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Xersis

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  1. I guess I should also ask if you make any that are reasonably high in vanillin/citrus/cinnamon that are known to stain
  2. Can you tell me which tins you use? I have now narrowed down to 10 scents and 6 of them will stain. The higher the ethyl vanillin, the faster it seems to stain. But even the one that is a low % starts to stain after 3-4 months. I'm willing to switch to different brand if it solves the problem! (8 and 16 oz)
  3. Thank you very much @BusyBee. I recently came across some YouTube videos from a former professional wick tester and that was much more up my alley than the "try to get a full MP after your vessel diameter x 1 hour". I really like the scientific method, since that is how I choose to approach candle-making. Your post was even more thorough. I have come a long way since my post in April, and have even found some success. But at this point I'm having trouble deciding when to consider it done (until one variable changes of course). I have yet to make a perfect candle. I have my testing procedure down and it is similar to what I posted above. I've gotten an idea of how one series' sizes compare to another so that I have a rough idea where to start if I have to switch series. I've diligently stuck to only changing one variable at a time and made copious notes. It is slow, but there has been progress. My first test is to get a rough idea of the wick size, so I trim like I am supposed to, and burn at the right intervals. After I have narrowed it down to a couple or 3, I test again to see how it does in less ideal conditions: not trimming every time, random lengths of time and then finally the power burn. I feel like there are a few that are close enough and that may be enough. I tend to be a perfectionist and I don't think that is always possible with so many variables. @TallTayl - Yes, I was limiting myself to 464 and 6006 and never thought that you might have to test them differently. Different wicks series, yes, but procedurally? Eek! More variables!? It makes sense though. I, like most people, was really interested in #1 Safety and #2 HT. At that point it is just a slow slog of eliminating what could be making it burn poorly and changing from one wick to the next. To me the very first confusing step was to try and see how to speed up testing and reduce waste. Can you pull a wick and try another one? Do you have to let it "cure" again if you do? If you've had one, too hot test burn, is your FO messed up for the rest of the burns so it wouldn't even help you to change the wick. Or just for the top layer? How much soot is okay? How much mushroom is okay? Eventually I see that there really isn't a standard, except for the safety stuff, so the rest is just striving to minimize the things you don't want and maximizing the ones that you do. Back to my tests Thanks everyone!
  4. Actually, my kid's school was a big machine with two rollers. This is much easier though - thanks!
  5. That's a good point. Ultimately I would be wondering what the range is. Like if I pour it out of my pot at 185 and it cools down to 160, am I still okay? Or if I heat it up to 200 to try and aim for 185 when it comes out, but I pour in the FO at 190 is it okay? Mostly on the cool end though. It makes some sense to me that a cooler temp will keep it from activating as much and will save the scent for when is burning. Especially since you are just trying to blend the wax & oil together. I'm an engineer by trade so I can't help trying to make it a science project! Thanks for responding
  6. I would love to be directed to a thread (couldn't find it after searching) where someone just tests this. Same %FO, same wax, same vessel, same wick. Do one candle where you add the FO at 140, one at 160, one at 185. See what they look like and then see how they burn. Anyone ever hear results of someone performing a test similar to this? Of course I will try it myself if it hasn't been done, but I would love to hear if it has actually been tested somewhat scientifically instead of a lot of FB testimonies.
  7. Checking in with you about a year later! I'm about to make the switch to HTPs and am curious how it is going. HTP 83 seems to be the closest to what I'm used to using (CD8 and ECO 10 ) and it looks good on your pictures. Do you find yourself mostly using that one after testing with fragrance oil in that tin? I just started testing and am trying to get an idea of the range I will use. TY!
  8. Thank you! They look really good. May I ask how you stick them on after laminating? I used to do the lamination for my kid's school, so I know how to do it on the big machines, but have never done it at home.
  9. Hi busybee, I'm currently working on my labels and am collaborating with an artist. They are the main focus of our candles so have to be good! Can you let me know if you print yours yourself or get them printed (and are happy with that choice?) I am looking into getting them printed since I'm worried that my printed quality won't be good enough but of course that gets expensive. But so does ink...so... Any guidance is appreciated! Thank you!
  10. Okay, busily in the middle of testing. I am hoping a seasoned person can help me with a logic problem. I am using IGI 6006 wax in an 8 oz tin. 3 week+ cure time. 2 different fragrance oils @6%. One is lilac and one is Oakmoss and Amber. Trimmed to 1/4-1/2 inch I just finished the Lilac tests and CD 12 and ECO 8 were my winners. CD 12 (and CD 10) was a high flame for the first test. Subsequent tests went great. HT was great. ECO 8 had a bit of a high flame/flicker/soot here and there but overall performed well and HT was great. Conclusion for ECO 8: unless it is trimmed well, it can get too high. Oakmoss & Amber tests are going on now. I used a CD 18 wick and it is performing VERY well. Normal flame, already starting HT in the first hour and a nice shoulder. I will see how it progresses but so far it is doing MUCH better than the CD 12. My question: is this possible? 6 sizes bigger (CD 18 vs CD 12) and it has a SMALLER flame? The only variant is the fragrance oil. Oakmoss & Amber has a higher FP and while I *thought* that may mean my wick would be on the higher side, I didn't expect that much! If I were going to use Lilac, I would be tempted to go back and test it with the 18, just to see. But since I don't plan on using that one, I will probably abandon it. But I would LOVE to know if this makes sense to people with more experience. Going forward (I have approx 10 more fragrances to seriously test and about 5 that are curing now) - I would love to not have to test 6+ wicks in one vessel if I can narrow it down with some logic. Most of the ones I have curing are CD 10 and CD 12 and ECO 8...I didn't even consider that 18 was going to be in the running. Help! This seems to defy everything I had studied so far. If someone knows that a higher wick can HELP with high flame/sooting etc problems, at least it will help it make some sense to me. Thank you! (picture of Oakmoss & Amber, 6006, CD18, 8 oz tin after one hour )
  11. At this point, I'm months into testing wicks and I feel like I don't have a consistent procedure down. I have kept a lot of notes and am making progress but then I sort of lose my place and wonder if I've done enough or if I am somehow wasting time on stuff that doesn't matter. So here is what I have and I would love input from some veterans. Step one: decide on vessel (8 in tin and Libbey status 3.25 dia) Step two: decide on wax (primary 6006, secondary 464) Step three: Practice with different wicks, starting with recommended ones and working up and down with UNSCENTED wax to start as a base reference point (still working on this, but getting closer) Step 3a: Pour wax into vessel at the same temperature that I will do when adding FO (up to 185, cool to either about 150 (6006) or 135 (464), with test wicks making sure they are centered. Allow to cure for the same amount of time that I will need to when adding FO (2 weeks) Step 3b: Burn for a 4 hour initial test to look at height, mushrooming, does it burn to diameter?, and melt pool (if you even get one at this point). If I don't get a full melt diameter with 6006, I don't worry about it and wait to see how it performs on subsequent tests as long as it is kind of close (so far this has been surprising...a wick that I was about to abandon eventually melted completely by the end). If I don't get a full diameter melt with 464, I abandon that wick unless it is really close. Step 3c: Let it cool for 2 hours (at least) and do a second burn for a couple hours looking at the same things again - now seeing if it will reach diameter, if any wax has hung on the sides, melt pool if it is reaching diameter, mushrooming, soot, high flame, drowning wick. If I don't re-reach a full diameter with 464, I really start to think about abandoning because it looks like it is tunneling more and may never catch up (***or can it?***, not experienced enough to know this yet). For 6006, same criteria as step 3b. Step 3d: Repeat step 3c until I reach the bottom Step four: If I have reached the ideal melt pool of about 1/4 inch, a good flame with no sooting and minimal dancing, minimal wax on the side (ideally none) and external temp is below 170 degrees, I celebrate for a minute and now have my BASELINE WICK. Step five: Do a power burn test to double check that everything will stay safe. Now I add a fragrance oil and start the whole thing over again, beginning with the baseline wick. Now I will also be testing the fragrance output along with how it affects my baseline wick. First Question - what have I missed, or messed up? Other Questions: On step 3c - should I be trimming the wick, or assume that a customer won't... so be more realistic and just leave it. Or do I have to a test each way? I know there are different schools of thought on this, so looking for experience Once something has started to mushroom, does it ever self-correct? When adding fragrance oil, does that tend to make it burn hotter so you would often need a smaller wick size? Or does it give it less fuel and maybe you will need to wick up? Or does it not matter at all and you will need to test each FO with multiple wicks? How often do I need to check a successful combo? If I stick with the same company supplying my FO, vessel, wick and wax do I need to test it every batch? Every year? Can I ever just count on my results for a long time? Bonus random question: I am currently testing a CD16 and CD18 for 464 in the 8" tin and the CD 16 *almost* went to the diameter (after 4 hour burn), had some mushrooming but looks good otherwise. First instinct wick up, but I need to be patient and test it all the way down. What is random though is that the CD 18 looks almost exactly the same but burned LESS of the diameter and had less mushrooming. Is this possible? Many thanks for any input or validation!!
  12. I'm hoping to make candles from wax IGI 6006 with a true lilac smell. Not looking for the "best" scent. Looking for the closest to the real thing. I just made some from Candlewic and it is that cloying too floral scent. I compared it to my lilac bushes outside and it is not right. I can only describe it as like a really strong scent of the flower with none of the freshness. Almost like it is missing a bit of the smell of the leaves too. Any ideas? Or do you know a good fragrance that smells like fresh leaves (spring scent, not fall) to try a mixture? I have special requests so would love to find something just right! Thank you!
  13. VERY helpful bfroberts! I really appreciate you taking the time (and glad to hear you are busy with customers!!)
  14. Thank you! I have cross-referenced a bunch of wick guides, so am glad to hear what you thought about CS specifically. I am leaning towards 6006 anyway and maybe I will just perfect that first then branch out. And thank you for letting me know that "people carry their specific formulas pretty close the chest". I don't quite understand that...but IIWII. Anyway, I am glad that you told me that so I won't expect much. I posted it on a Candle making FB page and the only people that gave me one were people who were doing it for a short amount of time. It was nice of them, but I just wanted one formula that works for sure and then work my testing process around that. As far as the specific questions - I think even just what the testing process should be. I come from an engineering background, so I like rules and formulas! Basically I started with the vessel. That was very important, because my hope is to make labels with my sister's artwork on it and I needed a fair amount of real estate to work with, and easy to transport & ship because I hope to add it to her successful business. Once I narrowed that down, I moved on to wax. Soy seemed to follow her art-loving crowd but I know it can be more of a challenge to work with and/or get a good scent from. So I just picked two popular options (the 444 over 464 because of higher melt point since I live in a place with HOT summers) and 6006 as a good compromise. Now to wicks. This is where it gets sticky. My first struggle is how to keep the scientific process. I just don't know if I am doing accurate testing with the number of variables. So I kept it to one vessel to start: the 8 oz tins (apparently not the best place to start). I poured 6006 and 444 with no FO. Question #1: Do you let them cure? Some people say not really, some say for a day, some for 2 days, some say give it the full time you will have to let them cure with FO in them. Without even knowing that, how do I compare? Question #2: Assuming I begin with a 3 hour test (for the 3" diameter) and it doesn't work (I tried CD 10 for example), can I just add more wax to the top to start from scratch with a CD12? And if so, do I cure it again? And I know it burns differently as you go down in the tin so Question #3: At what point do you test that? Once you have a good initial burn test? Or do you expect it to not have the best melting pool for the first burn and do every test with the one wick that you have selected? (additional problem is not being able to get the different sizes to test b/c of shortages) And then add FO. At this point, in theory I have a wick that works and now I picked 5 fragrances to start with to see how the wick will have to change. Began with 6% just to have a starting point. But again with all of the variables. Do citrus fragrance oils really react with the tins? Does my previously tested wick now have horrible hot throw when adding a FO? Should I just make 4 candles with 6, 8, 9, 10% of one FO and the same wick and curing time? Is that a huge waste of wax and FO, when it can be narrowed down somehow? Should I have started with FO first because that is the hardest thing to master? And so...even just knowing that I am testing correctly means I only have to patience. I'm fine with that. I have a good six months to test it all out before I will even go to my sister with the proposal. But again, because of the problem with supply, I just wanted one good success. Both for my confidence, and a way to narrow down the materials I would need so I can actually spend the time looking for the 5 or 6 specific things I would need since they are hard to fine, and not be wasteful. The tremendous amounts of waste is what I'm trying to avoid (not just money & time, but also the unnecessary waste of materials). I mean someone else could use the wicks now I'm sure! And from that success, I could add in all of the other variables and continue the eternal testing. Sorry for the long post...thanks for your help.
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