Anna_Sapphic

18 hours ago, TallTayl said:

I think the clotting you’re finding is because the fragrance may have been added at too low of a temperature. aSO recommends “folding” it in at 120. The temp drop when adding fo to wax that is too cold to accept it fully can cause weird things to happen. 

I agree, I think a lot of it had to do with my temps not being high enough. I raised them a little when I did my top pour and they came out much better (though not perfect).

Really wish I could find another source for the modifier, even if it's just the stand alone ingredients and not the branded stuff. 

Does anyone know where you might be able to purchase a similar additive to the "Soy Modifier" that isn't from ASO or American Candle? Their shipping prices kill me 

51 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

 regardless of how the top looks I would give everyone of those versions (# of wicks and different scents) a test burn from top to bottom before giving or selling  Better safe than sorry. Ugly blue one I pictured above was soaking wet at the bottom
 

the soy modifier is a soy monogylceride similar to cargill’s I believe. ASO sells it in a flake form. It is not Stearic. 

Definitely plan on testing them but that's good to know. I'll definitely watch out for that. 

Never used an additive just labeled "soy modifier". Always just stearic. I'll have to look into it now that I know the name. Thanks!!! 

36 minutes ago, birdcharm said:

Could the stearic acid cause any issues with it?

I always used palm based stearic acid to increase hardness with the C3 with no problems. This seemed to have the opposite effect if that's the true issue. 

To be honest, I was just not able to find out what Midwest's soy modifyer was made of, so I was hesitant to use it and naively assumed that it was likely just a proprietary blend of stearic and UV inhibitors.

Maybe you all have the answer to that one because I guess I was wrong haha 🤷

On the plus side, my second pour mostly smoothed out my tops and I seem to have been able to correct what didn't get fixed with the heat gun. They're far from perfect but they're not unusable.

Crossing my fingers that they'll cure now. 

Ugh! It does look just like that. This is really disheartening. I've made hundreds of candles with C3 and just ended up wasting an entire case of Midwest. Still cant figure out what I did right the first time and so wrong the second. I'm guessing I just didn't mix the FO in at the right temp and probably slightly overheated my tests without realizing. Sigh

I'm wondering now if the cakey-ness is the result of shrinkage. As I look at them all, they all look far less filled than when I initially poured them. There's almost an inch of space between the wax and the rim of the glass now and I always fill to about 3/8th of an inch. I've never encountered this though so I don't know what shrunken wax looks like or honestly what causes it.

If my 2nd pour tonight doesn't clean up the tops, wondering if this could be fixed at all with a heat gun?

Hello all! I'm new here but really hoping someone can help me out!

I recently switched from using Cargill's C3 wax to using American Soy Organic's 100% Midwest Container wax. I'm use to getting almost perfect pours in a two step topping process with the C3. Extremely smooth silky tops every time. I tested this wax when I first bought it, and although it was much glossier and softer seeming, my test batch came out looking otherwise normal. 

So I went ahead and made a full batch, 45lbs of wax and almost every single candle came out looking like the below pictures. I've had bad pours before, and granted, this is before I do the top pour, but I've never had 1st pours look as bad as this. It looks like my candles have risen like cake and then curdled!

I'm using a blend of about 5% stearic acid (palm derived) and about 10% fragrance oil. 

Does anyone know what's going on here? I'm at a loss because nothing changed from my test pour to this full batch. Honestly don't even know what to google to fix this because I've never seen it before haha.