hand.

Check out some of the videos showcasing TikTok's 21st-century obsession with wax candy, and you'll notice there are all kinds of shapes. There are huge wax lobsters, wax castles that look like they're plucked right out of a frosty fantasy, and giant butterflies are a common theme, too. That kind of variety isn't a new thing, and there have always been a number of funky wax candies on the market.

Some of them might look incredibly dated, and yes, we're looking back to the 1970s in particular. W. & F. Manufacturing ads for wax candies from this particular decade showcase the standard wax bottles, along with a turtle that was officially called the Penny Nip Snapper, liquid-filled tubes meant to look like bamboo, and was there a revolver? Of course there was, and it came with an Old West-inspired sheriff's badge for what we might only describe as added authenticity.

Perhaps surprisingly, the gun seems to be one of the original (or at least very early) shapes advertised by Glenn Confections, before it was absorbed into W. & F. Manufacturing. It cost just a single penny and was sold alongside other shapes that included a dagger and a frog. The sticks were a little more expensive with a price tag of either a nickel or a dime, and they were advertised as being perfect for summer fun.

Here's the question you're afraid to ask: Can you eat the wax? Wait, you might say. Is anyone considering doing this? We can say that yes, they are, because we headed to Reddit with the precise goal of finding out whether people got rid of the wax or swallowed it, and honestly, we were not the least bit surprised. 

Technically, if you had one of those wax bottles and accidentally swallowed it, you're probably fine. As we mentioned, they're made with food-grade wax. However, there is a massive caveat to this, and there are many medical professionals who caution against eating the wax for a few reasons. For starters, eating a lot of it can lead to a blockage in the intestinal tract. Given how many TikTok videos feature massive wax candies, that's an important bit of information. There's also the very real chance of choking on a large piece of wax, so while it's technically fine, it's probably not something you should do a lot of.

In late 2024, it was announced that China's food safety authorities were issuing some severe warnings about some wax candies. Investigations kicked off when concerns over improperly labeled candies were raised, and it led to the discovery that some products were being made and sold with industrial waxes rather than the food-safe ones. 

That's not the first time China's wax candies have come under examination, and in 2023, Thailand issued a statement warning consumers not to buy wax candy from China. Although it hadn't been approved for import, it had still been found to be making its way into the country. The warning also included a statement clarifying that the candy wasn't meant to be swallowed, noting the potential for blockages and concerns over chemicals. Taiwan issued similar statements in 2024, adding that an investigation into imported candies was ongoing, and stores caught selling them were going to be fined.

There are a decent number of options out there for anyone who loves wax candies, but you're overwhelmingly going to find the classic Nik-L-Nips wax bottles for sale. It's easy and just as fun to make your own, though, and if you've never considered wax candy among the easiest confections for beginning candy makers, you might want to rethink that.

Making your own wax candy involves melting the wax, then customizing it with sweeteners, colors, and flavoring extracts. The wax itself is easy to find: Amazon carries offers like this Purime USDA-certified, food-grade beeswax. Coat candy molds with a layer or two of wax, add your filling of choice — like honey or jam — then finish the candy with another layer of wax. Be sure to let the wax cool completely in between steps, and from start to finish, it can take around an hour. Mix and match colors, flavors, and fillings for a unique treat that's perhaps even more fun to make than it is to eat.

Keep in mind, too, that you can use any food-grade wax for these. If you have trouble finding plant-based candies that are vegan-friendly, look for food-grade carnauba wax and make your own vegan treats.