Ayla

Wow, thanks TallTayl. I had no idea humidity plays a role too. I guess I'll have to test further during our almost tropical summer here. July is so humid it'll be excellent for this. I will also need to find a bigger box to store all the labelled results of my tests and check them out at the 6 and 12 months old mark. When I first watched youtube videos on how to make melts or votives, I thought "well, easy enough!" Hahahahaha!!! How naive of me! Thank you for the info re: USA. I wonder though, you have glycerOl or glycerYl monostearate? Not sure how different they are but I think they're different. Or is it automatic spell check that made it glycerYl in your post? In any case, your remark convinced me to just bite the bullet on the high shipping fees and order USA so I can compare with subustitutes here. Thanks for that.

Thank you so MUCH Trappeur. There are so many variables, I wasn't sure I was approaching the testing in the most efficient way. I suspect, as I go further in what seems like a rabbit hole, I will have some light bulbs go on and will refine things a bit, but so to read your critique. You made my day. Cure time configuration I'll add when I feel I have a good control over the texture of the tops, for sure. I'm suspecting cold and hot throws will be excellent after cure time since they're already quite good without curing, but you never know since there will be the question of scents holding over time, or scents morphing overtime, or scents (God frobid!!) making the wax revert to polymorphism overtime. Whew... Just writting I realise I'm in this testing phase for probably most of 2018. We're in our winter's coldest period here. I noticed, all other things being equal (formula, scent, MT, PT, mold) the only variable between a cauliflower top or a smooth top when the wax cools in the mold is different depending on my kitchen's temperature at the time of pouring (say, if I baked right before testing, kitchen warmer and smooth tops. If I test 1st thing early morning, kitchen cooler, cauliflower tops). Reading threads here I realised ambiant temperatures have an influence. I can't really control that. So I needed a formula and a procedure that gave good results at a wide range of ambiant temperature. For this wax, it's a hotter PT that worked consistently, poured in my 18ºC (64ºF) basement, in my 21ºC (70ºF) kitchen, and in my 24ºC (75ºF) over-heated bathroom. My optimal pouring temperature is 70ºC (158ºF). My optimal melting temperature, because of this very hard, very brittle soy wax I have, is 82ºC (180ºF). I didn't try to lower it with the addition of the paraffin since I'm using melted dollar store candle for that as opposed to properly tested and labelled paraffin from reputable supplier. Needless to say, I also tested using the melts in three different warmers in all 3 different rooms and their different ambiant temperatures (one brass with tealight, one ceramic with tealight, one electrical ceramic with light bulb). My MT and PT held up even in the more challenging electric ceramic warmer. Molds I pour in are metal, because they make the wax more prone to polymorphism. If it works in metal molds, chances are really high it will work in other materials like plastic or silicone. The formula is 50/50 soy/paraffin. I tried at 60/40 and got frosting right out of the mold and bumping, craters upon cooling after use in the melters. Now I need to test with proper paraffin and eventually with glycerol monostearate (USA). I need paraffin suggestions. I ordered a sample of 1242. Please let me know if you think an other one would work better. The supplier I use here in Canada is Canwax. Here's their paraffin offering. Thank you! https://www.canwax.com/Paraffin-Wax_c_175.html

Thank you for your welcome. My friend works in a specialty chemical distributor. They sell raw ingredients by the truckload to different industries, among which personnal care, food and beverage, pharmaceutical... I have no idea how old is this wax. The brand is "Canamerica". It only says on the bags: "Soy Stearine" "Ingredients: 100% hydrogenated soyabean oil". "Keep at 20ºC to 25ºC temperature" I think it's what Ecosoy or Golden Brand would use as a primary ingredient to develop their products. I suppose they'd order this from a chemical grocer such as the company where my friend works and formulate their waxes with additives to make it usable by chandlers and decline it in different qualities for different end-products (melts, pillars, votives and so on). That's my theory anyway. I came to think that because in some threads, chandlers stated that soy wax came a long way since the early days in the early 90s when they started using it in terms of results, the major problem solved being rough tops, cauliflower tops, polymorphism... So basically, I have so much of this stuff and felt I could formulate my own usable wax. Quite the challenge I must say.

Thank you for your welcome. "We are the same spirit" (Ayla's quote in the movie). It's a great story. I read the book years ago and loved it so much. Then saw the movie. Love it too, although it took me a while to get used to the physical appearance of the characters which I imagined differently when reading the book. Your avatar is a riot!

I wrote my original post yesterday evening out of frustration and desperation seeing nothing seemed to work in eliminating the cauliflower effect of my 100% pure soy wax. I resumed methodical testing early this morning, assembly line fashion with different additives and formulas. I choose melt temp. and pour temp. that seemed to give the best outcomes before and stuck to them for all of today's tests to limit the number of variables as much as possible, and avoid spending the next 3 months testing. First Eureka: One formula, unscented, gave smooth tops upon cooling in the mold. Little to no texture once the melts were used and let to cool in the warmer. Second Eureka: Tested the above working unscented formula with FO @ 6%, EO @ 6% and two more tests for scent loads @ 8%. Same results texture-wise than with 1st Eureka, and bonus, fair to excellent cold and hot throws depending on the FO or EO used (tested by my neighbour, and my son in the basement as both my nose, and my kitchen were scent-saturated). So frustration breeds determination which in turn, this time at least for me, increases the odds of success. Happy dance here. Cautiously happy though. I need to repeat all what I did with this seemingly great soy/additives again a few times just to make sure. I guess I can't believe that's it, I got it right this time. I need to make extra sure.

I have quite a lot of soy wax a friend gave me. Free stuff, I want to make a good use of it. It's 100% soy, no additives. It's quite hard, the flakes are brittle. On the bag, it says "100% hydrogenated soya bean oil". It doesn't say "wax". I have guest sleeping near the place where I stored the bag. I can't check the manufacturer's name immediately. I'll update tomorrow on that. I've pent hours reading past threads on cauliflower tops, and blooming, and frosting. I tested quite a lot. I tested with and without scent, tested with FOs, essential oils too. I didn't use colours yet. I don't wick. I'm making wax melts, for now. It's complicated enough without adding the wicking exercises. All the tests were hit and miss. Nothing seems to work consistently to avoid the caulflower tops. As an exemple, tested twice a lavender essential oil scented melt, 6% scent load, with a formula of 90% soy wax and 10% coconut oil, melt temp and pour temp being equal both times, ended up with generous cauliflower tops for one test and perfectly smooth for the other. Here's what I tested, and none worked consistently (all tested several time with different MT and PT: - Soy wax by itself, not scented, and EO scented, and FO scented - 95% soy wax / 5% crisco (scented and non scented) - 80% soy wax / 10% crisco (scented and non scented) - Various percentages of soy/coconut oil (from 5% up to 50% coconut oil) - Various percentages of soy wax with various percentages of crisco and for each test 1% stearic acid - Soy/vaseline (I think I used 3 to 5% vaseline, it ended up looking like a nuclear mushroom) - 98% soy with 2% soy lecithin, to see if it would act as an emulsifier and tame the wax cristals. No cauliflower tops but ugly color and ugly brown residu in the melter My last experience was yesterday, entering the para blend territory now. I did a 25% paraffin from a melted dollar store white candle since I don't have paraffin on hand (ordered some, it's on its way). MT 180F, PT 130F. I've got 3 cauliflower florets as melts. I went ahead and used one in the melter yesterday, to see if it would cool in that shape again in the melter. Nope, it cooled perfectly smooth. I know I need to try the Universal Soy Additive. There no supplier for in Canada as far as I could see. A 1-pound bag costs about 6$ in the US but the shipping!!! OMG!! 25$ to 38$ depending on the supplier. No way. So I researched the stuff to see if I could find some kind of substitution that would be available here and I discovered that actually, USA is simply an emulsifier used in the food industry. It's glycerol monostearate. I'm going to visit a place next week where they might sell me a sample, I hope. If it doesn't work there, apparently it might be available in Indian grocery stores since they use it to make ice-cream. TL/DR: I tested ad-nauseam, read this forum for hours. I would love suggestions, ideas, shared experiences working 100% pure soy wax. Please, please. I'm driving myself nuts. Thank you!!

Hi, I'm from Quebec, Canada. Two years ago I ordrered some wax, FOs and colorants to make melts as gifts for friends and family members. It went well. Everybody was happy. Fast forward this month, someone remembered those homemade gifts and gave me 60 pounds of 100% soy wax and 30 pounds stearic acid. "Here, this is for you since you make stuff with wax" he says. Ok... Well, I need to make something with all this. I lurked this forum for the last 4 weeks, reading thread after thread after thread regarding 100% pure soy wax, some threads dated as back as 2006. I tested and tested and tested whatever procedure or formula suggested for this type of wax. I felt, after all the reading and all the testing, I needed now to get out of lurking. Glad to meet you all. Looking forward our interactions.