Former Member

These links are great! I am familiar with the video on candle science and it has helped form my opinion on how wicks should burn. For those of you who haven't seen it, basically after two 2 hours of burning your candle, if the wick is too large then it will be flashing or blinking. If it is too small, well then you will know lol. It will be this puny little thing. You should try to have flame that is no bigger than 1" and is not blinking or flashing… just a solid flame. At least that what I got from it. I have read the wicket article before but I picked up something new from it this time.. "Getting a candle to burn to the edge in the first 3-4 hours is not always the best way to judge how good a wick is". I could definitely put this into practice in my future candles. Not that I judge the wick on whether or not it form a melt pool that reaches the walls of the container. As stated above I judge a wick more on if it soots, if it mushrooms, and how much it smoke when I extinguish it. However, I do add more wicks when I can't get a melt pool to the container sides. So you guys have made me waffle on this. I'm taking you guys at your word when you say that I have too many wicks in this container, however I just cannot get a double wicked setup to not drown out when the hang up catches up to the wicks later. Maybe I should take my own advice and "container up" get a larger diameter container for the triple wicks. That power point is completely new to me and I enjoyed it! Seemed geared more towards what scenarios to avoid rather than how to avoid them but still it was good. Thank you

Thanks for the advice Talltayl! I originally started with HTP wicks and decided these weren't for me for several reasons. The biggest reason that comes to mind is how they tip to one side when you burn them. In the containers that I single wick this was especially frustrating because I would have my wick centered but when I lit up my candles the melt pool would be off center because the wicks bend to one side and I would end up with hang up on one side. I've also found that these wicks mushroom a lot! and the smoke when I blew them out seemed to be never ending. I thought I could minimize these problems by wicking down but then I realized another problem with the HTP wicks. One wick would drown and the next size up would be too big. I just couldn't find a happy medium with the sizes that they offer. I have tried the ECO wicks as well. I have a fair amount of these that I burn in my soy candles and I decided to try them in my parasoy blend bc they mushroomed less, they burned hotter, they don't off-center the flame when they burn, and they don't smoke like crazy when you blow them out. The lowest size that I went down to in these was an ECO 8 bc this seemed to be a good flame to me and I didn't feel that wicking down anymore would be necessary (I suppose I could revisit this hypothesis though). Well the ECO wicks stood straight, they didn't mushroom and they didn't smoke when I blew them out. But I thought the ECO's were giving off more soot when they burned. So I ditched them. I'm using the CD's now and I like them! they don't mushroom as much as the HTP's, and they don't soot as much as the ECO's. I guess the heat of these wicks is good for me, however they still smoke more than I would like when I blow them out. I have a sample pack of premiers (thanks you all, I learned about these from you!) and some zinc cores that I still have yet to try. I never really thought about using the LX wicks because I sort of assumed that they would be similar to the HTP's. But now that I am rethinking it I realized that I just jumped to that conclusion and I will most likely order a sample pack of those as well with my next order. You're right about my FO% percent and the sooting. So I may be fighting a loosing battle with that particular issue. However I just LOVE a bunch of scent. Interestingly enough, and now that I'm thinking about it, all my candle have been either 6% or 12%. I think I should try a 9% candle and see if that helps with the sooting and if it makes a noticeable difference in my throw.

thanks Amanda! You've touched on what I'm feeling here with the advice. I DO LOVE technical information and facts. My background is in chemistry and physics so sometimes I really need them to understand things. When I do post about the way I make my candles I try to explain why I am doing the things that I am doing. From my impression this has just been met with vague, subjective descriptions like my candle having "too many wicks" or my melt pool being "too deep" or my candle not being wicked "correctly" or that they are "unsafe", without much elaboration into the reasoning behind these critiques. This is not technical or factual advice either, it's completely qualitative. I have an open mind and I'm not resisting change but I need a better explanation for these things. I need that those technicalities that Chris says that I'm ignoring to understand.

I use both 464 and 4627. This candle happens to be all 4627 (I think I had ran out of 464 when I made it), but normally I do a blend of these two waxes. I like the 4627 because I have yet to find a scent that doesn't throw amazing in it and because the manufacturer states that it can hold up to 10-12% fragrance load and I like a lot of fragrance, but this wax soots and burns pretty quickly. I like the 464 because it also can hold a lot of fragrance and also because I like that the soy helps it to burn a little cleaner and a little longer. I'm still testing which ratio I like best but normally do anywhere from 50/50 to 70/30 of 4627/464. I have tried also making at 6% because I've read on here about the wicks being clogged by too much FO but it doesn't seem to make a difference in how my candles burn. In my opinion the 4627 is so viscous that it overpowers any clogging that the FO can do. Also I like the way 10-12% FO smells better. I've found with the 4627 that you can only get so big of a melt pool from any one wick, regardless of size. The melt pool pretty much stops at about 2 1/2" in diameter and if you wick up to try to get a bigger pool all you get is sooting and mushrooming and tunneling, without any increase in the size of the melt pool. So when I wick this wax I try to do so based on which size is going to give a clean burn, minimizing sooting and mushrooming, and no wild flame. If I need bigger pool then I add another wick as long as I can reasonably do so. This is how I've found to be the best way to wick this wax. I've tried double wicking this container for over a year using different sizes and different wick types and only found success once I started triple wicking it. That candle has 5 drops of liquid dye in 18 oz. 3 green, 1 blue and 1 purple. I don't really know what color I was going for and because I wasn't at my house when I made it and was kind of in a hurry to get it poured so It could harden before I drove home so I just sort of dropped some colors in and was ready to be surprised by the outcome. I was kind of of surprised that it turned out this dark green almost black color (good thing it at least smells amazing). lol last time I do that! Normally I drop a few drops of wax on a napkin to see what the color is when I add dye like I'm sure most people do.

hmmm two cd 5 wicks?? I put two cd 10 wicks in that same candle after every one was saying that my melt pool was too big. It's been burning for a little over two hours now and still has hang up on the sides. I'm pretty sure that if it does melt later on that these wicks will drown because they seem a little weak rn (this always happens when I double wick this container). Are you using 4627? I just don't see how you could make this work with two cd 5 wicks.

what makes it unsafe? In my opinion it is wicked correctly because I can get a melt pool to reaches the walls of the container.

To clarify what I meant when I said I don't want to do much testing to get a good throw, I never meant to imply that simply don't test. I've done a fair amount of trial and error testing with my candles since I started and they have improved over time. However, I usually only buy 1 oz size bottles of scents unless I know I like it and will want to burn it often, then I might get a 4 oz bottle. Generally I will burn a scent once in a candle and then move onto another, because this is how I like to burn candles. So no, I don't want to carry out a bunch of tests perfecting a candle that I only want to burn once to begin with. I'm sure you guys have wonderful recipes and take pride in your testing but it's just not for me. Sorry if this ruffles anyones feathers.

with 4627? hmmm i could give it a try

my problem with double wicking this container (and probably this wax) is that I get hangup on two sides of the jar which ends up drowning out the wicks when there is about 1" to an 1 1/2" of wax left.

I believe BBW puts their wick s closer to the edge of the jar which might be why their containers get so hot when burned

you can't really tell by the pictures but the dolor is actually a dark forest green (not exactly what I was going for but oh well).

after three hours, melt pool around 3/4 in, flames look good to me, however it did hurt a little to hold the candle at this point.

after two hours, melt pool still about 1/2 in, flames still look good, still not too hot to hold.

after one hour... full melt pool (~ 1/2 in), flames don't seem bad to me, not too hot to hold.

It can be if you use big wicks. I did some testing just for you this morning! I hope you all are proud of me . This candle that I'm about to show you is completely igi 4627, 12% FO honeysuckle and jasmine from candle science (12%?? I know some of you are shaking your heads at this point), with three CD 6 wicks...

you are quite right again old glory! In fact quality issues was a big reason that I started making candles for myself. However I was trying more to illustrate that burn time is dependent on how many wicks you use, in addition to candle size, which Jcandleattic rightfully pointed out.

here is an example: a 14.5 oz triple wicked candle with a burn time of 25 - 45 hrs. http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/product/index.jsp?productId=66932806&cp=4090260.4090355.68537536 the same candle in 6.3 oz with a burn time of 30 - 40 hrs. http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/product/index.jsp?productId=68236616&cp=4090260.4090355.68537536

with three wicks it will. I can fit about 18 oz of wax in a 22 oz jar and about 9 oz of wax in a 12 oz jar. The single wicked, 9 oz candle has 9oz wax per wick to burn. the triple wicked, 18 oz candle has 6 oz wax per wick to burn. Candles burn fast when you add more wicks.

I prefer the 22 oz libbey cylinder jars (http://www.jarstore.com/22-oz-Libbey-Cylinder-Jar-With-Flat-Glass-Lid_p_90.html). 4" tall & 3 3/4" in diameter.

yes it is a cobalt blue glass jar (http://www.specialtybottle.com/cobaltblueglassjar9ozwstdblacklid.aspx). They are gorgeous but I just can't get the throw that I want from a jar this size. I wish they made them bigger.

I figured as much. Natures garden has an article on their site suggesting to add below the flashpoint. Other suppliers say not to add below 180. Still some people say not to add fragrance above its flashpoint. Still other say that it doesn't matter. I don't really care at this point about flashpoint.

I took this pic probably 20 hrs after i blew out the candle (the next day), but the color change was noticeable as soon as the wax started to harden again. The wax is still at the top of the jar. I've only burned it once for an hour or two. I thought that the blue glass jar might be playing tricks on me too however, there are two reasons why I don't think this is the case: 1) my comparison candle is burnt further down in this same glass and it still looks white, and 2) remember when I said I made two of these candles? well the other one was actually in an amber jar and it still has turned blue. So i don't think that it's the jar. It doesn't bother me but I am curious

I normally use a parasoy blend for my scented candles but recently tried making a candle out of all soy and have experienced a peculiar issue that I normally don't run into. The wax is turning a blueish-green color when I burn it! I'll tell you exactly how I made this candle: I melted 1 lb of GW 464 in an aluminum pour pot on a hot plate - the temperature of the hot plate was between 180 - 200 degrees F. I used ECO wicks one was ECO 8 and the other ECO 10 (both changed colors). I heated the wax to 180 and added 1 oz of clean cotton from candle science (flashpoint 212 +) I let the wax cool to 150 and then added 0.5 oz nag champa from candle science (flashpoint ~ 150). The reason I did this is because I read that you can increase throw with soy if you add below the flashpoint, idk if this is true or not but I tried it bc I have issues with soy and throw. Total FO % = 9% I let the wax cool to around 100 degrees before i poured to help with sinkholes, just until the wax was becoming cloudy (this helped me btw). I let the candles cure for 2 weeks. I've uploaded a picture so you can see what I'm talking about. The comparison candle (with white wax) is also GW 464, oakmoss and amber from candle science at 6%, added at 180 degrees F, using the same aluminum pour pot, and also using an ECO wick. From what i've read elsewhere online (http://lolablueliving.com/11oz-Nag-Champa-Soy-Candle & http://www.soycandleforum.com/content/my-wax-changing-color) it may be that the nag champa FO is to blame... Have any of you had this problem with your nag champa soy candles??

you are right Old Glory! it's funny to realize how we have different approaches to making candles based on who ends up burning them. Making them for myself, i'm not too concerned with it having a perfect burn every time because I know that I can change it as I go if I don't like how it is burning. But your customers cannot do this so it is important that you work out the kinks for them before they buy it from you. I started making my own candles because I was bored with the scents being offered and wanted to make my own. Plus sometimes I want scents out of season. It is very hard to find a honeysuckle candle in the fall or a christmas candle in the summer, for example. I will say that over the years I have learned more just by making them and seeing how they burned than by taking notes and testing variables. I have just gotten a feel for it and I suppose that is a form of testing in and of itself. I like making candles and don't think about buying them because I like my own and I like having control over the scents and colors and jars that I burn them in. Plus I like the way my candles look better, I think they smell better, they burn great, and they are just fun to make!

i would love for a candle to be so strong that gives me a headache but i know some people don't like that. ironically i get longer burn times in something like a 12 oz status jar than i do in 22 oz cylinder jar bc i have to triple wick the larger containers. it burns up faster.