geekrunner

First off, I'm no chemist, but I play one at home in my Mad Scientist Lab Did you use a bottle with a Yorker tip or some type of dispensing lid? Or did you pour straight from a bottle? I found once that when I use a Yorker tip on my bottles, and don't trim the tip a little, and then forcefully squeeze out the needed FO, the very thin stream of FO will cause alot of bubbling of the wax rising to the surface of the wax. If I trim the tip down to a thicker steam, it doesn't do that. There's another comparison I could make that comes to mind, but it would be in bad taste and only the guys would understand Another thing could be, is there may be an ingredient in the FO that may be separating out, and it may be causing a chemical reaction that releases some gas causing the bubbling, maybe CO2? Maybe I'm talking outside of my pay grade, maybe Top could answer that one. geek

Come on over to the veggie board! The water is fine We like noobs, so don't be scared. I'll protect you from everyone else geek

Actually your candles look great for your first effort! The first two look like they've been test burned, or topped off. The white stuff is indeed frosting, and there are wet spots (but others have already pointed that out). Your room temps are definitely a factor, the warmer the better. The only difficulty I see you will have is getting your coloring consistent from one batch to another, since you are shaving off of a dye block. Either way, your colors are outstanding! Sometimes careful wicking may prevent post-burn frosting, but that takes alot of time, and wicks, and may not be totally avoided. It depends on how hot a wick you use, how hot the MP gets, and how slowly it cools post burn. Carry on noob! geek

I have 16 oz keepaske jars with closed fitment that will hold 16 oz if you fill them all the way up, then there is no room for the lid. I only fill mine to 12 oz by weight, then ther is enough room for the lid and wicks. What I do is mix up enough wax/FO in a 4 lb pour pot to pour five jars. Then I set my two lb pour pot on my scales, tare it out, then pour the exact amount of scented wax I need for one candle (12 oz = 340 g), then pour into the jar. I repeat for each one till I have only one jar left, then I pour the last jar from the big pour pot. Voila! As close to exact as I can get. geek

I work very hard to get my candles as frost-free as possible, but many times my candles will be dotted with frosting, and the candle mostly looks good. If I have a candle that has what I deem to be excessive frosting, I'll keep it and use it for marathon burn testing, or I'll give away to my close friends. I can explain away mild frosting, but in good conscience cannot sell one with mayor frosting issues! Sometimes I will take the worst ones and experiment on them to find ways to eliminate the frosting. I have found that storing the finished candles in a very warm room, like my computer room, will keep the candles frost-free till I sell them, but if I store them in my relatively cool basement, they frost up pretty badly after a couple of days. :undecided geek

Have him read my signature, he'll get a chuckle out of it, if he hasn't already heard it yet. geek

There must be something in the water here in Indy, maybe it's all the duck crap in the Canal geek

Couldn't say for sure. Based on my limited knowledge, I would defer to Top on that. I know that stearic acid in a paraffin candle will tend to bind FO up to a certain level, but then at a greater level will release it, which causes mottling in paraffin. I had been under the belief that stearic acid did nothing for soy. I may play around a little with it now that I'm done with my big holiday candle production. geek

I received word from one of my anonymous sources that Beanpod does use a soy blend, but it does not have any paraffin in it. One ingredient is believed to be butyl stearate, which also goes by stearic acid. That ingredient is not commonly used in soy wax, but is primarily used (by crafters) in paraffin to increase opacity in molded pillar candles. Hmmm, maybe I will try a little to see if it helps any with frosting. geek

I used to have problems with wick stickums not staying stuck and coming loose when I'm bending them over the wick centering tool just before pouring. I found it happened when I was wicking a jar straight out of the box. Add to that, I keep my jars in my basement, which is cooler than the upstairs. What I have done to fix that is just give the jars a quick wash and dry, and make sure the jar is somewhat warm when setting the wick. They stick every time! I have had to remove the leftover wick tab with pliers after test burning a candle down to nothing, that's how well they stick for me. HTH! geek

The 415 is a great all-purpose wax, it works best when poured cool, or when it just starts to turn cloudy, app 100*. A good additive for it is either 2% USA or 3% BW. geek

Most of the time we need to know how much FO to use in a given quantity of wax. The formula would be: (amount of wax) x (fragrance oil percentage) = amount of FO So for 16 oz wax at 9%, it would be (16) x (0.09) = 1.44 oz FO. Then subtract the 1.44 oz from the 16 oz total, and you would need 14.56 oz wax, 1.44 oz FO to make a 16 oz candle at 9% load. In this case, we need to know how much wax to use with a given quantity of FO. So we just need to tweak the formula: (amount of FO) / (FO percentage) = amount of wax needed So for 1 oz of FO and a 9% load, it would be (1) / (0.09) = 11.11 oz total wax and FO to make 9% load. So take 10.1 oz wax, add 1 oz FO and you have a candle with a 9% load. Hope I didn't make it more confusing. geek

Many of us here have extensively tested Golden Brands soy wax of all varieties, and in my experience the 444 and 415 are the two best. For a candle noob such as yourself, the 444 should be a very good wax to start out with. It doesn't need any additives, and it does a pretty good job if you pour it in the neighborhood of 135 degrees. You could actually pour at any temperature above that, but then you would definitely need to poke for air pockets and heat gun your tops to fill them in. I definitely would recommend you get a heat gun, you can get them at Lowe's or Home Depot. Look in the paint section, where you would find paint stripping products. Should only set you back $20. That will be the single wisest candle making equipment purchase you can make (with a Presto Pot a very close second ). Good luck and carry on noob! geek

I was in a Hallmark store looking for something nice for Mrs. geek, when I stumbled upon some Beanpod candles. They looked nice, smelled good. As I picked one up, I could tell the wax was loose in the jar. I shook it and it rattled around. It was not adhering at all in the jar. Knowing what I know, I thougt to myself, this sure looks like a parasoy. Of course, the candle hangtag said "Made from 100% soy wax." Further inspection indicated that they used "Stabilized Soy" and their patented Tempacure process. How can a 100% soy wax candle look and behave like that?? Now, knowing how certain politicians love to parse their words, I began to examine the phrase "Made from 100% soy wax." Wouldn't it be possible for a candle to be made from 100% soy wax and still not be a 100% soy wax candle? That is, one could blend 100% soy wax with 100% paraffin (perhaps in a 70/30 configuration ) to create a candle that looks, burns, and smells just like a Beanpod candle but yet still could legally include the phrase "Made from 100% soy wax"? Now, maybe my tinfoil hat is on a little too tight, and maybe this has been all discussed before, but what do you all think? It sure looks like to me that Beanpod's "Stabilized Soy" is stabilized with paraffin! Am I behind the curve here? geek :undecided

I'm getting a better handle on frosting, and for me it hinges on three main points: Keep your glassware as clean and dry as possible. Stir your wax as gently as possible, to prevent air bubbles from forming. Pour slowly in jars, and allow the candles to cool as slowly as possible, preferably in a room heated above 80*I pour in my basement, which is about 10* cooler than the upstairs. When my candles have set up enough to move (app 2 hours), I place them in the box the jars came in, close it up, and put them in my computer room, which stays pretty warm. After 24 hours, the candles come out 99.9999% frost free! The only caveat I have is if you take the candles and put them in a chilly room, or an air conditioned room, they will frost up within 24 hours and wet sports will form. geek

The 444 is a higher MP version of 464. Both are a blend of soy and a soy additive (aka USA) to allow hotter pouring temps. Based on my experimentation with both, I would avoid the 464 in favor of the 444. You really don't need to add anything to the 444 to make it work well, and you can pour it at no less than 135*. If you search using 444 as a search term, you can find a thread or two on it, but beware of the old 444 thread from last year, the 444 you want is the new blend recently introduced. geek

Ouch! I remember that now. Sorry for your bad luck. geek

The rattle you get is because the paraffin content of your blend is causing the entire wax to contract, and pull away from the jar enough to be loose. This will happen with most homemade blends. I have blended my own once with GB 415 (same as EZ-Soy) and J50 at 70/30 and it did the same thing. I have found that the two parasoys I have purchased, Greenleaf 70/30 and the KY Parasoy (known to be approx 50/50), adhere much better as long as you keep the jars real clean, pour hot, and allow to cool REAL slowly. Greenleaf may be closer to you, and you will probabaly be happier with it than a 50/50 blend. Good luck! geek

I don't think that little jj looks bad at all! I tied once for a similar look on a pillar candle, where I changed the tilt angle slightly on each layer. The tarts look like you could just pop 'em in your mouth! geek

I thought Britney Spears kicked the habit Man: Do you smoke after sex? Woman: I don't know, I've never looked! But seriously, if the tart wax is truly smoking, it may be getting too hot. Do you use an electric or tealight tart melter? geek BTW Hi noob and Welcome!

Welcome and good luck! It will become an obsession very quickly, so pace yourself. geek

I've never been disappointed with Peak's FOs, but I try to get most of my FOs from MillCreek, since they are close. I've only been disappointed in only one of their FOs, otherwise they have good stuff. geek

Wow! Three Hoosiers on this thread from Indy! BTW I'm a man, man! geek

LOL! I forgot about my B&D drill there! I used it last year when I was experimenting with "assembled" paraffin pillars. I used a hole saw drill attachment to drill out holes in discs of wax, then asembling them with wax glue to make pillars with different colors and layers without pouring layers. Ieven tried a checkerboard design. Maybe one day I will get back to it. geek

Sorry late to reply! It doesn't work too well, it was a gift from my ex about 15 years ago. I actually have a kerosene heater now to warm up my candle area, it does a much better job. I'm thinking about hanging sheets of visqueen to make an enclosed area. geek