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inthedark

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    Candles, reed diffusers and m&p soaps.

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  1. In relation to my experimentation with beeswax some years ago, I found that adding beeswax to soy wax did not improve the hot scent throw, the more beeswax I used, the more cracking I saw, beeswax did shrink quite a bit over time and the way beeswax burns can vary quite a lot because it is a natural product that is created with a lot of uncontrollable variables. In the end I gave up and now I use a coconut paraffin blend wax. My guess is that some manufacturers may use a parasoy wax and add some beeswax to it and call it a beeswax candle because the beeswax scented candles I have burnt have always cooled to perfectly smooth tops, had a good hot scent throw and suffered from very little shrinkage which is what I have found with every parasoy wax blend candle I have made or purchased and burnt. What I would do is set up two types of candles, one made using natural waxes and one with made with coconut paraffin wax to get a candle that really works and helps you understand that wick size is really important and use the coconut paraffin wax to start getting some sales or you name out there while you progress and master that natural wax candles. I use the following to make scented candles that actually work: IGI-6046A coconut paraffin wax, 5% to 13% fragrance oil depending on the quality and strength of the oil (I make my candles in Australia so the oils do vary quite a bit). The wicks I use are all CDN wicks and for a 65mm / 2.5” aluminium sample tin candle, I use either a CDN4 or CDN5 depending on the heat the wax and fragrance oil combination needs but usually it’s a CDN5 wick with a fragrance load around 10% - 13%. For a 70mm / 2.7” glass container, I use either a CDN4 or CDN5 depending on the heat the wax and fragrance oil combination needs but usually it’s 55% of the wax/fragrance oil combinations that work best with a CDN4 wick and a fragrance load of 9% - 10%. For an 86mm / 3.3” glass container, I use either 2 X CDN4 or 2 X CDN5 wicks depending on the heat the wax and fragrance oil combination needs but usually it’s 50% of the wax / fragrance oil combinations that work best with 2 X CDN5 wicks. My method, I heat the wax up to around 80 – 82 Deg C / 176 – 180 Deg F and add the fragrance oil in at around 80 – 82 Deg C / 176 – 180 Deg F, I find that the burn off theory of adding fragrance oil to wax at 80 Deg C that some subscribe to doesn’t affect the over all throw at all, stir the wax and fragrance oil for 20 to 30 seconds or until no streaks are visible and the wax and oil are clear all the way through and pour between 74 – 78 Deg C / 165.2 – 172.4 Deg F. I mix my wax and oil in a plastic container that is microwave safe and fits in to a microwave so that I can quickly heat up the mixture using the microwave oven if it becomes to cool, just remember to use short bursts as it can quickly over heat the wax. I use a hot melt glue to bond the wick tab to the container and it tends to remelt around 80 Deg C so I generally pour below 80 Deg C/176 Deg F. This wax will usually develop a sink hole but a quick remelt of the top of the candle to allow the liquified wax to fill the void will clear it up perfectly and if you get the heat and motion right with the heat gun, your tops will look perfect every time. I have found that some fragrance oils just don’t work with this wax very well so testing is a must but the majority of the oils I purchase work brilliantly but the biggest lesson I learnt, the wick size can have a major impact on the hot scent throw so fragrance and wick testing is a must and I usually decide mid way through the 3rd – 4 hour test burn on the hot scent throw strength if I continue testing or disregard the fragrance oil or change the wick size. I also suggest that you do some heavy research on paraffin wax if you think that it’s toxic, if you look hard enough, you will find research that suggests that it’s not the case and beeswax may not be that great even tough it’s a natural product but keep this in mind, not every natural product is good for humans. For those who aren’t aware on how to make quick test candles, make up your oil and wax mixture and pour it in to the container you are going to use for your final product without a wick. Once the wax sets, get hold of a bamboo or metal skewer and push it down the center of your candle and fit your wick in to the hole created by the skewer. If the container and wax volume is sufficient in height, the wick should remain stable for a few burns and if the hot scent throw is less than desirable, remove the wick and fit a different size wick in to see if it needs more or less heat but be aware that to much heat can also cause a weak hot scent throw.
  2. An update about my findings with Container Maker that is available in Australia. I tried container maker for quite a few years and I conducted some testing where I made some candles with soy wax and 5% container maker and some without container maker using the same fragrances, fragrance loads and soy wax from the same batch. I found that after sitting for a while, the candles that were made with container maker had their fragrances altered and the scent throw reduced whilst the candles that were made without container maker, seemed to have minor alterations with the fragrance and a better scent throw. I then did some further testing adding the fragrance oil to pure container maker and the same fragrance oil and amount to RBD coconut oil and found that after 3 months, the scent from the fragrance oil and container maker smelt different and was considerably reduced in strength whereas the fragrance oil and RBD coconut oil did not change in fragrance or strength. In the end, I gave up on adding oils to waxes once I managed to try the Denali brand by Summit Wax in Australia (my guess is that it was sourced from Denali or Denalli in the USA but I could be wrong.) which was a blend of soy wax and coconut wax, it wasn’t perfect but was reliable and worked well for a soy wax blend. Now that Covid has disrupted everything, the Denali coconut/soy wax isn’t available and hasn’t been available for quite some time so I carried out extensive testing with IGI 6046A coconut/paraffin container wax and now I have candles that work exceptionally well and I probably won’t go back to soy wax again. As a side note, I used to get a strange sensation in my throat when I burnt soy wax candles and that sensation doesn’t occur when I burn the coconut/paraffin candles. I came across (a few years ago) the results of a test conducted by a German testing facility that compared the products of combustion in relation to unscented soy, unscented paraffin and unscented beeswax candles and found that the paraffin wax is the most preferable wax and that a lot of what is published on the internet about paraffin wax toxicity is incorrect.
  3. The original Advanced was ok but I found that the hot scent throw was never mind blowing. It could be fussy with fragrances and it usually altered the fragrance a bit by knocking out certain fragrance notes, I found that the new Advanced also alters the fragrance a bit, especially on cold throw. I have also noticed that the CDN wicks are not producing large mushrooms and the candle produces very little soot unless you don’t trim the wick and the CDN wick self trimming doesn’t occur, not that it occurred with the original anyway. I have tried mixing 4630A Parraflex at 7% with it and it does improve the surface finish a bit with oils that don’t play to well with it but doesn’t improve the hot scent throw at such a small percentage. I’m also having cracking issues at the moment because I am in the middle of winter where I live and the room temperature does tend to drop quite low. I have also found that container pull away still occurs at cooler temperatures but Ecosoya did state that the original wax was designed to pull away and I think this will still occur with the new wax, especially at cooler candle storage temperatures. My guess is that this wax may have some potential but will only produce a reasonable hot scent throw with really potent fragrance oils. I did have some fragrance oils that required up to 4 months of curing before any hot scent throw was noticeable with the old Advanced and this may still be the case with the new wax but I’m not sure yet.
  4. Hi Dina, I have only tested two fragrances that I found which used to work with the original CB-Advanced soy wax and so far, the hot scent throw is virtually non existent with both of these fragrances in the new CB-Advanced. This is the same story that I have seen with every wax I have tested in the past 1.5 years (even with 4 to 6 month curing times) with the exception of making soy wax melts, the soy wax melts I have made with the same fragrances which I used with the new CB-Advanced work very well. The biggest difference that I have noticed is that soy wax melts have a melt pool temperature around 78 to 82+ deg C and have a great hot scent throw whereas single wick candle melt pools vary between 68 to 72 deg C and have a pathetic hot scent throw, even if I use pillar/melt blend soy wax as a single wick candle. I did try a HTP 126 wick with one of the fragrances in an 8oz tin using the new CB-Advanced with a 7.5 week cure time and the hot scent throw was non existent. The HTP 126 was way to big for an 8 oz tin.
  5. I made a few Ecosoya Advanced container soy wax (2018 release) 8oz (77mm / 3 inch diameter) test tin candles with a 10% fragrance load and found that after 7.5 weeks curing time, a CDN 14 gives me a perfect size melt pool for my selected fragrance. I do have a wax hang up shell of 2 to 3mm on the side wall of the container that starts to melt on subsequent burns which is how I like to wick my candles. From memory, I found that a HTP 105 was a bit small and a HTP 126 was to big when I burned the candles within a few days of pouring. My guess is that the melt pool diameter might change the longer the candle cures because I usually find that HTP 105 and CDN 14 generate a similar diameter melt pool. The melt pool / wick combination may also change with different fragrance oils. The photo shows the CDN 14 wicked candle after a 7.5 week cure at the second 4 hour burn mark.
  6. A picture tells a thousand words. I have seen oil sweating/seeping out in 464 and the old EcoSoya Xcel when it was available as well and I found it occurring with humid conditions and temperature changes, just like your photo shows. I found that it was common in winter when I moved candles that were at approximately 16 deg C to a room where it was around 21-22 deg C and I always assumed it was fragrance oil as well until I made up a blend of Naturewax Coconut 2 from Cargill and 4630 Paraffin with no fragrance oil and found it sweating just like in your photo. I burned the sweating candles and found no problems with the burn. I also burned sweating candles with fragrance oil in them and never had any problems. I was communicating with another forum member privately this year and she was having similar sweating issues with 464 when she first lit her candles and she never mentioned that she had any burn issues….now, I love Voluspa candles and I purchase a lot of them here in Australia where it can get quite humid and under go savage temperature fluctuations in seconds and they always arrive with pools of sweat on the tops (just like your photos show) when I purchase them online and have them delivered. Most of the time the candles arrive with no oil spills as long as the lids are secured properly, there has only been one occasion where a candle leaked a little bit and that was because the lid was dislodged due to a serious case of a lack of proper packing material. I have burned them all and there has never been an issue. I have also found that when the candles were placed in cooler conditions, the sweat/moisture was reabsorbed in to the wax. The conclusion that I reached was that the old Xcel was definitely blended with various things and I suspect oils where included in the blend, 464 was not technically a pure soy wax because the manufacturers added a 2% oil additive to the wax during manufacture and my experiment with Coconut 2 and 4630 that had no fragrance oil in it showed that there was oil that was easily released under certain atmospheric conditions. My guess is that the sweating is a combination of manufacturer’s added oil combined with a small amount of fragrance oil being released from the wax when the candle goes through a humid temperature change. (Oh, I have also noticed it with Aquiesse candles as well and I have never noticed an issue when the candle was burning.)
  7. Hi Moonstar, I recently decided to make a wax test blend with beeswax for the heck of it. I tried 10% parasoy (IGI6006A), 45% white/pale yellow (sun bleached) natural beeswax and 45% Container Maker (as sold in Australia by one supplier) - might be very similar or the same as universal soy additive in the United States. I used an 8 ounce metal tin with a CDN12 wick as well as 6% fragrance oil load and the candle burned very well with good hot scent throw but did produce a little bit of soot once the wick became long and the flame was disturbed. I must admit that I let the candle set for 24 hours before burning but being winter here, the room temp dropped to 12 deg C (53.6 deg F) over night so the wax really solidified well. As you can see from the photos, the wick was way too small and that was the full melt pool diameter after a 6 hour power burn session. The melt pool ended up reaching a diameter of 55mm (2.16 inches). My guess is that a CDN18 or 20 might be a closer match for an 8 ounce tin. I did notice that after the initial pour and examining the top the next day, major pull away / shrinking had occurred. I ended up remelting the top and the top set very close to perfect, a minor swirl developed around the wick but I think that might have been from the melted wick wax coating, not quite sure. I ended up pouring the candle at 60 deg C (140 deg F) and adding the fragrance oil at 80 deg C (176 deg F) and I must warn you, cleaning out the pouring jug was difficult, beeswax certainly doesn’t wash out like soy wax. Hope this helps.
  8. I’m in Australia and I have used it. It looks and behaves like a vegetable oil, it’s essentially odourless, has a yellow color to it and has very similar viscosity to vegetable oil. I did read somewhere that it was possibly the same as universal soy additive in the United States. My guess is that it maybe canola or soy oil or a blend of the two. I have used straight soy oil and container maker and I didn’t notice much of a difference between the two. It does seem to help reduce the frosting issues and assists with smooth tops and container adhesion after pouring with GW464 soy wax but still doesn’t make the GW464 wax perfect. I also found that it had a negligible effect on scent throw with the fragrances I was using at the time I tried it, 4 week curing times had more effect on scent throw. I am currently testing it on a new wax blend that I have been working on for some time and it appears to have reduced the sooting with a longish wick to some extent.
  9. Hi Trappeur, I had a look at a wick chart that I got from one of my suppliers in Australia a few years ago and they suggest that a HTP52 is an in between wick for CDN3 and CDN4 however, I’m not sure if a CDN wick is the same as a CD wick. I have just checked their site and a new version of the chart is there, let me know if you want the url for the chart.
  10. I’m in the same boat as you, I’ve been trying to come up with the perfect candle for over 2 years and I still don’t have anything that is perfect, I’ve come up with blends that work but none are perfect and out of 300 + fragrances that I have tested, I have found 17 that I like and 3 of those are proving very difficult to wick in soy wax to get a decent and reliable flame. I am on the verge of quitting candle making but I must admit that I am seriously addicted to it and like most addictions, it can cost you serious amounts of money. I am now getting so desperate that I am experimenting with parasoy wax blends. You are quite right about some of the retail candles, they do tend to soot quite badly once the wick gets a bit of length on it and I have one brand (starts with a D) that I burn as a comparison which is very expensive, quite popular and it soots it’s back side off and intermittently sets off the smoke alarm. In regards to the temperature, I say 82.2 deg C just to make my own life difficult but it can be any ware from 80 to 85 deg C without any major detectable hot or cold scent throw difference with soy wax. The parasoy that I am playing with at the moment is a no name brand, the supplier doesn’t list the manufacturer so I have to experiment with it to find out it’s likes and dislikes, so far I have found out that the optimal scent throw occurs when the fragrance is added at or around 85 deg C with my chosen testing fragrance oil but that will probably vary with different brands of wax and fragrances. The parasoy does tend to get quite sooty (regardless if it’s a CDN or HTP wick) when the wick is long and the flame is disturbed or dancing, just like some of the major brand candles. In relation to temperatures, most thermometers usually have some sort of tolerance than can be plus or minus 1 or 2 degrees from the actual wax temperature. I use infrared and conventional digital thermometers and they never give the same read out. The two infrared thermometers that I have provide a fairly consistent 1.5 degree difference between them. What I would do with any new soy wax that I decide to try is heat the wax to around 82 to 85 deg C, add the fragrance oil at or around 82 deg C, stir in gently for around 2 minutes, let it cool to a temperature of between 72 to 76 deg C and take a sniff from the top of the pot to check the hot scent throw potential, I say between 72 and 76 deg C because that is quite often the melted wax pool temperature when a soy wax candle is burning but this is no guarantee that the hot scent will be the same once the candle has cured, it only gives you a rough indication of its potential. I then let the wax cool or reheat the wax to pouring temperature and pour slowly to minimize adding in to many air bubbles. Let the candle cure for a week and then burn it to check the hot scent throw, if the hot scent throw is weak or non-existent, I then wait another week and burn it again and keep doing this for an 8 week period. If I find that I really need a candle burning fix within a 24 hour period from creation, I usually make one 8 ounce tin and one glass container (with a similar opening size to the 8 ounce tin) from the same wax batch, let the glass container sit for a few weeks and burn the tin candle to get the “I have to burn it now “ sensation over with. If the hot scent throw from the tin is really disappointing or non-existent, I then let the tin candle sit for another week and then burn it again for a 3 -4 hour session and check the hot scent throw. I keep doing this for an 8 week period. If I still have an average hot scent throw by the end of the 8 week period, I then burn the glass container candle. If the glass container candle provides an average or substandard hot scent throw after an 8 week period, I place the fragrance in the “has to be tried with other waxes” bin or don’t persevere working with it.
  11. I’m not sure what wax you are using but I use EcoSoya Advanced CB soy wax and I have tried adding the fragrance oils at various temperatures from 65 deg C to 85 deg C and I haven’t found much difference but I did find that oils added at 60 deg C or less did not incorporate well. Some oils did appear to have a slightly stronger hot scent throw when added at lower temperatures (65 to 75 deg C) while others were slightly stronger when added at higher temperatures. The biggest thing I found that drastically effected the hot scent throw was the correct settling time for the candles. That came from doing a lot of testing, some fragrances worked well after 2 weeks and other took in excess of 6 weeks to perform well. It may be possible that fragrance oils that contain a considerable amount of essential oils might be effected by being added at a higher temperature but the ones that I have tried which are heavily weighted on the essential oil side appear to be fine when added at 85 deg C. All I can say is test your wax and fragrance combinations at various temperatures to find out. In relation to overheating wax, I have over heated Advanced, 464 and parasoy wax’s to over 100 deg C and found that no negative side effects occurred if they were cooled quickly, (I have used fragrance oil to cool over heated wax quickly but I don’t encourage it) I don’t however recommend over heating wax. I try to heat all of my soy waxes to somewhere between 80 to 82.2 deg C and usually add my fragrance oils at 82.2 deg C but I really find that the parasoy I use, requires the fragrances to be added at no less than 85 deg C. I usually discard any wax that accidently gets heated to 110 deg C +. From the research that I have undertaken over the last few years, I have found that you will generally know if you have destroyed your wax by over heating it because it will either go yellow as opposed to white or it may smell a little bit funky. I have never actually made the wax reach either a yellow or odorous state and I have overheated quite a few batches over the years.
  12. I have the found that I could get a bigger melt pool with HTP 83 when compared to a HTP 93 with certain soy blends and fragrance oils as well. I’m currently experimenting with blending a parasoy blend with other waxes and I’m getting the same results, slightly larger melt pools with HTP 83 in comparison to HTP 93.
  13. I think the second looks more up market due to its simplicity but both look fantastic. Either one would draw my attention if I saw them in a shop.
  14. I have found that RBD coconut oil/wax along with beeswax when added to Advanced soy wax helps create a smooth top after the melt pool cools. I did try combination of coconut wax/oil and Advanced soy wax and found that it left a rippled top, I also tried a combination of bees wax with Advanced soy wax and found that it was prone to surface cracking after cooling, yet, together in a certain ratio, the top was smooth with only a minor circular wick crack that was visible along with the standard pull away that occurs with Advanced soy wax. I found that the scent throw improvement was minor with some fragrances and negligible with other fragrances. I blend it just to get a smooth top after burning and have long cure times to increase the scent throw. I have tried similar blends with GB/GW 444, GB/GW464 and C3 soy wax but all I ever saw was mottling or flaking in the melt pool which I found unacceptable, so I suspended doing further tests with these waxes. I did manage to get my hands on a pre-blended version of an undisclosed soy wax and coconut wax and the scent throw was amazing but the wax blend had a really low melt point, did shrink and go blotchy, so I never progressed with any further testing. RBD coconut wax stands for Refined, Bleached & Deodorized and is usually solid at room temperature. I also tried fractionated coconut oil but only ever got rough tops after burning.
  15. I’ve tried GB444 and found that the same cottage cheese appearance occurs after burning as it does with GB464. In my frustration, I ended up going back to CB Advanced and creating my own blend with CB Advanced as the main wax (I posted the recipe in Soy And Soy Blend Recommendations which is under Vegetable Wax & Beeswax Candle Making) and I have found that some fragrances can take up to 6 to 8 weeks of settling to work. I usually use around 8% fragrance load but I have found that occasionally a fragrance may need as much as 11% fragrance load to work well and a minimum of 7 days to settle. The key to achieving good hot scent throw with advanced soy wax in my experience is allowing the candle to settle for quite some time and adding the fragrance oil to the wax at a wax temperature of approximately 70 to 72 Deg C (158 to 161.6 Deg F) providing that the fragrance oil is compatible with CB Advanced, I have found that 1 or 2 oils do not work.
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