Japanese Drip Candles

Hot wax play is a form of sensation play and is popular with many people in the BDSM lifestyle.  Sensation refers to temperature play (hot/cold) but can also be a part of pain play.  Most types of wax candles used in wax play will have a stingy hot effect when dripped onto the skin.  The type of wax that a candle is made out of depends on how hot the wax will get.

I admit I have a bit of a wax play fetish which may have began with melting my crayons down as a kid in hot water and dipping my hands into the bucket to make wax gloves.  Since then I have always had the urge to play with candle wax, poking my fingers into it, pouring it on my skin and peeling it off.  By far, though, I enjoy waxing a willing victim who enjoys it as much or more than I do.

Japanese Drip Candles by Doc Johnson burn about the same temperature as paraffin wax candles which is what most people use for wax play.  Although called sensation or sensual play, wax play can be very painful depending on your tolerance to heat.  These are not soy massage candles that are used for warm massages.  They get hot and can burn if not played with carefully and correctly.

One thing I noticed that was strange about them is that they are slightly scented.  You are not supposed to use scented candles with wax play (but I did) and I didn’t find them any hotter than my emergency white paraffin candles.  In fact, the emergency candles seemed much hotter to me.  Also the color of the candle is supposed to make a difference, but I didn’t notice any difference in the three different colors (Red, Purple and Black).  I also used another red candle of mine to see if there was a difference, but didn’t notice it.

Preparing for Wax Play

To prepare for wax play you should put out an old sheet or shower curtain where your victim is going to lay to protect your furniture from spills.  Have a bucket of cold water nearby (and ice) in case of an emergency fire, or to play with varying hot/cold sensations.  You should negotiate with your victim/bottom on where you will be applying the wax: back, front, ass, chest/breasts, or genitals.  Give your victim a safe word especially if they haven’t tried wax play before.  One person’s pleasure can be another person’s pain.  If your victim is excessively hairy, they may want to shave beforehand or have their hair painfully waxed off afterwards.  Their choice.

Warm Up

You can prepare your victim by applying massage oil or sunscreen to their body where you are going to apply the wax.  This will make the wax easier to remove later, prevent it from sticking to fine body hair and in the case of sunscreen it will protect against burns.  You can also bind and blindfold the victim to stop them from squirming away from the wax and to add more tension to the scene, as they never know when a hot drop is going to hit them.

You can begin by applying a low melt soy candle to “warm” them up.  As mentioned these don’t burn but are very sensual [see reviews: here and here].  You can then begin to alternative the low melt soy candle with the stingier Japanese Drip Candle.  Before applying the Japanese Drip Candle to your victim, first check the temperature on your own wrist, so you can gage the heat and how far away to drip the candle from.  The higher away the candle is, the less it stings/burns.  These candles are too large for ordinary candles holders, so I used a large tin can to hold mine in while alternating.

Try various types of dripping, dibbling and pouring of the wax.  The more the wax begins to coat a certain area, the less it stings.  Different areas of the body will be more sensitive than others, especially the nipples, undersides of breasts, and genitalia.  Wax play should not burn although it will leave red marks on the skin that will fade in a few hours.  Never drip wax on the face as it is very sensitive and you could leave scars.  It is fun to alternate wax play with other forms of sensation play to keep your victim off guard, add an element of surprise, and give them a break from the pain so they can stand it longer and it is more pleasurable.  Try using ice, or a Wartenberg wheel, or even just general groping, slapping, biting or scratching.

Once you have your victim coated, then you can play with the wax by scraping it off with your fingernails if you have them, or trying “pretend” knife play.  Obviously, be careful with the knife.  You are supposed to be scraping off the wax, not cutting your victim (although they don’t have to know this).  The remainder of wax can be removed with more mineral oil (or any vegetable or massage oil will work as well).

Japanese Drip Candles do get hot, although no hotter than regular paraffin wax in my opinion.  So for those of you thinking this is going to be a day at the beach, please put those thoughts aside.  If you don’t enjoy stingy, smoldering pain, you will not like wax play.  If you do enjoy regular wax play you will enjoy these as they are fun to play with and you can make some nice designs with the different colors on your victim if you have a bit of an artistic streak.  As with any fire/pain play, play safe and be careful.  Remember these are not massage candles and that is not their intended use.

Thank you to Pink Cherry for providing the product for this review.  If you live in Canada you can now shop at PinkCherry.ca.

Incidentally.  I seem to be on a Japanese BDSM kick this week.  Read my review of The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage by Midori and Japanese Silk Love Rope over at Viviane’s Sex Carnival.