ladysaotome

That's becoming abundantly clear! Now my problem is getting the wicks in the votives. When I was using the container wax, they wedge right in. But the votive wax is so much harder I split a votive right in half trying to get the tab inside the hole! Maybe I can't let them sit 20 hours before wicking them? I read somewhere that heating the metal with a flame would help? Or I'm thinking of carving the hole slightly with an exacto knife...

Hi, I just wanted to update to say OldGlory is definitely right. It finally occurred to me to try the box of votive wax I have and compare. The votive wax looks the same except it's yellowish instead of white. It also took significantly longer to melt. And once it set, it popped out of the votive molds easily and it's very obvious it has pulled away from the sides of the small tin I also tested. So the mystery box definitely has to be container wax. I feel like I've learned a lot about the differences in wax, I'm just sorry I didn't think to try the votive wax sooner!

Votive is about halfway down after 4 hours. The similar votive-like glass is keeping up fairly well. The others I think are acceptabel but not sure. Oh - forgot to mention that the votives absolutely would not come out of their molds until I popped them in the freezer for a few.

And after two hours of burning. (I'll burn again tonight.)

So I made some more votives and a few other container candles to experiment with. Here they are after one hour of burning. The votive and votive-container are eco-4 wicks. The white cup with green stripe is Eco-6. Floral cup is Eco-8, tin is Eco-12. (looks to me like the tin is mushrooming a bit.)

i will make more votives tonight and burn them in a votive cup. Unfortunately, the supplies were donated over a year ago to a kid's club here in town. They made some candles and then got bored with them and the staff gave me the supplies because they didn't want them anymore. So I don't have any idea of the original owner and I don't think the kid's club paid much attention to it. But i'll ask Monday just in case.

I will try a few more votives - I'll have to make them tomorrow night. I used Eco-4 which is the smallest wick I have. (They are all Ecos.)

I didn't get a picture but the votive burned for 3 or 4 hours (I burned in 2-hr increments) - the sides stood up and it burned down a little over halfway before the sides began to melt down. It didn't last the 10+ hours I thought I was supposed to get but I don't think the wick could have been any smaller without being underwicked. (Also I had it setting on a dish instead of inside a votive glass, so maybe I messed that part up.)

Here's a picture of the wax and the candles I made. I was hoping I'd be able to tell by their behavior what kind of wax it was. I know they popped out of the molds easily...

It is flaked and very soft - looks identical to the V-1 (which is a product that doesn't seem to even exist anymore?). The only reason I guessed it probably isn't V-1 was the black bag.

I was recently given a pile of candle-making supplies so I've been learning all I can. I'm excited to dive in but I have a large box of mystery wax. The box was badly torn when it was given to me (and the bag inside already opened but barely used). Since I had no idea at the time that there are different types of wax, we had transferred the bag into a plastic bin and tossed the torn box. And I didn't discover until too late that I needed to know what kind of wax it was! The other box I have is NatureWax V-1 for votives and I'm betting they were the same brand - they seem similar (except the bag is black instead of blue). I'm assuming I need to do tests and try to figure out what kind of wax it is? Like making votives and containers and comparing? But what do I look for - should it be easy to tell as soon as they set or do I need to burn them? I made a batch last night - one votive, one floating candle, one tart, one tin and one bear-shaped jar. They all look great except the bear jar has wet spots and white-bubbles along the joints of the bear, and very slight roughness at the top. My research seems to indicate it could be the wax is votive wax or I might have just poured it too cold?