Soy 125 Experiments - pics pg2

So I'm finally starting to get somewhere with Candlewic's Soy125, although not completely sold on it. Figured I had 50lbs, might as well do something with it.

Here are the troubles

- low fragrance load. Rated 4-5% I have successfully made it with 6.5%, however the texture on the side of the jar is not creamy and solid, you can see where the oil is not mixed completely with the wax. Makes for a great smelling candle, except I want the creamy/solid look and I'm afraid it will bleed on top when it gets warm.

- I have to heat gun, several times to get a nice top, however sometimes after I heat gun I get what looks similar to frosting, but I think it's tiny tiny airbubbles.

This is a wicking problem I think, so maybe someone will chime in

- I'm in a 8oz jj and have tried anywhere from eco8-eco12 and am not happy with any of them. The 8 and 10 do ok with vanilla for about up to 3 hours. If I burn longer than 3 hours, then the wick dances and mushrooms. The 8 does not give a full melt pool. Now, after about 3 burns, when it cools and you smell the candle, the Fragrance smell has greatly diminished and most of what I smell is burnt wick. Is that normal with any of your candles, or does my wick search unfortunately continue for me?

Mushrooming, do you consider it a good candle if it goes 4 hours with no mushrooming, or can your candles marathon burn all day with no mushrooming and trimming?

Sorry so long, thank you if you actually read the whole thing!

C

Is the Candlewic 125 a soy/cottonseed blend? I looked on their site and it does not say if it is a 100% soy product, or mixed with something. I use a 125 soy/cottonseed product, and am not having any of the issues you are describing. It will hold 10% fragrance load with NO problems, and most of the common wicks can be used: HTP, CD, Cotton, and the list goes on. Sorry I cannot help with the Candlewic 125 since I have used my 125 for years, and do not plan on switching. I have tested MANY other soy waxes, and blends, but have always come back to my 125. If interested in the 125 I use, PM me. HTH some.

realmarcha,

Who is your supplier?

I am curious is it 100%. Or a container blend? I use MC's 125 and it is not a blend when it is GB's 415 that they supply.

it's 100% soy

We used Candlewic's 125 and was not happy with it either. However we did use RRD wicking with it, and was pleased with that aspect. It was the final "look" of the candle we didn't like.

I have found that with 100% soy I can't pour any hotter than 100* in a 78*-80* house if I want a smooth top, and even that is only guaranteed about 95% of the time.

If the house is cooler than 73* I get rough tops no matter what with 100% soy.

I have found that with 100% soy I can't pour any hotter than 100* in a 78*-80* house if I want a smooth top, and even that is only guaranteed about 95% of the time.

If the house is cooler than 73* I get rough tops no matter what with 100% soy.

If you are not opposed to adding anything, a small amount of beeswax in your wax, will help a lot of things, like the rough tops. I usually do 3% in the winter and 4% in the summer.

Candlewic's 125 had amazing hot throw @ 24 hours with any FO I put in it but the wicking was a bear to figure out. Whatever you thought would work, didn't. I used all sorts of wicks and wick combinations before I finally said "freak it". I didn't want to do over all my prior testing from my other wax and wicks. I had hoped it would work because of the closeness to me.

Thank you to all who responded. I am going to give up on the 125. I thought I'd try since I had 50lbs of it.....have had some better look appearance wise with 100 degree pouring and mixing with beeswax. The wicking is difficult and I can not get it to hold much scent....as much as I wanted to use 100%, why should I settle for 3-4% FO max when I can get 8% in some of the Golden Brands soys? I guess I'm back to the drawing board on which soy I want to use. Frustrating.....

Thanks again for the feedback and on your experiences....

Chris

realmarcha,

Who is your supplier?

I use the Kysoy125. It is an exclusive from Kentucky Candle Wax Supply; Vickey trademarked her formula about 3 - 4 years ago. You have to pour this wax at a certain temp in order to get a smooth top, but once you have it down, you can achieve a smooth top each and every time no matter what the season. Like with any soy wax, wicking can be a challenge, and this wax is in NO way impossible to wick, even in the harder to burn fragrances. I can use a 10% fragrance load too with no seeping, or other common problems. Depending on the fragrance, I use anywhere between 6% - 10%; 9% - 10% in most applications. Also, the cold and hot throws are awesome. If you decide to try this wax, do not hesitate to PM if you have questions about the pouring process, or wicking, etc. Here is the website addy:

http://www.kycandlewaxsupply.com/wax.htm

Hope this helps you out!

Thank you to all who responded. I am going to give up on the 125.

I gave up on it too because it basically produces crap on its own. Now that I'm a little more soy-savvy it looks to me like a useful raw material. It's just that you have to figure out how to make a workable blend with it. Recently I tried paraffin as a modifier and it both looked and burned great.

To make an all-veggie wax it looks to me like what it's missing is some emulsifier. I made a tester in a votive glass with a little universal soy additive (please oh please can they come up with a better name before we're stuck that one forever). I'll let you know how it sets up.

Thanks Top. The only candle I made with it that I liked was with palm stearic and beeswax....the texture was great and the throw was great....only it didn't adhere to the glass and it cracked. I thought about blending paraffin in it, but for some of the people I want to make candles for they would not be able to use it because of the paraffin. I think I'll still play with the 125....I have a case of that and a case of the 120 ordered by accident. If nothing else I'll have some candles to burn for fun.

Let me know how that votive turns out.

Thanks,

C

Have you thought about trying Goldens 464. You can pour it hot and the scent throw is great. No problems with glass adhesion. I gave up on beeswax too for that same reason. Now I use 415 for colorless or light colored dyes or swirling colors that require a thicker consistancy when pouring. And 464 for all the specialty containers or the bold colors that show the tops a little more. So far so good. Unfortunately there is no guarantee of a perfect pour everytime with any soy. I don't use it but parasoy is the only one with the most consistancy.

Thanks Top. The only candle I made with it that I liked was with palm stearic and beeswax....the texture was great and the throw was great....only it didn't adhere to the glass and it cracked. I thought about blending paraffin in it, but for some of the people I want to make candles for they would not be able to use it because of the paraffin. I think I'll still play with the 125....I have a case of that and a case of the 120 ordered by accident. If nothing else I'll have some candles to burn for fun.

Let me know how that votive turns out.

Thanks,

C

It's just a tiny container, but it might be worth making a normal one and pouring it properly. The USA looks like it can tame the stuff. Might make a good blend alone or make in combination with stearic.

Here are some pics of my experiences with Soy 125 from Candlewic

I get funky tops as I should with soy. I heat gun it and the dern thing bubbles - a lot of trapped air. When it cools, I either have more bubbles underneat that show through, or I get what looks like mottling. First thing you say is frost, but it's not. The candle gets frost on it and it looks totally different.

Secondly I get this weird texture on the sides. It's not smooth and creamy. It looked at first like the FO wasn't binding. I adjusting FO% and then my temps. I heat between 160-180 and pour between 95 -150 and they all come out like this. I did pour one with no FO and it was perfect. Here is the kicker, I heated the side of one of the jars that did this, a bunch of air came out. The candle looked better when it cooled after doing that. I did try another candle adding some Palm Stearic to it, thinking the problem was FO. I added less FO when I added the PS and the thing bled on me! It's a lose - lose :undecided

I deduce that this wax is an "Air Trap" no matter what I do it.

Here are the pics....thanks for looking

C

Chris, when I played with this stuff straight it seemed useless. It makes big big crystals and I suppose the air comes from the spaces between. Maybe that's also why it doesn't like to hold FO. Plus it looks repulsive.

I whipped up a parasoy with it once (mostly soy by far) and suddenly it looked beautiful and burned well. Total transformation. Also I did that little sample with USA like I mentioned earlier and it looked promising. Just think of this duckling as a blending wax or at least in need of additives and you can probably turn it into a swan.

Basically it needs a crystal modifier or it works like crap.

This wax is awesome as a parasoy mix, beautiful , burns great and has a great throw. Like Chris said though, it's very ugly all by itself and only holds 5% fragrance, on the good side, even though it holds just 5% and is ugly, it still has a very good throw.