Former Member

I sometimes blend with a small amount of 424 if there is still some hangup at the end. This solves that problem. I like to make tealights with some soy also because it hardens the wax so that the wicks don't get stuck in it when you fold them down. It's a very valuable additive in it's own right if you are using 4627.

No, absolutely not. They can't stop talking about how good they smell.

This is a hard question to answer without knowing the molecular structure of both the wax and fragrance oil that you are using. You really would need to consult with an organic chemist to get a clear answer on this. The amount of fragrance that any one wax could hold is not necessarily dependent on how much fluid you add to it, but by how well the fragrance molecules can bind to the wax molecules. The general term "wax" is defined by its water insolubility, and its saturated, hydrocarbon molecules that are generally straight chains but can also have side chains. Paraffin is straight chained and completely saturated. Paraffin is also non-polar (does not have an unequal charge distribution around the molecule) and forms bonds best with other non-polar fragrance oils via Van der Waals forces. These are weak, hydrogen bonds, unlike covalent bonds which actually form the molecules themselves, and unlike ionic bonds which is how polar molecules form bonds (i.e. salts). The more a fragrance oil mimics the molecular structure of the wax you are using, the more fragrance oil the wax will be able to bond with. The is called miscibility, which is just a fancy way of saying that like mixes with like. Fragrance oils have historically been formulated to work with paraffin waxes, which is why you may have problems with vegetable waxes and scent throw. Vegetable waxes are not completely saturated like paraffin. Vegetable oils do go through harsh processes to make them more saturated, but even after this, they are not completely saturated. This makes vegetable waxes more polar, and less miscible with the fragrance oils which are currently available. Soy wax is water soluble, and technically is not a wax. You can't mix oil and water, and water soluble wax is not as miscible with fragrance/essential oils as paraffin is, which has a more similar molecular structure. This is the main reason for soy wax's poor scent throw. The chemistry of the wax itself doesn't allow it to bond to the fragrance oils as well as paraffin. Theoretically, you should be able to mix any amount of fragrance with wax as long there structure is similar enough. This is the case with things such as alcohol and water, which are miscible in any proportion. Again, unless you know the molecular structure of you wax and fragrance oils, and have a background in the organic chemistry, it will be very hard to tell how just how much fragrance your wax will hold. It is probably better to go by the manufacturers instructions. Trying to guess how much a fragrance has been diluted will not be very fruitful, because you don't know with what it has been diluted and how this dilution agent will affect the chemistry of your wax and it's ability to bind fragrance oils.

Sorry just getting caught up with this thread. I've used zinc wicks before with 4627 and I can tell you that if you don't like mushrooms that these will mushroom more than any other wick that I have tried. Again, I strongly suggest the HTP 83's. You could try twisting the wicks to eliminate hangup but it should burn up by the end. Yes I do burn them for more than 4 hours usually, but not usually more than 6 hours. Again, you won't get a full melt pool with these wicks, but you will have controlled flame which I believe is what you are looking for. Soy wax is is a valuable additive not for increasing the burn time (this wax burns just as long, if not longer than soy), but for lower the melt point. a blend of 80/20 of 4627/464 would be fine and you might even get a full melt pool. But the flame can get a little large for my taste. It will seem under wicked at first and the hangup you are experiencing is normal. You just have to burn the entire candle to see.

the wick stickers from candlescience do not budge! I have to use mineral spirits to remove them from the jars to reuse them. I've tried super glue and glue dots before these, they never worked. But the wick stickers have never failed!

I was just about to tell you the same thing lol. Siren beat me to it! Happy shopping!

This wax is so vicious that, in my experience, it is impossible to get a full melt pool in any container greater than 2" in diameter. "Hangups" are a reality with this wax. This doesn't bother me personally because the throw is still better than any soy candle with a full melt pool, IMO. I only use HTP's with this wax. I have tried many of them, and in my experience, no other wick can hold a flame to the self-trimming nature the HTP's that you need with 4627. I wouldn't go above an HTP 83. Everytime I have tried anything bigger than an 83 it just soots like crazy and the flame becomes a little out of control for my liking. I use 12% FO in my candles. The hangups, usually, will continuously fall down as the candle burns, but never a full melt pool in a container with a 3" diameter, for example. Let them burn for a long time with the HTP 83's. Caution labels generally say not to burn for more than 4 hours. These instructions were not made for the HTP/4627 combination! With an HTP 83, I would say burn for at least 4 hours, preferably longer. I've burned them for up to 12 hours before and the flame never got out of control. It may look a little small compared to what you are used to seeing with candles, however this is a tradeoff for the exceptional scent throw that you get with this wax. Occasionally you will come across a scent that normally people would say to "wick up" (these scents tend to be more yellow in appearance). I would say don't wick up because of the sooting it will cause. Soy wax is an extremely valuable additive for this wax that will lower the melt point, and increase the size of your melt pool. For those scents that you feel need to be wicked up, I would suggest doing a blend with GB 464 (which can also hold up to 12% FO) to achieve your desired results. This should not make a noticeable difference in throw. 75/25 of 4627/464 is a good place to start for these scents. 4627 is a very slow burning wax, on par with soy waxes for burn time, and it requires patience. You shouldn't judge the wick by how it burns in the first half of the candle. Wait until it is finished to make your assessment.

I'm assuming you are using Avery brand labels. Their templates are not perfect and do require some finagling to get the label to where you want it them to be. The good news is that once you figure it out, they should print how you want them in the future. The hard part is figuring it out. I don't use that size label so I unfortunately can't share any personal experience with them. I do use the 2.5" kraft brown labels, and to get them to print centered, I have to make the logos exactly 2.52" and align them with the top, left-hand corner. It is not a big adjustment, but it is noticeable.

I agree with Vicky. Every time the wax gets heated, scent is released. So to keep the scent in there, you want to minimize the amount of time that the scent is heated. I used to use a heat gun to even out the tops of my candles. This heating caused scent to dissipate into the air, making the top of the candle less fragrant as it dried. Ol factory fatigue (chandlers nose in this case) is when your sense of smell doesn't notice things that you have become used to. I took turns smelling a candle that had been heated with the heat gun and one that had not, to wear out my senses. I smelled one, and the other, and then the first one, and then the other, etc until I could not smell one of the candles anymore. In the end, you will only be able to smell one candle (the strongest one) because your ol factory senses have acclimated to the smell, and you will not be able to smell the candle with less fragrance. The candles that I had flattened with the heat gun were always the first to loose the scent to me. The candles that I had not heated with the heat gun retained some scent to me (although not much bc my senses were fatigued, but I could still smell them). This is not to say that the ones that were flattened with the heat gun had no scent in them. If anyone else smelled them I'm sure it would've been noticeable. It just means that they were not as strong. I would encourage you to try the way that you first suggested and compare this to a candle made the "traditional" way, to prove this to yourself.

Soy wax is so hard to pour without wet spots. I've only poured on candle that was 100% soy and that never got wet spots. Unfortunately I didn't take any notes so I don't know how I did it. Even if you do figure out how to pour a soy candle without wet spots, as soon as you start burning it they will start to appear. They are just inevitable with this wax.

Yep, half an inch would be fine. Even if you didn't cut it at all and there were several inches of wick sticking up, it would still trim itself down to where it needs to be and the flame would not be out of control lol.

Candles get sunken tops when they cool too fast. We all know that wax shrinks when it cools, but have you ever thought about HOW a candle cools? Understanding the nature of the cooling process is the key to solving this problem... If every part of the candle cooled at the same rate then you would end up with a candle that has a flat and even top. But every part of the candle does not cool at the same rate. After you pour a candle, the first part to cool is the bottom. This is because the surface that your candle is sitting on dissipates heat more efficiently than the air surrounding the candle. As a result, this portion of the candle cools the fastest. If you haven't witnessed this yourself, next time you pour a candle you should notice that the bottom of the candle is the first part to become opaque. How fast the bottom cools doesn't really have an impact on whether or not the top will sink. It could affect whether or not you get wet spots around the bottom, but ultimately, how the tops of candles turn out is more dependent on the rate at which the sides and top portion of the candle cools. The next part of the candle to cool are the sides. This is because the glass is also good at dissipating heat. It is not quite as good as the surface that the candle is sitting on but still better than the air on top of the candle. You should notice that when the sides of the candle become opaque, that the center of the top of the candle is still somewhat dark and fluid. Once the sides cool, they will stay at the same height in the container and will not shrink down the sides anymore as the rest of the candle cools. After the sides cool, the top is next. When the top cools, it will seem flat and even for a short period of time, but gradually become sunken as the candle sets over the next several hours. Why does it sink? Because the center is the last part of the candle to cool. The center of the candle is insulated from the air and surfaces that are dissipating heat, and therefore cools the slowest, but still shrinks the same amount as the rest of the wax. This creates a negative pressure in the center of your candle. Gravity won't allow the bottom of your candle to compensate for this pressure change (not to mention the vacuum this would create on the bottom of your candle), so the bottom stays in place. Do the sides compensate for this pressure change? Yes, to a certain extent. This is where wet spots come from. But the top of the candle is the most affected because it cools later than the bottom and sides of the candle and is therefore more flexible during the time of this pressure change. This is where sunken tops come from. Now that we know where sunken tops come from, we can address the issue of how to prevent them. In order to prevent sunken tops, you need to manipulate the environment that the candles cool in so that it dries from the bottom upwards, not from the outside inwards. You need the center of the candle to cool before the top to avoid this pressure change. This might seem like a complicated thing to do but is actually relatively simple and straight forward. All you need are some heat lamps! By allowing your candles to cool under heat lamps you can ensure that the top is the last part to cool and avoid the pressure change that causes the sunken tops. Personally, I let my candles sit under a 250 W heat lamp, about 2 ft above the candle for 1 hr. Then I let them sit under a 125 W heat lamp, about 2 ft above, for 20 mins. After this I turn the heat lamp off and let the ambient air do the rest of the cooling (the tops are opaque by this point anyways). The tops, while not exactly flat, are flat enough that you wouldn't feel the need to take a heat gun to them. Here is a candle after this process:

Sorry one more thing that I didn't even think to mention until I read a post a few posts down... and that is that you should not trim these wicks! They take care of that all by themselves and the flame will be too small if you trim them to 1/4". So just let them do their thing.. they are truly hassle-free and I love them for that. And the candle will burn slowly so you will have to be a little patient.

For drips I just use a paper towel. I've never used a blow dryer on my candles but would imagine that it would take longer to accomplish the same thing than a heat gun would. Heat guns also get very hot (duh!) and I've burned myself before even after the heat gun had been turned off for several minutes. But I don't even use my heat gun anymore. I used to use them for smoothing out the tops of my candles, however I've started setting my candles under heat lamps to dry so that I can avoid this step all together.

not intrusive at all... I use the HTP 83's, thats pretty much my go-to wick. I've never tried twisting the wicks before but sounds like an idea I will have to try out!