Bill123

I see. I've also noticed that I have to stay away from vanilla based fragrance oils as they seem to react with these tins making them look rusty. My favorites are the bakery scents which tend to have vanillin so that's a bummer about the tins. I will be experimenting with those eco wicks. Thanks again for the help.

Thank you. These sound like excellent suggestions. The bit about testing each fragrance is a good point. Each one I have is from candle science but I'm sure they will all perform different. I'm curious to give the double wicking a try too. Do you think two ECO 1s or ECO 2s would be a good starting point?

Thanks so much for the detailed reply TallTayl! I should have mentioned I let these candles cure for 3 weeks although I've done testing after 3 days and had similar results. 444 is the first and only wax I've tried so far. I realize now it's a really hard wax like you said and originally chose it because I knew I wanted an "eco-friendly" wax that would hopefully fare better than the popular 464 in the summer months. Blending other waxes didn't come to mind yet only because I'm new to this and trying to keep things as simple as possible. Maybe I should try C1? As far as double wicking, I would have to try a different container because with these candle science tins the metal is raised in a circle around the bottom center to help with placing a single wick so I think this would be in the way of double wicks. I'm trying to use a more squatty container because it seems they set nicer than tall, narrower containers where I'd have to be poking relief holes and using a heat gun on each candle or pouring at really low temperatures.

Hi all, So I've been testing wicks for a while now and can't seem to get it just right. I'm hoping maybe someone can shed some light on what I may be doing wrong. Details of my testing: 444 wax Candle science 8 ounce tins (2.95" diameter) 7.5% fragrance oil Room temp: 70 Wicks: CD 18, CD 20 Heat to 185, stir in FO, pour at 135 The Candle science wick guide recommends CD 20 for my wax and container, but I've seen many people say they recommend sizes a bit large usually so I tried the next size down too. With the CD 18, the mushrooming isn't too bad but the melt pool doesn't quite reach the edges (it's close though). Maybe leaving 1/8". Even burning for 4 hours at a time all the way down to the bottom there's still a bit of hang up. With the CD 20, I do achieve the full melt pool in 3-4 hours, but it seems to be at the cost of large mushrooms (2-3 large carbon balls). I have eco 14s on the way to try next. Any suggestions? At this point I'd take a little bit of wax on the sides over the large mushrooms but I'm curious what you all think and if there's anything I can improve on in my process.

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong as far as the craters in soy. I'm fine with them being there as long as it's generally acceptable for soy wax. That was one of the first candles I made so I didn't know that was typical for soy. I guess the candles I owned in the past were paraffin since I don't remember seeing craters. I will be trying C1 and C3 for sure too.

Good to know. I haven't heard of Elevance so I will definitely check that out!

Thanks, so it sounds like this is mainly the nature of soy wax

Thanks for the tips! Is there another soy wax you'd recommend besides the 444? This is the first wax I purchased and I only got a 10 pound bag so I do plan to experiment with other waxes.

Hi all, I'm brand new to candle making and this forum and was just wondering if I am doing something wrong here. After my first burn test for about 3 hours, I noticed these craters in the wax after it cooled. Is this normal and is there anything that can be done to prevent them? Before burning, the top was almost perfectly smooth even without using a heat gun. This was my process: Heated the 444 to 185, added 8% F.O. (lavender and fraser fir equal parts) at 160, poured at 135 into 8oz tin using a wooden wick. I then let the candle set for 24 hours before burning (I'm thinking this may have been the issue as I've read they are suppose to cure for 1-2 weeks before burning?) I chose not to add the F.O. at the recommended 185 after reading a lot of conflicting information about scent burning off while the wax is cooling and some experienced candle makers adding their fragrances as low as 110, but then fragrance possibly not binding to the wax so I thought I'd try a happy medium of 160. Anyway, it's looking pretty rough like this so any tips are more than appreciated. I should say I'm only interested in using soy and not paraffin or parasoy blends. Thanks in advance.