3 hours ago, bktolbert said:

There is little consensus as to the "best" wax, especially concerning coconut wax. I'm learning the best thing you can do is allot yourself a good chunk of time for experimentation and trial and error.

 

With that said, I currently am in the process of making my own coconut/soy blend by using percentages of these two waxes:

 

100% coconut wax

https://www.fillmorecontainer.com/naturewax-coconut-1-50-case.html

100% soy wax

https://www.fillmorecontainer.com/aaks-golden-wax-415-100-soy-formerly-golden-brands.html

 

Best of luck!

What do you suppose is the difference between Naturewax Coconut 1 (MP 90-102)  and plain old Coconut Oil (92)?

1 hour ago, strugglebrother said:

 

 

1 hour ago, strugglebrother said:

Wholefoods are stocking palm and soy wax candles, but not paraffin candles (at least my local one).

forgive this slight digression- Wholefoods does stock soy "blends" (parasoy) like Paddywax, although it does vary by region.

On 2/11/2019 at 4:31 AM, CandleRush said:

Another candle with Palo santo and it was spectacular

That must have been one expensive candle!  

I love their Cedar and Orange. It is listed under their Skin + Hair Care FOs but I took chance on it for candles and it is throwing very nicely in my soy/coco wax after a 6 day cure.  

Well, this is quite a revelation to me!  A little googling and I found almost my exact question answered  by a Prof of Chemistry on another forum:

Andrew Wolff, Adjunct Professor of Chemistry

Answered Aug 27, 2015

 

The problem with melting points is that while for pure substances the melting point is a single temperature, as soon as you start adding ingredients the melting point becomes a melting range.  Say you had a wax that melted at 40 Celsius.  Add a wax that melts at 60 celsius, and you will not get a wax that melts at 50 Celsius.  You will get a wax that starts to melt at 40 Celsius but is not completely melted until 60 Celsius.  

 

I'm not quite sure how to practically apply this new info. to candlemaking and a finished candle's behavior in heat though.  Or maybe I just don't want to believe  Because now it seems that I'm at the mercy of the ingredient with the lowest MP in any blend.  So a candle made with a blend of waxes that range in melt points from 90 - 140 degrees could still start to melt at 90 degrees (eeek) but may not fully melt until 140.  

 

Perhaps I'm overthinking this - it seems the more I read, the more questions I have.  Time to put some of my wax samples in a warm oven and see what happens!

 

@forrest

If I understand correctly, you're saying a blend of 2 waxes will become a wax with the same MP of the ingredient in that blend that has the highest MP? Is that right?
 

So if I melt down: 90% coconut (MP of 72) + 10% paraffin (MP of 140) to create a wax, that final wax now has a MP of 140?  

This one's for the math + chemistry inclined...

If you're making your own blend of waxes, as so many of us do- How would you go about estimating the melt point (MP) of your finished product?

Here's what I've come up with:

Lets use a 3 wax blend as an example:

Wax 1 MP appx 125 at 70%
Wax 2  MP appx 140 at 20%
Wax 3 MP appx 95 at 10%

125 x .70 = 87.5

140 x .20 = 28
95 x .10 - 9.5
Total  125 MP

Am I doing this right?  Is it even possible to estimate  a final MP like this or do wax compounds interact in a way that changes MPs such that you can't really even ballpark  it with basic math.

 

Here's a few>

https://packagingoptionsdirect.com/8-oz-clear-glass-round-straight-sided-jar-70-450-neck-finish

https://packagingoptionsdirect.com/8-oz-clear-glass-round-jar-70-400-neck-finish

https://www.berlinpackaging.com/5001b28-8-oz-clear-glass-straight-sided-squat-jars-black-pp-cap/

9 oz>  https://www.specialtybottle.com/glass-jars/amber-straight-sided/9oz-ss9a?gclid=CjwKCAiAqOriBRAfEiwAEb9oXaKY7z1BUZH-8811MjKD1haRSUZT8nV1Az-bGPRUFtt4n7dtfpsw6hoCcuMQAvD_BwE

Daystar

Edited by TT: Done

Sounds like a retail apocalypse and a societal apocalypse.  "dwindling middle class" indeed...  

personally I don't trim wicks when I test.  I keep testing until I get to a wick/wax/fo combo that can do well (maybe not perfectly but fine) with no trimming.
 

I tried one FO from Lab & Co - Honeysuckle Leather- it was STRONG at 7% .   At the prices they charge for FOs they better throw at under 8%   Really, they should throw at 6% or less at those prices IMO.  I think they have an interest in encouraging you to use more FO but I'm not convinced you need to.

I had a pretty much perfect burn using htp 93 in a 3" x 3" dia jar with that wax with an evergreen FO.  Test burns of 4 hr+ intervals and no wick trimming at all between burns.  It will take 2-3 burns to get a full edge to edge MP but by the last 1/3 of the burn it cleared the sides completely. 
I agree with Nightlight- I usually start testing with about 60% full jars and unsecured wicks.  

On 1/15/2019 at 8:00 PM, lan said:

Thanks so much for all the advice and tips. Il'l keep you all updated on the outcome 😅.

How's it going with the wax?

On 1/27/2019 at 9:55 PM, Laura C said:

The ingredients and the story is always changing, depending on which day you call, so to give them the benefit of the doubt, hummm, they may not always know what's going on or have control of what ingredients they can get. Who knows? 

I suspect this vagueness is primarily due to the supplier trying not to give away their "secret formula" by disclosing every ingredient and less so them trying to pass the wax off as an all veggie blend.  And no doubt, some days the person answering the phones really doesn't know much more than what is written on the website.  

Coastal Kale by Candlewic is a great "green" coastal fragrance with excellent cold and hot throw in my cocosoy wax.

I tried it- it's a very nice fragrance OOB but weak at 8% in a 50/50 coco/soy blend.  It is perfumey in a high end way, not so much woody or smoky. 
I prefer her Vanilla Woods OOB but found that weak in wax too.  Throw was 4 out of 10 for me for both .

She has some very nice FOs at Daystar- 1 of my favorite all time FO's actually is her Shampure dupe- which is a beautiful Aveda dupe with great throw and Vanilla Mandarin Bourbon which lives up to her WOW description but is $42.00/lb! ...sadly.  
 

Passing along a great article about branding from one of my favorite marketing blogs  

 https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/develop-brand-identity?utm_campaign=Marketing Blog - Daily Emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=69252998

On 1/17/2019 at 9:13 AM, Bambi said:

Hi pughaus, with all the recent "turmoil" brewing with Coconut 83 are you satisfied with Lab and Co's virgin coco wax to the point that you would make them your main supplier

Yes!

4 hours ago, lan said:

@pughaus Well that's refreshing to hear. What wicks have you found are working best with the Lab & Co wax?

depending on the fo and container mostly htp, then lx and and an occasional cd.  

5 hours ago, lan said:

@pughaus Lab & Co virgin coconut creme is what's on its way to me to try next. Do you use the Lab & Co wax as is, or are you adding the 40-50% soy to it?

I initially bought it as a temporary blender but started by pouring a test candle of just the VCC and I realized it's pretty perfect as-is so I've been using it as a stand alone.  It has a good amt of soy in it already.

It kinda looks like that 73 will catch up in the next few burns but I get why you might not be happy with all that hang up. If it's not one thing it's another with cocowax wicking.. I'd tell you to try LXs in that next since I tend to get a nice wide pool from them but tbh I gave up on trying to wick the available coco waxes as-is and started blending in about 40-50% soy and only then was I able to wick any cocowax to my satisfaction. And then I bought some of that Lab Co wax and now I'm spoiled and don't want to use anything else. 😜

@ian  have you tried another wick series besides eco in that wax yet?  That looks just like the browning I got when I used ecos in that wax. 

7 minutes ago, kandlekrazy said:

the waxes seem totally different (Accu-blends old vs Coco83), but then they didn't call it Coco83 back then so I'm thinking they changed their formula since I used it years ago, it is not the same wax.

It would be nice to be able to look that up but accublend's website, which was a hot mess when it was up, is now gone:  http://www.accu-blend.com/    Gotta love the supply chain we have to rely on - geez.

@Kerventhe Lab & Co. wax is whiter and less greasy feeling than the coco83 I've used.  Also a bit softer.  

I would add Cargill's Naturewax Coconut 2 to your list
SC21 is also out of stock with the same note and eta on CalCandles site as coco83. 

@jeremy  yes, the Lab Co wax is the unicorn of waxes that I've been trying to find or make out of cocowax blends since I started making candles.  I am OK with some highly refined para in it since I'm sure that ingredient contributes to the great performance of the wax.  Until I can figure out a way to duplicate it, and as long as it's available (cause, really who knows?) I'll use it.   
All Seasons sounds like a panacea now, but I bet it has some issues like all veg waxes. And we don't know the cost.  And I have to wonder if it isn't worse from an environmental standpoint, to ship candle wax across the globe than it is use a little food grade paraffin to improve a domestically sourced wax blend.