Waxing Rhapsodic
Waxbows: The Incredible Beauty of a Blown Out Candle
Up close the mist looks almost like how water vaporizes at the bottom of a waterfall. Indeed, the wax droplets are enough like water that they reflect and refract light to create a very special sight; I call it a waxbow.
Paraffin has a refractive index around 1.48 and a large Abbe number. 1-Bromonaphthalene has a refractive index of 1.657 and a small Abbe number. A 1-bromonaphthalene micromist would be rainbow splendid.
1-Iodonaphthalene offers RI = 1.701. Methylene iodide RI= 1.741, and toxic. For a micronized solid: rhombic sulfur RI=1.957, diamond RI = 2.42 and Abbe number 32.3, rutile RI = 2.60 and Abbe number 5.71. If you will vaporize titanium or rutile in an electric arc and quench in blast of cold gas, make it oxygen. Magnelli phases, TiO_(2-x), are black (e.g., Ebonex; Ti_3O_5, Ti_4O_7, Ti_5O_9, Ti_6O_11).