Chefmom

Have you tested the whole candle's burn the whole way down? I use the smallest wick I can with the best results with 6006. I almost always test several sizes. Once the candle works its way down the heat from the wick will melt the sides and consume it on it's way to the end. By halfway in most containers it is cleaning the sides nicely. While I play with blending waxes together, and I've blended 6006 with other waxes I don't think adding soy to 6006 will change the speed of a full melt pool. Adding more soy will most likely change the wicking tho, as 6006 is higher in paraffin than soy.

True, however no testing will ever be absolutely picture perfect for many different reasons. We aren't in control of any of our base "ingredients". As Chandlers we are all at the mercy of the manufacturers of every component of the candle. We source the most reliable glassware, tins, candle molds. But we all know that glass can fail, not because of anything we did, but because of issues within the manufacturing process. We aren't in control of any of the waxes. There are plenty of stories on this board about people having issues with the wax itself. Bad batches, issues within quality control. Soy wax is dependent upon the soy harvest and every batch can have variances within it. Beeswax is different from hive to hive, season to season, year to year and even from the same hive from different placement with in the hive. And then wicks! They might be made by only a few global companies, but then prime them with different kinds of waxes will inherently change their performance....sigh....and of course fragrances...I could go on and on. I'm a meticulous tester and I've seen two wicks from the same pack, same supplier that look the same burn very differently within the same container. One gets a giant mushroom, the other burns just right. One will slowly self trim, the other gets a crazy high flame. It happens. I make notes of the kind of wax I'm using, pour temp, ambient air temp etc etc. Melt pool, diameters, size of jars, rate of consumption. It's the best I can do. Tall Tayl and I are doing this for the good of all, to narrow down wicking with various waxes. We will do our best to give the results as we see it, but in the end it's never a replacement for personal tests. Hopefully it will help people choose wicks to begin their journeys and their own personal testing, to develop their own systems. I am beginning with 4630, I have a 9x13 pan for bulk tests as well as several different containers including the dollar tree rocks jar mentioned above. I've got LX wicks up first as I have worked with them for a long time. I have fatigue issues which gives me plenty of time to watch candles burn.

Yes, I was thinking this as well. While a power burn is a valuable part of testing your candles, it's best to have narrowed down a working wick for your system before giving a power burn. Testing in 3-4 hour intervals is best with wick trimming (or not trimming just to see). Looking at the photos you are burning with a hurricane glass over a container candle. This will change the whole air flow and oxygen availability for the candle, even lifting the bottom to allow air to flow up from base. If the flame is oxygen starved then it will build the carbon that you are seeing on your wicks. The only way to really test a candle is in real world conditions. If it's meant to burn in a hurricane, then use a hurricane, but most candles are burned out in the open and really should be tested that way.

I use a little 20 ounce pot that is sold for espresso makers. It's the little pot they heat and froth the milk in. I keep my wax in a large regular pour pot, keep it at the right temp in a hot water bath and then fill the little pot to pour the tea lights.

lolol I was thinking the other way around...why bother with what you know is going to be discontinued/unavailable in just months, depending on the existing supply. It doesn't even seem like they are bothering to make it widely known about the changes, there have been leaks through suppliers in the UK and Australia online in FB groups. Naturally people follow the progression of the online game of "telephone" and many are starting to think there will be a global shut down of all soy waxes when it is (right now) just an issue with in waxes from one specific company. BUT...I would encourage anyone who uses these waxes from Ecosoya to take lots of photos of how your candles/fragrances/wicks are burning and label them for future reference once the new line comes out.

From what I've read online with the chatter about Ecosoya it seems that this change is due to the new FDA regulations here in the US. Some years ago select cities and I think California banned trans fats. So the use of margarines/vegetable shortenings and these items in processed foods trickled back to the manufacturers. The FDA announced a year or so ago that they were going to instill this ban nationwide with 2016 being the year of compliance. Back when it was just cities the Crisco brand stepped up and reformulated their product nationwide, but the smaller store brand shortenings seemed to stay the same until the FDA announced the nationwide ban. Currently all vegetable shortenings on the market are now soybean oil (or cottonseed or other plant based oils) and palm oils. They are still hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated...they still have trans fats in them, but as long as they fall under the guideline of zero trans fats per serving (and they can skirt around by having .9 trans fats and still call it zero) they seem to be okay with the way labeling is done. Because of all of this...the way that vegetable oils are processed into hydrogenated products has changed. That includes soy wax because all it really is is ultra hydrogenated soy oil and whatever the "select botanical oils" could possibly be. Some are pure soy oil and some are blends, it depends on the company and the formulation. I honestly don't have a clue why it's just the Ecosoya label and not the Golden Foods or Cargill ones. To me, soy candle wax doesn't have a thing to do with soybean oil in food, but one tidbit that I read seems to imply that its this FDA ruling and the change in the hydrogenation of oils that is forcing them to change their product line suddenly.

I see it as when you make little shapes or put your wax scent in a clamshell that you break off pieces and use one or two in your warmer calling that a "melt". I see when you make the shape that is molded in the bakery tart pans...the little teeny ones...then they were called "tarts", because they looked like little tarts.

This, this and THIS!! I get breathless passing out this advise and too many people are in a heck of a hurry to get that colored and scented candle made for a "quick and easy gift" or a "quick and easy buck". I take the unscented wax test one step further in containers by pouring only half the container full. I want to first see the wick deep inside the jar, and if wicking a full jar that is a whole lot of burns that can look pretty good to get to the bottom of the jar to see problems. So when I first test the combo I test half jars, unscented and uncolored and light them all up, usually 12 at a time so I can compare the burns side by side. They get narrowed down to best and second best etc and then I continue testing with fragrances. But before all of that I know exactly what wick is working best in that jar/container and that wax and can move on from there. It's time consuming but it's a whole lot better than having a scented candle with a poor wick combo to deal with than some leftover plain wax that I can melt down and use for another test. As for trouble wicking...I also agree with TT that florals (and many fruits for me) are quick and easy to wick but the deeper earthy and buttery scents are usually the ones that need adjustments. Also if you are making them in really deep and dark colors your wicks can get bogged down just from the color. Black is still my color nemesis.

The finished bar looks great!! You would have never known of the bumps along the way. Thanks for sharing.

OOOOooooo....with that jar you are going to hit "the tealight conundrum". With a usual container candle you can burn several hours at a time, blow out, then burn again. With a tealight you often have to burn the whole thing in one sitting. One of my wick tests with tealights is blowing them out about 2 to 2 1/2 hours into the burn and then relighting them. There is a fine line where the tealight wick can pick back up and burn the rest with full consumption. If the wick can't do it, the whole bottom of the tealight is wasted. With a wide and shallow container you may also hit a point where the candle needs to burn through to finish, if you extinguish then the wicks can't pick it back up and consume fully, leaving a lot of waste wax. After seeing the jar I'm more inclined to agree with Trappeur above and use the smaller CD wicks. But I think I would try three CD4 in one jar and two CD5 in another and see how the wicks consume.

I have only dabbled with 464, I prefer the parasoy that I work with, but knowing what I know about CD wicks etc I would say pour a plain unscented jar about half full with two CD 7 and maybe another one with two CD 8 and compare the two as they act in the lower half of the jar. From there you can have a base point of what the wax and wick can do before adding fragrance. When I double wick a container I like to put the wick tabs a little closer at the bottom, but when I adjust the wicks after the pour I pull them slightly off to the sides so there is more space between them at the top of the candle vs. the bottom.

The toppers do work at taming a flame, but in my experience they also cut back on scent throw. My HVAC air flow wonder man of a husband has told me many times it's all about the way the air can or can not flow into the container, combined with the oxygen usage and passive heating/cooling flow from the heat of the flame. Containers that are taller than wide will always have dancing flames. The quickest way to determine if you are burning in a draft or not is to put a taper candle in the same spot as your container candle. If the flame on the taper is steady, no draft. If the taper dances...draft.

4786 is a blended container paraffin wax. It has additives etc to hold more fragrance for scented container candles. The 1284 is a straight paraffin wax that is firm enough for votives and also for containers, however it doesn't have any additives and so you will need to add your own or to use it as is.

OOOOOoooooooo That is a really really good idea!! Some years ago I saw a display of roasters at Thanksgiving time and I can remember standing there trying to think how I could use that in my many home endeavors. At the time I was thinking about just melting wax in one like a big steam table (as a Chef/Baker I usually go to the commercial equipment side). I always thought about melting wax in it directly until I started thinking of the mess of ladling etc. I like my pour pots, but it is a better idea to use something large like this for multiples.

Some mistakes I see newbies make... Trying to make a complicated recipe first. This is where the internet and all it offers you can bite you in your backside. Seeing all the swoopy swirls and fancy soaps and people don't want to make a plain three oil/fat soap, uncolored and unscented to understand the process from start to finish. Then they post frustrated photos of seized soaps or volcanoes or separated oil slicks and want "experts" to diagnose their issues. I am utterly amazed at how much money I see people spending BEFORE they ever make soap. I am a frugal person, and I have spent my share of money on supplies and equipment, but when I see $200-300 dropped on a hobby that you don't even know if you LIKE I shake my head. A cardboard box lined with plastic make a great starter box. Buy a box of teabags in the market and line that box with plastic and it's perfect for a little 1 pound starter batch, or even the box that kosher salt comes in...very heavy cardboard and a perfect mold size. It was a couple of years into soap making before I used a mold that wasn't a found cardboard box. A couple of extra kitchen things can be taken for soap making and use your old stick blender (buy your food kitchen a new one) can be used. After 15 years of making soap I am only on my second stick blender, the first one cost me $8 and by the time I needed a second one the price had increased to $11. I'm thinking about maybe getting a new one, I've probably cursed myself now... MANY recipes can be made from grocery store oils/fats. Sandy Maine's shortening/coconut/olive recipe is a VERY good starter recipe!! (44% shortening 28% coconut, 28% olive and 5% superfat) Making single oil soaps. Um.... most single oil soaps are not newbie simple formulas. Sure, it sounds simple...but olive oil soap can take days to reach trace. A person who has never made soap doesn't need to stand there and make themselves paranoid and nuts over a soap never tracing, or pouring too soon and having it separate in the mold. Or....a soap that at best can't be used for months to years. That isn't anyway to start (in my humble opinion). And coconut only soap moves so fast that it can get away from someone who doesn't understand the process in the first place. I once read a comment that a soap maker made on facebook that they believed a new soap maker needs to spend a YEAR making every kind of oil into single oil soap recipes BEFORE ever making any kind of blend of soap to better understand what every kind of oil/fat/butter does on their own, to be able to make their own blend soap recipes. Wow... Thankfully that experiment has been done and the results are online. But knowing what a 100% shea butter soap looks and feels like doesn't help me one lick to know how shea butter compliments coconut and olive oil in a soap blend. My advise for someone's first soap....first find a cardboard box like mentioned above. Then go to your local Chinese takeaway and enjoy a quart of Wonton soup, bring home two packages of chopsticks while you are there. Keep the plastic container from the soup and wash and dry. Print out the base recipe from soapcalc, use the wonton soup container to mix your lye water in, stir with a chopstick. You know your lye is active because the chopstick will turn bright yellow from the reaction. A simple 8 cup plastic bowl and spatula is really all that is needed. It's a great beginner lesson and the end result is a small batch of soap to kick your heels up over. During the cure time of the first soap make a few changes to the base recipe so that in 8-12 weeks there are several different soaps to test. Soaping is a journey that never really ends. I don't think I'll ever make/test every idea that has popped into my head. Classic Trinity Base Formula 50% olive 30% Lard, Tallow or Palm (which can be bought as organic shortening) 20% coconut 5-8% superfat that same formula can be switched around to 50% lard/tallow/palm, 30% olive, 20% coconut. When you are ready to test other oils or butters, just pull 10% out of the lard amount and use 10% of your chosen fat/butter/oil. Side by side testing is amazing to decide what your favorite oils and fats are. This is how I learned my daughter loves almond oil, but I love avocado oil. She loves shea butter, I love cocoa butter. My husband hates soaps over 10% superfat, but my skin LOVES 20% superfat. And the entire family agrees that the 100% coconut oil soap with 20% superfat is a love or hate soap. It doesn't lather in my well water at all, it feels greasy and yet strips our skin in just one use. Many people sing praises and love for this soap. I am in the group that can't use it at all. Please don't think I'm bitching and moaning...I do shake my head a lot at what I read online tho...I am glad that I'm not a newbie actually. There is so much online these days that I can understand how overwhelming it must be.