crvella

I use 4627 for votives and pour straight into the glass votive. I use CDN 4 through 7, depending on the fragrance. I find the 4627 is great for votives.

I did a bit of testing with C3 and I found the 10 burnt similar to a 16, and a 12 burnt between an 8 and a 10. This was with a HM Wax coating. How much FO are you using? That last pic looks like you may be burning a thick fragrance and/or possibly too much FO

Such a great post thank you so much Karen! I've spent most of today getting back to melts and I must say it's a nice change of gear from doing anything with wicks haha! Thank you so much!

Hi all! I'm kind of new to melts. I was wondering if someone could direct me on a few subjects. 1) I have a heavy vanilla fragrance that throws HEAPS in a candle. I use %8 in my melt. The melt doesn't throw as much as some of the others, but in the candle it's the biggest thrower. Is it more a case of too much fragrance can hinder the heating and throw, or it is that it's simply different in candles? 2) I am making little 8g squares (.28oz). How long can one reasonably expect this to last? I think I"m getting on average about 5hours. 3) Is it unreasonable to expect to be able to make a melt that works both with a tealight burner and one of those electrical ones? Thanks, just never used melts myself so don't know what to expect. I'm personally very happy with what I have but I'm trying to get an idea on what customers might say/think when I sell them.... and even what questions they may ask!

Tell him your refund system is out of order so you'll have to drop it around in person.

I hate nothing more than poor customer service. Which may be apparent from my previous posts hahaha.

Trappeur - I PM'd you

So today I woke up and went and did some research on whats out there. Some being direct competitors and others that are priced right out of our range. The first thing I noticed with all the expensive candles ($50-$95); They were all paraffin, they were all single wick in a jar under 3" wide and a lot were only slightly taller than they were wide. Most measuring 3.5" or less. And here's the thing that I was particularly interested in; They were all the light floral and fruit fragrances, which are typically easier to wick and do not typically soot as much. At least none of the ones I have do anyway (Orange, Gardenia, Sugar Plums). I noticed one brand in particular, which was the most expensive brand, who had matching perfumes to their candles, the ONLY candle they didn't have that matched their perfume was a wood fragrance. When I asked if they were out of stock, she said 'no, we just don't make them'. So my initial take away from this was, a) The jars we are using are making things difficult for us as they are twice as tall as they are wide. We have made the same product in 3" wide by 3.2" tall which we were very happy with, so going to stick with that and maybe adjust 2 of our fragrances which we feel soot too much with our setup. The fragrance selection in these expensive products are "safe". i.e nothing woody, bakery like or anything high in vanillin So then I forked out $60 for a popular 'posh' candle. OMG!! It's been lit for 20 minutes, it ALREADY has a mushroom; the wick is sooting like crazy; it's dancing like Justin Bieber just been told he can stay out late and play with his friends and I can still smell my reed-diffuser, which is sitting on the other side of the room, over the candle! So yup... my expectations were heavily adjusted today, and I have learned that our fragrance selection process may need some work rather than trying to change our core materials to suit the fragrance..... (sigh)

OldGlory - I agree, I'm all over the place at the moment. I've a wax blend I love and works for me but as it's paraffin it doesn't work with the jars we are using. 1 pint wide mouth are proving too tall for some of the fragrances that have a tendency to soot more than the others. They also loose scent throw by the bottom unless I wick up, at which point I'm then not happy with the heat in the jars or the monster mushrooms. So I have a load of fragrance and a load of these jars, so I've been bouncing around trying to get all other variables to work with fragrance and jars I have. Moving to soy to deal with the sooting, trying woodwicks to see if they burn more cleanly in paraffin etc. I also do have unrealistic expectations, but I know this. I have since learned that the FO and jar combination matters just as much as the wick and wax. topofmurrayhill - I tried burning one of the competitors and found they are sooting exceptionally poorly, and read reviews of these products. Some reviews have stated that their house was ruined by the end of the burn. I think this is why I have such a hangup now on trying to eliminate sooting. I burnt another brand and they were pretty good. I'm now using up all the fragrance I have in our other two products, and in future selecting the fragrances that will work for the new products we are working on. It's clicked in the last few days that the fragrance is the one element that I have underestimated. I've had 6 FO's that I have been assuming should work because they've worked in our other products. I've been trying to force a bad position really.

Thanks again everyone! I guess on one hand I'm expecting too much and on the other there may be some other things I can try. Ive been trying to convert to woodwicks and truly thought I was going to nail it when I got my first fragrance converted on the first attempt. Now the others are just soot machines..... Ive given up with woodwicks on my paraffin blend. I'll try again later when ive found a soy blend I like. I'm going to go back to trying HTP wicks in my paraffin blend. 3" container.

Thank you for the replies. I just had to throw it out there. I actually have one fragrance that throws AMAZINGLY at 6% and doesn't soot at all, and on the other end of the scale I have a vanilla that I dose at 3 or 4 and it still soots. I just want to gauge what others are experiencing, and whether or not putting less than 6% in is considered norm in the experienced minds of other chandlers. Jcandleattic. I too agree that putting more in should and does result in more soot. I guess I wondered if sometimes adding more Fragrance can reduce the flow of wax to the flame, resulting in better combustion and therefore less soot. It was just a thought I had and in that thought, i wondered if I was adding too little. Resulting in too high a flow of wax to the flame. I'm being told by all the suppliers around me that the big competitors are adding 8-10% to all theirs. That just struck me as too much given the scent throw, but thought of giving it a go and see what results I get in regards to sooting.

I get this same pool around by leather and sandalwood fragrance. I had to drop the FO from %6 to 4% and wick up from a CDN8 to a CDN 14/16. I think it's a woody component to the blend. How are you going with it?

OK. I've packed in the C3 and 464 testing for now, and moved back to my trusty paraffin wax. The problem I've been having for a long time, and why I was moving to Soy, was due to sooting. I've now started to look at the fragrances I'm using; and question whether or not I should be focusing on these rather than the wax and jar.. I will list my fragrances, and the % I find I need to use them in so they do not soot excessively. Orange - 7% Coconut & Lime - 3.5% French Pear - 4% Vanilla - 3.5% Sugar Plum - 7% Sandalwood - 3/3.5% Gardenia - 7% 3 out of 7 are a dream to work with. I guess my questions to others are this. 1 - Are these low % to be using in a paraffin wax? I've been told by experts here that if you can't add %6 then it's really not a good quality fragrance. 2 - Is sooting an indication of a poorly made fragrance? 3 - Has anyone tried adding more fragrance to try reduce sooting? I understand most people say 'it's what works for you' but there must be some educated opinions out there. I'm also aware that if the scent throw is good then that is all that matters, but the problem with using lower percentages of wax is the profile of the scent changes. It's like making up cordial drink with just half the cordial 8-) I might add these are all CDN 6, 7 or 8's in a 3" jar

Thanks so much for this. It does sound like the easiest way to go about it. So how wide are these holes, and how deep? My concern is that when doing the second pour that the wax won't fill those relief holes.

btw - whats the correct terminology for these worm holes?

OK Great, I'll give this a go and report back 8-) Thanks so much OldGlory!

haha omg it's such a different wax isn't it! So do you wait until they have completely set, or do you wait until they are firm but still warm?

haha got it. so the holes appear because of the cooling process, but i'm guessing also due to the depth of the candle? So if I were to go down the route of pouring half, then half, to try prevent such a large differential of heat..... how would one go about doing a 50/50 pour. Do I wait till the next day and simply pour over the top, or do I wait maybe 2-3 hours and then pour the second lot? I've never had this issue with paraffin, I simply top up or heat gun like you say.

If I pour at that temp I don't get glass adhesion. And I can't heat the glass jars due to both where I pour and the qty I pour. That's why i thought it might be best to do a 50/50 pour?

I'm pouring about 155 - 165. Here is a photo of what happens when I burn them. Not sure if you can see it very well, but to the bottom right of the flame you can see a dark patch. That is a hole that the melt pool 'fell' into once lit, and if it's bad enough the wick will go half way down the jar and then put itself out.

Here is a photo of one example. I ran my finger over the top of the candle, applying a little pressure, and here my finger sunk into the candle and hence the massive hole. These make the wick tunnel down and put itself out, on the first light. Is this what we call sink holes?

I sometimes think oz gets different wax to the US. I have put a wool blanket over them, but the tops just sink, and you know the damn worms have had a crack at the wax! Its almost no escaping it. (Damn winter!)

About 160ish. I want to be a master dammit haha!!

wow, so that sounds so straight forward! you just top them up the next day and it's all good. You don't have problems with sink holes in your candles, like a load of ninja worms got a hold?

So just an update. I got impatient and decided to go and heat gun the tops and holes, and then decided I think they are going to be terrible and threw them all out................. I am pouring 18oz jelly jars. Can I solve this problem by doing two fills? Half fill, then finish filling? and if so, do I wait till the first layer has set before I pour the second? I'm really not enjoying this soy experience, but I am determined to defeat it 8-)