PhoenixFyre

Oh, duh. I knew that!

Thanks so much for the tips, Topofmurrayhill. I used to use metal tape with a wick pin to seal my molds but tried the jiffy system because I wasn't digging the wick pins. I never thought to just seal the mold and then poke the wick hole later. I should try that out. And yes, I'm discovering that I have only scratched the surface on the possibilities of wax and the testing that will have to be done. I have had to restrict myself from looking at too many threads on here because every time I do, I get new ideas for things I want to try; and I have to remind myself one thing at a time. I'll definitely take your advice and play more with the timing of the second pour. When first making pillars, I was only waiting until there was a little bit of a thick skin on top. With the mottled ones in the pictures, I was waiting until I could get the relief holes almost all the way down to the bottom of the candle with very little buildup on the skewer. The purple one had completely caved in at one of the holes and I could see a tunnel between that hole and two others, lol, before I filled it in. Is it just the timing of the repour and not the temp? Thanks, OldGlory, for the boost! The pillars in the pics actually used up the last of my 4144 wax, so I'll be starting on 1343 since that was the other pillar wax I chose when I bought my first supplies. I'll see how mottling goes with it, but if I get frustrated or burned out on the testing for a minute I may just give rustics a go!

Here's a little of my own journey into pillars. I've made a few already that are just scented solid colors and have had success at getting them not to mottle, but now I want to try and purposefully get them to mottle. I now realize this is easier said than done, lol. All were made with 4144 wax from Candlewic. The red one is a peach magnolia raspberry scent and first try with square mold. Poured it at 153 degrees with 6% stearin and 6.5% fo. Guessing it was too cold. The green is eucalyptus and spearmint. Poured it same day as the square one but poured a little hotter at 160, 6% stearin, 6.5% fo. Got a little mottle. The dark yellow is pina colada. This one I poured at 164, no stearin this time, and 7% fo. Covered this one with a box to try and keep it from cooling too fast. Again, very little mottle. Last one is apple blossom and the first three-wicked candle I tried. This was actually a pillar I had made that was underwicked but I couldn't get the wick out, so I remelted and poured into a different mold so I didn't waste the wax. This one I think came out the best...but alas, I didn't keep track of what I did since I was just re-molding it for fun! Doh! I do know from my notes when I first made it as a pillar that it had 6% stearin and 6% fo in it. I think I poured this one the hottest out of all four, high 160s to low 170s. But it only mottled on the top and not on the bottom. Weird. So there you have it. My next tests will be poured even hotter...but I'm scared to pour any hotter because the hotter I pour, the more leakage I get out of the bottom. Been trying to do a jiffy wicker system, but I must not be using the right foam or something because it leaks when poured too hot. Have fun looking and hope you get a good chuckle out of my first attempts because I know I sure did! I think I'm having too much fun!

I was going to ask the same question to you, OldGlory, about Aztec's Blackberry Sage. I bought Peak's and really liked it, but it didn't seem very strong and I was hoping for a little more oomph since it was such a great scent. Could totally have been something I did wrong, but I wanted to get that same fragrance from a couple of other vendors and duplicate what I did to see if it was my process or the FO. Good to know that you've had success with Aztec's, so I'll give theirs a shot.

Awesome topic! Very interested to hear everyone's input on this. The few pillars I have made I was using either the pre-made wicks or braided wicks that I primed myself because I had read so many times that priming was needed for wicks. I finally decided to experiment a few days ago and made a pillar with raw braided wick. I thought I was committing a major candle sin, lol!! I felt so daring...like I had to close my shades and lock my doors before the candle police caught me using an unprimed wick! I haven't test burned it yet, but it'll be fun to see what the difference is. I also finally tried out the jiffy wicker system that so many of you use. First time didn't work out so well, but the next two times I poured a little cooler...worked like a charm! This may spell the end of my use of wick pins!! Thanks for opening this topic, Jcandleattic. Very helpful for us beginners.

Thanks, Jcandleattic, for clearing that up. I was thrown by the fact the label said it was a straight paraffin, so now I know to look more carefully at all the description to be certain of what I'm buying. I am learning so much, OldGlory! I feel a bit overwhelmed at times...but it's a good feeling. I have seen your posts on your pillars, as I have devoured so much of the info on this forum. In fact, the one you started called "Hints for Pillars" is marked in my favorites. There is so much good info in that thread on rustics! I'm not brave enough to try rustics right now. Haven't even tried to do different colors in one candle yet. I'm still trying to understand how additives and everything work when making a pillar. Jcandleattic helped me out when I was getting little pinholes in the tops, advising that I was pouring too hot. I've made pillars with a nice single shade of color and no mottle. Took out the vybar and added just a bit of stearin once and got an inconsistently mottled pillar, which was cool because it taught me more about what the additives do. Still trying to shush the perfectionist in me and get over my fear of just playing with the wax and fragrances and colors instead of feeling I need to produce perfection from the get go, lol. But I am definitely having fun! What an amazing craft!

From Peak, I ordered IGI 1343A for pillars and IGI 2281 for containers. The label on the 2281 says it's a straight paraffin and that vybar and/or stearin can be added, but then again it also says it has additives for sidewall adhesion. So does that make it a straight paraffin or not, lol? Oh well. My impression was that straight paraffin was just that...paraffin with no other waxes or additives like vybar mixed in so that I could control when additives get added and how much. I didn't realize there were adhesion additives as well. I should do more research on that so I understand it better. Here's what I poured today. Did a second pour and tried out my heat gun for the first time to smooth the tops. Definitely better than before. I'll get the hang of it eventually, lol.

Thanks for that, OldGlory. You put a huge smile on my face!

Thanks to both of you, Toppfmurrayhill and Candybee. I agree that it wasn't as pronounced in the tins, but if I can do away with it altogether than that's the way I'll go, lol. I'll try another batch and do a second pour to see how they turn out and will definitely post pics. Thanks again! Topofmurrayhill...I chose that wax because I am just beginning in this craft and wanted to learn how just straight paraffin worked, both without and with additives, before I move on to blended waxes or other types of wax. I'm weird that way, I guess, lol. I bought straight paraffin for both containers and pillars from Candlewic and from Peak. Will be testing the Peak wax once I'm done with the Candlewic. Thanks, Becky. Lol...I know..I was hoping to get out of doing repouring as well and even going the extra step of using the heat gun, but oh well. I'll try your suggestion of pouring even lower and see what happens.

Hello, you wonderful people. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction on this. This is the way all my container candles turn out. I use straight paraffin wax, CF container fill from Candlewic. I always use 6% fo, 4 to 5 drops of dye (if any at all), always the same wax. It happens when I use 0.5% vybar 260 and when I don't, when I use 0.3% UV inhibitor and when I don't. It happens in my tins and in jelly jars. I have tried pouring at different temps...from 180 to 157, and it still happens. Am I just being too picky? Personally, I prefer tops that are flat across, not dipped the way mine seem to be doing. It's almost like the wax crawled up the wicks, lol. So is this shrinkage? For some reason I didn't think containers needed second pours, but is it unheard of? Is it maybe just this particular wax or just the nature of paraffin? Should I start taking a heat gun to them or am I just being overly critical? Thanks to anyone willing to offer a little advice.

Thanks, Topofmurrayhill. Your posts always give me more to think about and relax me, too, in a way. I appreciate what both Jcandleattic and you confirmed...that it's not so easy to make the FO disappear to any meaningful degree, so I can delete this from my brain and make room for other things. I had read a post in another group where someone brought up the idea of it not being necessary to add in FO to hot wax but rather to cooler wax. Their theory started going into covalent bonds and science-y talk. Their theory was that the wax is a carrier of the FO and that the FO needs to remain volatile in order to get maximum release from the melt pool, but that if the wax is heated too much it can ruin the volatility and thus make the scent throw weaker and they saw no "evidence" that thermal energy was needed in order to bond the FO to the wax. I don't know if there is merit or not to the idea. I do know the people on this forum have been a wealth of info to me as a novice, so I wanted to see what people here thought before getting too carried away in my own brain. I'll probably test it out for fun to see what happens. I guess I was just more curious if this whole bonding thing was something I could control more. All of you, as always, are terrific and thanks to you all again.

Awesome, everyone. I appreciate you all taking the time to help and to even find articles for me. This helped me a lot, and I'm going to tackle that article right now, TallTayl, lol. So in a nutshell it sounds like the wax needs to heat up so the molecules can expand and sort of trap the fragrance oil within them to later be released when the wax is again heated by the flame. And thank you for alleviating my fear of burn off. I was always fretful about letting the wax get too hot and the FO burning off (I guess just those jitters of being a beginner). Thank you all so very much!!

I really did try to thoroughly look for the answer to this before asking, so forgive me if the answer is out there and I missed it. If anyone has the time, could someone please explain to me the "scientific" happenings of fragrance oil bonding with wax? I have been trying to Google an answer for this, searched through the different candle groups I belong to, and haven't really been able to find a detailed explanation. The most I can find is that you shouldn't add fragrance oil to wax at too high a temp because it can burn off, but the wax still needs to be hot so it can "bond" or "bind" with the wax. That's the bit I'm interested in...what is the science behind the bonding/binding? I've found many sites that explain how a candle itself works...the wick acting as a capillary, the parts of the flame, the wax vapor, etc. But I'd like to try and wrap my brain around this "bonding" of wax and fragrance oil. Why hotter temperatures? Why does this help the fo and wax bond? Why not a lower temp? How does stirring play a role? (Is the jury still out on that one...whether you need to stir for a full two minutes, less time, or matter of preference?) I hope this makes sense. If there was a post about this on here, then please feel free to just give me the link to save yourself the time of explaining it again. I appreciate your time, everyone!

I'd be interested to know, too. I recently made a couple of pillars (straight pillar paraffin with a little stearic, UV, dye, and FO), one with a flat braid and one with an HTP. I had read the same thing about the flat braided wicks being recommended for pillars, which is why I bought some to test with. The pillar with the HTP wick so far in testing has burned much better than the flat braid. Since I'm still learning, this could totally be due to my error. I still would like to know the details of why the braided wick may be better so I can have the info for my next test run.

This all helped. Thank you, everyone. I knew what I was reading didn't sound correct...but for some reason I couldn't convince my brain of it. I have been measuring weight on a scale and not volume, measuring the weight of the pot, zeroing it out, then measuring the wax, etc. I just got thrown off for a second on the whole melted versus solid weight and just needed the confirmation that I was remembering my science correctly that the weight is the same no matter if the wax is solid or liquid. I appreciate you all taking the time to answer!

I'm a beginner at candle making and am still trying to learn all I can as I make and test candles. When it comes to adding FO to wax, I thought the general rule of thumb was 6% of FO to a pound of wax and that it should be measured by weight and not volume. I assumed that this meant 16 oz of wax in solid form. However, I stumbled across a website that gave candle making tips and it said the 16 oz of wax should be 16 oz melted and not in solid form. It mentioned that adding 6% FO to 16 oz of solid wax is the same as adding it to 19 oz of melted wax and that 6% FO in 19 oz of wax will be too little to get a good throw. Have I been assuming incorrectly all along and is it supposed to be measured once it's melted and not in solid form? But wouldn't it weigh the same no matter if it was solid or liquid? I guess I'm just having a brain fart this morning. I thought that was precisely why we should measure by weight in solid form, because once the wax melts the volume would increase and seem like more even though it's really not. Or have I just completely confused myself? I guess I could just go and melt 16 oz of wax and see what it weighs once it's melted instead of bothering all of you. My brain is just off today, lol.

So fabulous! I've seen those boxes and similar ones at Michaels and always wanted to buy some but could never figure out what I would use them for. How wonderful they look! If my husband shaved I would buy some!

Don't even get me started, OldGlory! He's already cleared an area out for me in his shop and said he's going to build me shelves this weekend for all my stuff. He's already talking about how I need to learn to make skull candles and bleeding candles. Every time I clean a mold out, he takes it away and says, "Let me help you out. I got a better way to do it." I'm almost too scared to suggest he could paint jars for me...he'd stop doing his own work and focus on the jars! I love that man.

I saw those on eBay the other day and was thinking of getting some...until I realized all my molds are concave and aluminum. Bummer. Well, now I have an excuse to buy some more molds... so I can buy magnetic mold sealers! Whoo-hoo!

My husband is an airbrush artist/custom painter and has tons of respirators around the house. Can't believe we didn't think of that! Thanks, Chuck!

Wow! How pretty, Vicky! So so talented. I especially love the one with the light blue rosebuds...but I also like the one with the little purple flowers, lol. I have got to stop looking at everything people produce on this forum...it's making my head spin with possibilities! BEE-U-TI-FUL!

I wondered about that, too, Candybee. I had only worked with pomegranate fragrance up to that point, so for the latest batch I went a different direction and did the Coconut Lime Verbena. In a few days I will go back and test the other pomegranate melts I still had from the first batch and see if I can smell them. Thanks for all the encouragement and feedback, everyone!

Thanks for the feedback, Jcandleattic. I appreciate the info about the pinpricks being from pouring too hot. I will watch for that next time. And I appreciate the feedback about your own candles. I look up to a lot of the more experienced crafters on this forum, yourself included, so it's nice to know what kind of results you all get so I can see if I really did mess up or if perhaps my results were more normal than I thought. A little after I posted this, the scent had wafted through even more of my house. Not overpowering...just a nice gentle scent in the air that I can catch when walking from room to room. This girl is stoked!

Lol...goofy title, I know. Obviously all melts work because all they do is melt...but I finally made one that smells great! (It's the little things in life that make me happy.) My very first candles haven't turned out great so far. The first couple looked pretty but the fragrance didn't come through. My first pillars have been curing for about 5 days now. Pulled them from the molds today. No strong cold throw and when I pulled them from the mold, the tops had tiny little pinholes all over. Finally decided to stop with all the additives and fragrances and colors and just made some straight paraffin container candles a few days ago just to see what wax and wick do together. I also made some containers with just straight paraffin and 6% FO with nothing else and had enough wax leftover to make a couple of melts Decided to test the melts today, not hoping for much. While they didn't look that pretty since I didn't add anything but the FO, they smell TERRIFIC! I almost cried when I walked into my kitchen and could smell it from the living room. I stopped and said to myself, "Are you kidding? Is that my melt I smell??" I think Coconut Lime Verbena from Peak is now my favorite scent, lol, since it was my first little success!

As a newbie, I appreciate this comment because it reminds me there is always research to do and different methods in candle making. I started out researching on sites like Peak and watching the tutorials which caution against heating wax directly on a heat source and to use a double boiler method to be safe, but as Topofmurrayhill pointed out, there may be just as many people that do heat wax directly on their heat source and may have no problems with it. It's similar to the question of whether or not to add real food to "food" candles (like sprinkles to a cupcake candle) or dried flowers, etc. (I still don't know if there is a right answer to this) My first instinct is that this isn't safe, that it's a fire hazard. I've seen plenty of people who say it's dangerous and yet just as many will say they've done it for years and it's fine. Enough to make my head spin, lol.