Jay

1 hour ago, Moonstar said:

Im wondering if theres water in wax ? 

I thought that might be it too but I'm not sure how that would happen every single time. I'm very careful when putting the pouring pot into the double boiler and always heat it at a low enough temperature to not cause bubbles and potentially get water inside..

5 hours ago, Moonstar said:

Are you possibly adding too much FO maybe ? Does this happen with a certain FO or all ? 

I always use the correct fragrance load at around 8%, it happens with every melt eventually. They'll start out waxy feeling and then turn crumbly after a few weeks even when I store them inside boxes so the light doesn't get to them

23 hours ago, TallTayl said:

I do know what he means by crumble. Even burts bees in the cute clams crumble. You break one off and they make a mess. Soy gets "dry" feeling when the grains grow large. When quick cooled, small grains form and they look like paraffin.

 

when making palm candles (where the frosting is desired) slow cool. When making soy products where grains and frost are not desirable, quick cool. 

Thank you so much. Knowing a big company brand does the same thing is very comforting to know. Soy wax is so finicky but I like the challenge. By quick cool, do you mean I should be pouring into the molds at a higher temperature so the wax is separated and cools quicker than in the pouring pot all together? Or am I completely off here?

3 minutes ago, moonshine said:

I just caught the part where you say they hold their shape ok but when you cut into them they crumble.....why are you cutting them?  I guess I never have done this to know if they crumble or not....I just break off a couple cubes of the clam and thrown them in the melter 

I haven't been using clams so when I throw a chunk into my smaller plug in warmer even a cup is too big so I'll halve or quarter it. I will look into clams next since it would probably just fix the problem and make the texture not really matter

10 hours ago, moonshine said:

I use all soy for my melts and have not had any crumble on me.....same as kandlekrazy some discolor to a yellow or even a solid bright white after a couple years but never crumble 

like talltayl suggests I would cool faster 

your heat temp sounds good, what type of molds are you using?

I usually pour around 130-125 into clamshells and they set fast for me 

I just use either PP cups or silicone molds and pop them out after 24 hours or so. I'll try pouring at the higher temp and see how that works. I know what does work for some won't necessarily work for others so I'll keep playing around with it. Thanks for the input

3 hours ago, justajesuschick said:

I do not know many online Vendors who use all soy wax. Are you certain those you see are all soy? 

Yup, a few do explicitly state "soy wax melts" rather than parasoy or even say 100% soy wax

1 hour ago, kandlekrazy said:

I use all soy C3 and I can't say that any of my clamshells have gotten crumbly.  I'm not sure how long it takes to get to that stage but I know I have melts that are over 2 years old and are still good.  Some get yellowed, frosted or discolored from fluorescent lights but not dried out to where they crumble.

Yes it's really bizarre and nothing is coming up in searches about this problem. I have no idea what I'm doing that could be making this happen. Heat to 185, add fragrance and color, cool to 115 and pour. They do hold their shape just fine and don't just crumble apart, but when I cut into one it crumbles rather than slice or shave.

I'm wondering how vendors who use pure soy wax can get their tarts looking and staying as nice as parasoy / paraffin. I've been testing for nearly one year using all soy blends (GB 444, Eco Soya PB, and Eco Soya CB in different ratios depending on what I'm making), and they always end up losing their smooth texture and creaminess and become crumbly.

I've seen some people on various forums stating that this is just the nature of soy, but if that's the case, how do these all soy vendors end up having such beautiful looking wax?

Any tips would be highly appreciated!