sugarysweet95

I've always wanted to try marble candles, but i dont have a heat gun so not sure how else to get the candle smooth. I tried once w a hair drier and it so did not work! Lol! Any ideas on heat gun alternatives?

I live in the UK to and have so far bought most of my scents on ebay from UK sellers! Some have not been great, but one seller isvery friendly and her scents smell lovely, and its not that expensive.Her ebay store is sensory perfections and she's got a website too (there's more selection, but its a bit more expensive) http://www.sensoryperfection.co.uk/store/Default.asp Never tried getting any scents from US, though i may try when i need to restock! :smiley2:

Thanks, that spray paint idea sounds good, especially with the lace! Maybe the gold wax u got was similar to the stuff i got, that smelt horrid too and gave off these awful fumes, but wasn't as bad when i mixed a v small quantity w plain wax. Maybe the gold/silver wax u see in these bought candles is only paint too, will have to buy one and try and see what colour it is in the middle! LOL!!! Thanks

Hi everyone. I mainly make pillar candles and love the bought ones you see with gold and or silver wax layers. However i've never found any decent gold or silver wax dyes anywhere. I did buy some silver candle wax, but it was really thick when it melted and the candle didnt burn. I tried adding it to some ordinary paraffin wax and it does burn better, but has lost the nice metallically look. Anyway i was wandering if any of you know of anything to use to get wax to look nice and gold and silver, like proper metallically, or if i'll just have to resign to painting it on/ overdipping Thanks :undecided

I like the waxologist. Makes us sound a lot more scientific, which candle making definetely is!!!!! Not as easy as it seems gettin everything right and i'm only just beginning! :smiley2:

Oh and was wandering, what actually is mottling? Is it just when u get marks on the candle? If so what sort of marks are they? I'm still new to a lot of these candle terms! LOL!

Oh, i always thought vybar was the stearine substitute for rubber moulds, will give it a try. Oh and forgot about the melting stearin bit first, maybe it's that simple. I'll have another go and see what happens this time, will try a small cylinder pillar! Thanks for the help and fingers crossed this works!!! :smiley2:

As quite a new candle maker i started off with polycarbs as they're easier and cheaper in the UK. I like them, but i do have to be careful with scent and colour etc. I've tried a few seamless aluminuim and i like those too. They seem to take the scent much better and are less easily damaged. However i do love polycarbs simply as they're clear! I can have a good idea of what a candle looks like before it sets and so make alterations, such as alterin the colours in a layer, or making sure the chunks are positioned well. So i like em both!! Also more cool shapes with polycarbs and find they're easier to pre-wick!!!! Not really used rubber moulds much, so not sure about those.

:undecided Hi, I'm trying out several different suppliers of straight paraffin wax (thats all they have over here in the UK!) and have been keeping the amount of scent/wax/dye/mould and wick type the same. I thought i'd venture out and try the same candles (cylindrical pillars) with stearin so used 1 level tablespoon of stearin per 100g (an amount i got from an otherwise very helpful candlemaking book). Anyway when i tried the candles (with the different waxes) without stearin, the fragrance mixed in well and made a nice candle. The candles i tried with stearin (they were unblended waxes b4 u ask!) the fragrance didnt mix very well at all and leaked out of the candle when it came out of the mould. I was adding the same fragrance at about 80c and pouring straight after (well i stirred the fragrance in b4 pouring). Anyway i'm a bit confused, as i remember reading on these boards that stearin helps the candle to hold more fragrance, so not sure why the scent leaked out w stearin but not when there was no stearin. Have i not used enough? Not poured high enough temp wise or something else? I don't really wanna waste loads more wax etc trying to test it all out, so can anyone help me? Thanks

Hi Yeah i've tried non blended and blended wax and though non-blended is not as opaque, its not as translucent as i want. Is this paraflint an additive you add to the paraffin mix b4 u pour, like stearin, or more like an overdip? Also where do you get yours from? Thanks

Hi, I would like to experiment with different sorts of embeds in a pillar candle, but all the paraffin wax i get comes out quite opaque. I was wanderin if there's any additive or special type of wax (which u can get in the uk) which u can use for pillars to make them look more translucent Thanks

Hi, been reading this post as i have a similar problem. Anyway what's this about twisting? I have read it before, but wasnt quite sure what ppl meant. I pre-wick my moulds w a primed wick, so do i twist the whole length of the wick? If so how tightly? Or do i just twist the top? Should i prime the wick and twist? Hope ppl can help! Thanks

Hi, I'm still only a novice really at candle making, and was having the same problem with my chunks! I read about microcrystalline hard in a candle making book, and it works really well. It strengthens the chunks if u add it to the wax u use for the chunks. It means they don't all melt when you add the overpour wax, so the colour doesn't bleed very much. If you did want the colour to bleed a bit you could just try a sligtly higher temp, but microcrystalline hard is great and isn't needed in large quantities Hope that helps

A ratio of 1:3 means that you want 3 times as much of one than the other. o.5 oz is quite a tricky number, but basically i'd go with 0.125 and 0.375 = .5 No idea how easy that is to measure out though so it might be easier to have a bit less, say .1 and .3 = .4 or a bit more, say .15, .45 = 6 Basically whatever the first amount, you want 3 times the second amount. Hope that helps

At the moment the only criteria i've got is whether it has good melt pool (so there's no big well in the centre), whether the flame doesn't smoke/jump, how good the colour looks, approximately how long it burns for (but found that new burn time calculator on here, which i think i'll try for next test) and just comparing how strong the smell is with one candle to another I was thinking though, in the US there seems to be zillions of different types of wax, but in the UK there just seems to be basic paraffin wax, either beaded and or blended. Maybe there just all very similar, so maybe that's why i'm not getting much difference yet. Not tried experimenting with additives much yet, except microcrystalline hard which i find wonderful for chunks. Maybe i'll get more variation then. Is there any other criteria i should be looking out for? Thanks

Thanks for all the links, have got a good few now to compare. Found a coupld more too. http://www.keredcraftsupplies.co.uk/ www.4candles.co.uk www.hobbicraft.co.uk Not bought anything from kered crafts yet, but found the other two good, 4 candles especially good for lx wick

Well i've made the same sort of candles a number of times and they all seem to work fine with the different waxes, scents and dyes, but what i want to know is how to make them even better! Like what types of tests to do, as i've tried a few, as mentioned in my other posts, but not noticed much difference! I've only got candles i've bought myself to compare them too!

Well i aim to mainly make pillar candles of varying size. I like chunk candles the best, but also like some with layers and liquid dyes. I dont intend to make container candles, as its really expensive in the UK to buy the containers!!! Anyway thanks

Hi Everyone, I'm hopefully gonna be able to start selling candles soon and so have done a lot of experimenting. The problem is, i'm not really sure what to test for and vary etc. I've been trying different wicks and looking at burn pools and flame, which i find do vary a lot. However a lot of threads i've seen talk about how much the candle varies with things like amount of scent, type of wax, scent and dye. However i've tried using a few different things, like different suppliers of wax, but i can't really notice much difference between them at all! Can anyone help pinpoint me in the right direction of what to experiment and what to look for, apart from types of wick? Thanks

Hi everyone. I've been searching the msg board for suppliers in the UK but not really found much :embarasse anyway was wandering if anyone could give me a list of some good suppliers in the UK. I've tried a few, but google search is useless and i'm trying to get a definitive list together to compare prices. I'm also hopefully gonna end up selling some, so want to maximise profits and minimise costs. Thanks

Hi, I'm still quite a newbie at candlemaking and so am trying out lots of different moulds. I found these really nice ploycarbonate moulds on a website in the UK, fullmoons cauldron, but they were very expensive. I've heard that moulds are much cheaper in the US, but the US suppliers i've looked at only seem to do metal moulds. Therefore was wandering, does anyone know any suppliers that can ship relatively cheaply to the UK, but have quite cheap polycarbonate moulds? Thanks

Hi, Thanks for the tips, i'll try them all out! As i'm still quite a newbie, i find theres so much variation that i don't know where to start! I thought i would start with testing different wicks, but even then they all vary so much, and now i've got a box of candles to burn to test! Who would have thought it would be so complicated!

Do you mean trim the wick to 1/4 inch before its lit? Will this apply to all pillar candles? Thanks

Hi, I've only recently started making candles, and i have mainly made chunky pillar candles. Anyway i bought some LX series wick to use in the pillars. So far i've tried to use the right LX to meet the diameter of the candle. I've been priming the wick and wicking them in the mould, adding the chunks and then pouring in the wax. They usually set ok and come out of the mould ok, and i trim the wick to about 1/2 inch. Anyway when i've burnt them, the flame has been quite high, and a bit flickery. No noticeable soot/smoke has come off the candle though, and the wax generally melts to pretty near the edge of the candle Anyway what i'm wandering is if there is something i may be doing wrong when making the candles for the flame to flicker, be high, but not smoke. Thanks