birdcharm

I've seen recipes that call for 75% soy and 25% beeswax ... and, I'm pretty sure I've read some recipes on this board. You may wish to check that out. This is something I'd like to try sometime, but haven't gotten around to it. I don't know about adding the paraffin oil though ... if it's needed, or if it will make for a marbled candle, etc. Good luck and I'll keep an eye out for your test results!

I personally don't feel that the palm oil industry is receiving "negative publicity" for no reason. I know that some palm products for cosmetics and candles are certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), but that doesn't exactly solve all the problems. I see that at least one (that I know of) popular candle making supply house now refuses to carry palm wax completely. I see palm wax mentioned quite a bit, but I do not know if all suppliers are sure that their products are RSPO, and I'm also not sure that if they are it necessarily means there is no current habitat destruction; certainly, the plantations are monocultures of what once was vital and beautiful flora and fauna. I really feel that this aspect of this product should not be disregarded.

Hi Amy, Maybe try still using the vybar at less than 2% if you wish to experiment, but note that there are two types of vybar, one of them being for lower meltpoint waxes. Is the wicking you're using a cotton wicking? Most likely if it's cotton, you need only to down size it a bit, as cotton should work fine. I think the beeswax/paraffin oil or something in your one blend might be the problem with the sticky part, but if you can get your other blend fine tuned, that would be a great start!

Okay, so your first blend was about a pound of wax and too much stearic and vybar. My suggestion is to skip the vybar completely and add only about 1-2 teaspoons of stearic acid per pound. I think the excess vybar may have had a negative effect on your fragrance. On your second experiment, I'm not sure of that combination since not all soy waxes blend well with beeswax and I've never used paraffin oil. Can you tell us the wick size you used, for instance, in the yellow candle? ... and the dimension across the top of the glass? The flame looks quite bold.

In wishing to compare this line of waxes, I first started out using GW415 (now Akosoy 5715-00-77) ... then I went to GW444 (Akosoy 5715-02-02) and GW 464 Akosoy 5702-02-02. So, I have not tried GW416 (Akosoy 5716-00-04) which has a higher melt point than the others (a "tart or votive wax"), nor have I tried out GW402 (Akosoy 5702-00-77). Does anyone have experience with those two waxes? (416 and 402) ...? I'm also curious if the 416 is suitable for making embellishments (berries, cookies, etc. with a candy mold.) I was looking at a sales page for the 402 and one of the reviews said, "I’ve used all the other GW waxes on this site and this is the best one by far." ... makes me curious! There was a thread about the 402 once before, but it didn't seem as though many had tried it yet.

I think the wax and the scent are still going to continue to cure within the candle even if you burn it for a while.

Good deal ... let me know what you think. The price at the link I provided is a bit less, but whatever works! ... (the method of payment there is a bit different since you have to use an Amazon account to check out.) I think it looks like a nice unit, and for the price, compared to some of the other ones, it doesn't seem out of line, and I believe infrared uses less electricity. One of the complaints about many of them was about how long they take to heat up. In my searches, I didn't see the one that was suggested here by Waring, but to round out my notes, I'm going to look it up too, just to know for any future reference. This search about wore me out!

In my experience, tins get hotter than glass, so I usually use a smaller wick in tins than I do with glass.

It took me awhile to happen upon this, but I think it's going to work! After I've been able to play with it for awhile, I'll post back to let you know! Burner product page

I've been adding 1 t. per pound of stearic acid with that wax and it's been coming out nicely.

I personally think that the pour temperature has more to do with appearance of the candle more than anything. For instance, if you pour soy wax too soon, you're likely to get frosting. I've read that a rule of thumb is to pour around the same temperature as the melt point.

Thanks for the information, I'll check that out ... so far, I think I've settled on one by Ovente which is an infrared type (not an expensive one), and it has a temperature dial. I like the idea of the temperature dial, so I think I'm probably going to go with this one. I can't believe how many of the models do not have good reports, it's incredible.

No, I haven't at this time, maybe sometime in the future. For now, I work with a few different waxes, so I've got a real mess going on! I have various melting pots or vintage coffee cans that have been bent so they have a spout that all have little remnant coatings of a variety of colors in each of them; of those, some are devoted to soy wax and others to paraffin. Then I have a little collection of glass coffee pots for gel candle projects. So, as you can probably see, it's much easier for me at this point to grab one of my pots and use a burner. I made a little progress today, if you can call it that, finding two negative reviews with a similar complaint about the one I was thinking of getting, so now I'm looking at some other ones. Thanks for your suggestion though, but for now, I've got to go with the mess I've already created!

So, I've decided to set up a candle making area near where I keep my supplies rather than always doing it in the kitchen. This way, it doesn't matter if I'm using the stove for other purposes, a candle can still be in the works. I went on-line to look at single burner units and it's kind of hard to tell which ones might be durable and suitable. I've read some reviews on various makes/models and some are good, while some are not so good. For instance, one question in a review asked what temperature "low" is for the setting and the seller simply said, "low" means "low" ... and, in reading reviews, some offered some tips for not overheating. What I'm looking at currently is one by Nesco (product SB-01) ... not an expensive unit for this purpose, but the cheaper ones seem to get some bad remarks. For instance, there is one by Oster and more than one person complained that the knob fell off. There is also one by Continental, but the one I may have looked at was a double, which I was at first considering. There is one by Elite Cuisine, which is a cheaper unit and it seemed to have nice reviews, so it's hard to tell. And, although the ones I've looked at show how many watts, none of them seem to readily show the cord length in the specs. I thought I'd share my findings here, and if anyone has any experience they would like to share, I'd be interested to know what they are!

You're using a wax I've been using, which I heat to 185dF, adding scent after removed from heat, cooling to 150dF, stirring gently again and then pouring. The mixing part of your method seems to me as though you might be creating opportunity for air bubbles/pockets. Also, I do think you may be taking an extra step in the process that probably isn't necessary, adding to the time it takes to make the candle, the additional clean up, etc.

I don't know why your candles are warping, but whenever I have flops, I chop up that wax and make chunk candles with it, rather than losing it. I'm wondering if the metal is contracting and expanding that could cause the warp ...? I've never heard of this before. It will be interesting to see what the pillar pros have to say!

It sounds nice, I may try some this year. I was reading a review and someone said they thought it seemed to be "cleaner burning" or less oily than some others. If I get some, I'll be sure to post my thoughts about it!

Has anyone here used this scent in soy candles? I'm thinking of trying it, although it's hard to tell from the reviews, as one comment said it smelled more like a vanilla-type more than woodsy. So, I thought I'd ask here! product page

That's interesting, thank you! Are there some other major differences that stand out to you in your experience? I see that it comes in pellets rather than flakes, and it seems as though the recommended temperature for heating might be a bit lower. Does it have a shinier appearance at all? Thanks again!

I haven't done much reading about Millennium, so I thought I'd finally take a few moments and go out to read on a few sites. I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question about it. It seems to me that this wax is very white rather than a light ivory color as some other soy waxes, is that true? For some candle designs, this could be a nice change.

There is a certainly a place for heat guns in certain situations, such as what TallTayl has described with her beeswax, or with any surface flaws on soy candles, some artsy techniques with paraffin novelties, etc. However, I think there are other appliances that can be used to keep pots or glassware warmed that may cost less to use, as I have a feeling heat guns are not very efficient that way ... that's just a guess though. Also, with a heat gun, the heat is being blown around; on a hot plate, the heat is rising, so you're getting better performance unless you absolutely need directional heat or heat from above. If you need heat from below, than, imo, a heat gun is not your most efficient method. In one of my old candle books, it advised to add f/o slowly while stirring rather than pouring it in, I supposed this is an "old-fashioned" method of getting the wax and f/o to mix well.

I know! I'm going to warm my f/o first and hope it doesn't flare up!

If this hobby is made any more complicated by people with all of their new ideas, I think I'm going to give up! 🙃

That's my thought too!

I have some catching up to do in reading this thread, which I will have to do a bit later. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that one of the posts which included the actual link to their site might be able to clue them into this thread as it could show in their referral links in their web client database, so perhaps now that it's been displayed, it could possibly or should possibly be removed ...? I don't know, but I wanted to mention it for whatever it's worth.