MsPeachesDelight

A little late to the party, heh!

has anyone tried adding jojoba to their candle wax blend? 

Noted! Thank you.  I think the reason why I’m not getting HT is because I’m adding the FO at 215-220F 🤔 I’ve following what most peeps were doing in one of the candle groups I’m part of. 

1 hour ago, TallTayl said:

1 hour ago, MsPeachesDelight said:

 

Coco83 and Coco83 blends I always get up to 200, higher if using palm (to the palm temp). I add fo right away and pour hot. 

Gotcha! Would you go up to 215-225F or is that waaay to hot (Without Palm)?  I’m going to make some testers tomorrow! 🙌🏼

I was going to try 200-210F with Midwest soy  &paraffin. But now I’m thinking it might be too hot. 

Hey @TallTayl - lots of debate on what temp to add FO's and what temp to melt coconut blends (ie coco83) and soy / para soy blends.

Is it best to follow what the manufacture suggests, or do you always melt and add FO's at high temps?

53 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

487 as a blender is about my favorite for coconut right now.  Can’t wait to try it as an ingredient in my own coco blend! 

If you ever sell that blend, SIGN ME UP!! LOL I'll buy it alll up.😂

52 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

Isn’t that FRUSTRATING? While researching safety rules for commercial candles, I learned A LOT about ASTM and UL publications.  Did you know for places like home goods and others safety standards are pretty specific. metal containers  must  not exceed 125*F, and glass/ceramic must not exceed 140*F (of 145*F depending on the UL standard applied at the time of publication).  That’s a huge difference from other quoted standards made up by who knows where. Wicking for early fast HT and FMP will very likely be a fail pretty quickly when tested.  
 

VERY!!! and I agree. Take your time, do it right.  I see a lot of crazy candles that shouldn't be for sale.  The whole candle catching fire situation reminds me of the Goop candle!  I've bought a few candles from a couple of small boutiques that were questionable as well. I remember one candle was a literal inferno in a whiskey glass and wondered if they even preformed any kind of safety tests 🤯

I digress, I'm really excited to test my candles! 

 I have 1lb of Palm1 in my cart, also glass glow palm. Just to confirm, when you mean glass glow, you're referring to IGI R2322, right?  and passing on the 486.

OHHHHH! GOTCHA! That makes sense! I will do those tests tomorrow night and I'm going to order Palm 1 and SP 486 - I want to compare it to my 487.  Have you tried SP486?  So basically, full melt pool should never really be the goal, because its dangerous and fights the goal of a good HT. Its funny because in the candles groups I'm in, a lot of people complain about not getting a full melt pool, and go on to double wick, or try larger wicks, that don't really belong.

So, ideally once wick, and all that is figured out, if I have a 9 or 8 oz vessel etc, fill 8oz into a 9oz vessel  and 7oz into an 8oz vessel and so on.. correct?

BTW: the midwest soy/coco83/beeswax CT is fantastic so far!  Now that I'm going to play around with Palm, is the cure time the same? 2 weeks? or does it shorten the cure time? 

YOU ARE A CANDLE GODDESS!!! THANK YOU a million times over

3 hours ago, TallTayl said:

Here’s how the 5801 blend looked as it cooled, lol. It seeped and pooled at 6% FO, so I no longer use 5801 in coco83. Fun experiment though! 5801 is a votive/pillar  blend designed to shrink to remove easily from molds, so not surprising it squeezed out droplets. 

 

Hey! The edges look nice though, lol! I see what you mean, and your description is spot on, lol!

Happy Friday! When you say (pardon my candle ignorance, lol! 😅 : Do not wick for full melt pool on the first few burns. Leave a bit of extra room at the top (don’t pour all the any up) if you need early HT. The chimney effect of the extra headspace will build the further down the candle burns to give more HT more quickly.  What exactly do you mean?  Can you pls show me an example? I'm trying to visualize it, while my brain is reacting like Winona Ryder at the Sag awards  😂

37 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

5801-A made the candle look like it had a case of the measles as it cooled

@TallTayl lol! With the palm wax, would you still suggest doing a 70/30 blend? I know some palms have a low fragrace load (3%), would I still be able to do 8-10% if blended with coco83?  

Thank you again!!!! you have calmed my nerves with your thoughts and tips

20 hours ago, TallTayl said:

Wow! You’ve been busy!

of your collection, I like coco83 with sp487 best.  Disclaimer: my coco83 is going to be different from yours. How much different is anyone’s guess.  With my particular lot a proportion of 70:30 coco83:sp487 works well for many fragrances. CDN wicks usually. I don’t wick for early full melt pool with these types of blends as it will be problematic further into the candle.  
 

 

Thank you for replying! So, a perfumer who makes scents for candles as well made our custom blend. I did the wax in wax melter test, heat test on the FO and everything was perfection. Yesterday I made a 50 midwest soy/45%coco85 5%beeswax blend with 10% FO- CT is great!.  and 50/50 soy10/coco83 - the CT is subtle.  Im going to try the sp487 with coco83. 

Are there any other waxes you suggest I get a sample of? I know you're a mixer as well.  Also, how the hell does Nest, Boy Smells, Le Labo and all those companies get such insane HT?  What's the secret sauce? Is it because they go over 12% fragrance load?  

Hello!

I've been testing my candles for a year now, and its been failure after failure. Ive tried CD, LX, Zinc, UC, Woodwicks. HTP wicks, Aroma-lite, ECO, HPSP and no throw!  I know HT is subjective, but in our focus groups people have mentioned that there's no HT.

I decided to switch up vessels, since even the largest wick in aroma-lite, won't even give me a full melt pool.  The vessel I used to test were ceramic vessels, now  I'm switching to Glam Tins from makesy.

I would love you assistance since I'm at a complete loss and ready to call it quits! 

Waxes I've tried: coco 83, coco creme (makesy), scorpion wax, soy10,sozo luxe soy, hemp wax(makesy), bw917, midwest soy. and I've blended some with mp117, 4630, sp487 and I couldn't get HT with any.  I have beeswax and c55 as well, just haven't used it yet. 

Out of the waxes I have, are there any you suggest I try as a blend? I'm a huge blender! And are there any wicks I should try that I haven't listed?

Thank you for your time. I truly appreciate it

- a frustrated, but hopeful chandler

What's your go-to Paraffin wax now? Have any of you tried mp117? 

On 12/8/2019 at 7:28 PM, TallTayl said:

Do you have a wax melter, like a scentsy? If so, drop a little onto it.  If you can smell it, then you can be assured it is a wicking issue. You’ll just need to find a wick that hits the sweet spot in your wax/fo/container variables.

I tried this, and it made me wonder if I should stick to wax melts instead because the HT was beautiful, heh!  Is it possible to add c55 to midwest soy or will it harden it too much that it wont properly release HT? Alternative is to just stick with adding 5% beeswax.  Thoughts? 

3 years later.... has anyone in the US tried any of their waxes?  

16 hours ago, TallTayl said:

That completely depends on the wax you’re starting with. I would not add a liquid wax to Coco 83 but in the case of my old pillar blend where the flakes were so crispy they would barely melt I started at 5% and increased until I found a level that worked

Thank you! 

34 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

I prefer single wicking. Sometimes, though, hard to burn waxes in bigger containers just require it. Single wicking this jar with this wax combo would have created a tall, soot prone flame. 
 

I’ve experimented with a number of oils and beauty additives. Learned a LOT. Personally, jojoba is too precious to me. I tried cottonseed based on old, discontinued popular wax formulas using it. And because the original crisco was hydrogenated cottonseed oil. Old crisco burned well. And cottonseed oil is cheap enough at soapers choice to try. It’s doing well!

 

some day I’ll get back to testing different oils to compare the outcomes. Unsaturated oils all have drawbacks, namely instability, rancidity, etc

It's a shame that crisco isn't the same as it used to be -- I was tempted to try it, but later read it's no longer hydrogenated cotton seed oil.  As for adding oils, what's a good percentage range? 5-10.. or higher?

22 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

I make ceramic jars and learned that the material takes a bit to heat up (slow upper formation of melt pool) but retains heat (deeper sustained later melt pool). 
 

i would wick that size with about a cdn 5 or 6 depending on the fragrance and the particular wax.
 

if I were to blend, of your waxes listed I’d go with Midwest at anywhere from 5-25% if it needed help to not get out of control through the burn. Though one batch of Coco83 I have worked flawlessly with a 50:50 proportion Midwest and Coco83. That Coco83 was very weird, greasy and didn’t melt to clear at any point. The 2 waxes have shortcomings that the other made up for. It was a magic blend. Cd wicks worked really well in it. 

here’s one I have going now that is made with an ancient lot of ecosoya pillar blend that was no longer burnable out of the box.

the jar is bellied out which makes Wicking a nightmare. 3.5” at widest. 3.5 or so tall. 
 

I blended with 1/3 cotton seed oil l, and double wicked with premier 735. The flames are smaller than what I am used to, but it has been a power burner never getting above 130*f. Throws like a champ. 
first light. 

 

After 3 days of power burning 12+ hours. 

Damn. That looks good!! Do you prefer double wicking? 

And yes, I keep reading how inconsistent coco83 is! What a pain. Cotton Seed Oil! Interesting! Speaking of  I've thought about adding jojoba oil, but still not 100% sure whether that'd be a good idea or not, since I haven't read anyone using it in candle making.  I use it in my skincare formulations and have been verrrrrry tempted to throw some in my candle blends.

8 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

A few wick wholesalers have offered those services. A partner of mine used a lab - I forget which - and was not super happy with the results. 
 

so much depends on the individual variables of wax (including type and lot), container (size, shape, material), fragrance, color, etc.. most of us here are happy to help get you into the ballpark, the rest will be fine tuning for your specific variables.  
 

coco83 has changed so much from the beginning and now from lot to lot it is like a completely different wax with every shipment. As you invest time into testing, learning the wax and wicks, choosing a winning wick becomes easier. Understanding how the wax burns from your lots, with your other variables, makes choosing additives easier.
 

many of us who loved the old coco83 have cycled through beeswax, soy, palm, paraffin and combos of all to tune our wax lots. As you know soys come in many different formulations, as do palm, paraffin and even beeswax varies from lot to lot, seller to seller. What we advise may or may not work, but can get you in a good direction. 
 

for coco83, the common theme that works for me is to think small. Small wicks work best in my jars.  No wax performs well in all containers. We sometimes have to choose a path that the wax wants, versus a jar to make a wax work on, if that makes sense. Coco83 seems to prefer jars that are 2.5-3” wide and taller than wide. But not overly tall as the last 1/3 can make the whole system fail. 
 

invest in sample packs of wicks. In my cases of wax, depending on the fragrance, eco, cd, CDN, RRD, premier, bleached square, paper core, etc might work.  
 

for coco83 out of the box, small CDN or eco are often decent. Blending beeswax changed the viscosity of the wax, and may need premier or eco. Soy may need CDN, cd, eco or premier....

thank you for this! Candle making is a science that's for damn sure. 

I'm attaching a pic of my clay vessel. The outer diameter is about 3.3inches and The inner diameter is about 2.8”  height is 3.2” 

I have a few waxes. Aside from coco83, I have WWco’s coco creme wax (which I've heard is like ec26), WWco’s Hemp Soy, bw917, I have a bit of midwestern soy left, MP117, beeswax and 4630. 

I love blending waxes; it's my favourite part!

Is there a wax that performs better in clay vessels? Or what really matters is the diameter and height  of the vessel? 

I’m a little ashamed of asking, but I’ll ask anyway!  Does anyone offer wicking consulting? I enjoy the entire candle-making process except for wicking. I’m having a hard time with wicking, and at this point, I would much rather hire someone who is highly knowledgeable to help me. 

20 hours ago, NightLight said:

Have not tried those, but don’t personally like them. Also don’t be afraid of mixing waxes. So if coco 83 not doing it for you, add some soy or paraffin and get the blend you want. I have personally found that not one wax is perfect and all of them need something. You may have to adjust for certain fragrance.

100%!  I’ve been reading so much about mixing and took advice from all of you talented makers ❤️I’m currently playing around with coco83 and MP117.  
 

I want to try beeswax and coco83 with a bit of paraffin. I’ve tried SP487, but I wasn’t 100% happy with it. 

1 hour ago, NightLight said:

CDN are good in that wax. You can double wick with very small sizes. CDs can be good too.

Perfect. I’ll add CD’s to the list.  Any luck with Zinc wicks?

12 hours ago, TallTayl said:

CDN are nice in mine. 

Thank you! Those are on my list!

4 hours ago, TallTayl said:

Hpsp never lived up to the (very short) hype. I’ve not heard of anyone sticking with them 🤷🏻‍♀️

Honestly, I’m starting to notice why! I agree. It’s NOT worth the hype.  It’s so frustrating!  What wicks give great HT with coco83? I’m finding lots of people struggle with wicking—including myself, obvi. 😂😭

I’ve been testing HPSP wicks with coco83 mixed with a bit of paraffin. I’m having issues with tunnelling and go out by themselves. So far I’ve tried: HPSP 377, 335, 300, 257 (45-63). There’s one larger size left to try, but I don’t know! Am I doing something wrong?? Should I be double wicking?  The vessel diameter is 3.2”