Annagolden3353

On 6/2/2016 at 2:38 PM, Chefmom said:

Wow...I first started dabbling in pillar candles with slab paraffin from Michaels, just because it was there, an okay price if you used the 50% off coupon and I didn't bother with fragrances in the beginning.  A couple of molds, bricks of color, a roll of flat braid wick and a pour pot and I was makin candles!!  Not the best, but they burned, and I learned hands on while I read everything I could online and in a few old books I had collected from used book sales.

 

Eventually I decided to make scented pillars...they just never really threw well for me.  Not using wax that held much scent was part of my problem, but I ended up researching a container wax.  I read, took notes and read some more.  I finally settled on 6006 because I liked the parasoy over the more fussy 100% soy waxes or the odd vaseline looking paraffin waxes.  I liked the fact that it was solid, cuttable with a knife (no more beating it senseless with a hammer like paraffin slabs) and made a very lovely container candle, and a variety of wicks works very well in it.  I pretty much scored on the first try. 

 

Since then I have tried the 100% soy, mostly out of curiosity, and always went back to the 6006 as my preferred scented container wax as well as plain container wax for unscented multi wick candles I make with my stoneware pots and tealights as well. 

 

As for pillars, I still dabble with the straight paraffin, buying 1343, 1270 and 4625, but I mostly make my own paraffin or paraffin/soy blends and also I make beeswax pillars and tapers as well.  I would have to say that my beeswax pillars and hand dipped tapers are probably my absolute favorite candles, but I also love the ones I pour into stoneware pots for multi wick unscented candles. 

 

I think picking a wax comes down to what you want in a finished candle.  A glowing pillar, a scented glass container etc...it's a matter of narrowing down what is available, or coming up with your own formula to meet your vision of a candle.

What ratio do you mix with paraffin and soy wax? 50/50?

Thanks for accepting me here. I have lots of questions but I won't bore you guys with them now. I prefer to wander around in this forum and see if I can find answers from other people trying to help fix our problems with waxes,etc.