Candles have been known for many centuries going back to the eighth century B.C. The nature of candles is described in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Volume A5 at pages 29-30 where it is seen that candles are made from paraffin, beeswax and stearin as basic materials, and where a host of additives may also be present.
It is not surprising that with candles and wax becoming increasingly more important attention was paid as to how to stabilize said materials. At the National Candle Association Meeting in Houston, 1994, R. van der Vennet presented a paper on "Antioxidants in Wax--Replacement of BHT" touting the use of Vitamin E (tocopherol) as an antioxidant to prevent the yellowing of wax when oxidized. WO 94/13736 describes the same invention.
EP 359,488 A3 and EP 133,964 B 1 describe stabilized waxes used in cosmetics where the waxes are the same or similar to those used in candles.
EP 5,922 A1 describes lip cosmetics where the waxes are useful in lipsticks and are related to those useful in candles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,694 describes in detail transparent gel candles both in composition and structure. The use of BHT as an antioxidant is mentioned.
At the National Candle Association Technical Meeting on Apr. 16, 1998, F. A. Ballentine et al., presented a paper entitled "Inhibiting Color Fading of Dyed Candles with CYASORB.RTM. Light Absorbers" in which the general theories of thermal oxidation and photodegradation are discussed along with data on the effect of light absorbers on color stability of dyed candle waxes. The light absorbers compared are 4-octyloxy-2-hydroxy-benzophenone UV-531; 4-methoxy-2-hydroxybenzophenone UV-9; 2-(2-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl)-2H-benzotriazole UV-5365; 2-(2-hydroxy-5-tert-octylphenyl-2H-benzo-triazole UV-5411 and 2-(2-hydroxy-3,5-di-tert-amylphenyl)-2H-benzotriazole UV-2337).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,905 teaches dyed and scented candle gels containing triblock copolymers and a hydrocarbon oil of high flash point. This reference teaches that a light (UV) absorber may be used to improve the shelf stability of the candle color when exposed to visible or ultraviolet light. Two preferred absorbers are ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate (PARSOL.RTM. MCX, Roche) and 2-(2-hydroxy-5-tert-octylphenyl)-2H-benzotriazole (CYASORB.RTM. 5411, Cytec).