Chefmom

Early in my candle making I tried out a slab of Joy Wax.  It was the smell that surprised me.  I used to work at a bakery as the late night doughnut maker and the joy wax smells EXACTLY like the fat we used in the fryer for the doughnuts.....

Yea, it was creamy and took bakery scents well, but even when it was burning there was this "essence of doughnuts" in the background that I found a little strange.....

I then tried 6006 and never looked back...

I have had the best luck with essential oils as Old Glory described.  An electric or tealight warmer with water and a few drops of essential oil.  Pure scent that you can control and it can't be easier.

It's hard enough to wick a candle with the fragrance oils that are formulated to be standard from batch to batch, let alone essential oils that seem to be different from supplier to supplier and batch to batch.  You could get a good system just to have it change when the new season batch of essential oil came out and no longer worked with your wax/wick system.  That wouldn't be fun in my opinion...

4625 is a great starter for pillars etc.  I use it as my base and then I mix it with other waxes to do other things, like if I want it a more solid color white I add stearic to it, I mix it with beeswax for pillars, and mix it with a container wax for votives etc.  It's a great all around pillar wax that can be used straight up as well.

I'll bet its a silicone mold and they are poured laying down.

Pastry Chefs use molds like that for sugar and chocolate showpieces, lay a wick in the center and voila stand it up for an unusual candle.  I'll bet they burn fast tho

It would take some testing and engineering to get it just right, especially without dripping

Lol, yea I hear you Moon. But right now I have a tiny space in my basement so it's hard to buy a lot of different things.

 

So I did set up a spreadsheet and I guess I have to add a few things to it.

 

I actually do keep track of fragrance by weight. I started by volume but found out really quick that it's by weight not volume. Although someone at one of the big supply companies I won't name told me different when I called to ask about the plastic measuring cups I bought (they basically melted the plastic and that's how I discovered about containers for the fragrance and about weighing them as opposed to measuring them which my wife couldn't grasp ). But the woman told me to use a teaspoon to measure the fragrance. When I told her I had read it should be weighed she didn't know what I was talking about and sort of acted like I was crazy and she maybe sounded a little annoyed like she was busy and I was bothering her. But I also could be a little over-sensitive.

 

This is what I keep track of: type of wax, type of fragrance, wax weight in pounds, fragrance weight in ounces, container used, wick used, temp wax heated to, temp fragrance added, temp wax poured, air temp during cooling, humidity during cooling and cure time. Does that sound about right in the beginning? Is there anything I should add as I get some experience.

 

Thank you.

Mike

Mike, your spreadsheet sounds fabulous!!  And kudos to you to start being organized so well from the very beginning.  My start in testing was quite scattered and I became very frustrated before sitting down and getting a good note taking/testing procedure going.

Your end goal doesn't always have to be selling, as a hobby it is very rewarding.  Long before I sold any candles I made many gift baskets for all occasions.

The only thing I would add to your spreadsheet would probably be scent throw, both the quality and strength of the cold throw...meaning, before lighting how well you can smell the scent just from sniffing the candle directly.  And then the hot throw, which is the quality and strength of the throw of the scent when burning.  I usually make note if the hot throw is quick or slow and exactly where it reaches in my house.  I test all my candles in the same location and make note after walking my dogs outside (to be sure my nose is clear of the scent) where exactly I pick up the scent.  Some reach as far as my back door as soon as I walk in the house (strongest throw in my opinion) and others wander through the room and into other rooms, which are acceptable throws.  If I can only detect the scent in the actual room I consider it a light throw and if I smell nothing...a dud in my wax system.

Keep in mind that your air convection in your room that you test your candles can change depending on what kind of heating or air cooling system you use, if windows or fans are on/open and depending on the layout of the natural convection of your house/rooms.  Open layouts with high ceilings can be difficult to detect scent because it sometimes just goes up, sometimes it can be heavy in one part of a large room and nothing in another.  So maybe make note of where you test your candles in your house and stick to testing in a few good places that are also safe to burn candles (away from cat's tails......  )

It's a great hobby, an art form for sure, plenty of science to learn and in the end you get something beautiful that smells wonderful !!

I tried for a long time to weigh the exact amount of wax needed from the dry/solid stage.  Ugh.  Especially paraffin and beeswax (from solid blocks)

I only have one presto, and I use it like a water bath with 6 rotating pour pots.  I have two marked with what kind of wax is in the pot in bulk and I put that on to heat and melt.  When melted I put an empty pot on my scale and pour the liquid wax and proceed from there.

Multiple pour pots are the only way to go when working with different waxes and pouring back to back. 

WOW

Isn't HE an Expert Level #64 in the art of Double Speak.  I wish I had more of a science chemistry background to be able to really go at that very vague Science and Techno Babble.

LOLOLOL

I have not used pure fragrance oil, but I do dilute it in water with a tealight warmer.

Even small candles that are heavily scented are overwhelming to me if I burn them on my desk, so I tried wax tarts in my little tealight burner/warmer, and those were overwhelming as well.

SO, I fill the top with water and put about 8-10 drops of essential oil or fragrance oil in the water and light up a plain tealight.  I get a gentle scent that isn't overwhelming up close and yet fills my living room with light fragrance.  It lasts about as long as the water does, before it evaporates off, about 5 hours.  If the scent is still going and the water is almost gone I will just add a little more water.

I tried using the fragrance or essential oil with the carrier oils and it smelled weird with the heat from the tealight.  There was a weird scorched scent......I did NOT try it in a plug in warmer tho because mine are big, maybe a small one would work.

A friend told me about the water instead of using oil.  I'm not sure why I didn't think of it myself, I was messing around with the wax and carrier oil when plain water did the job great!

Probably the castor oil.  I made a egg and oil hair treatment and I usually only use olive and coconut oil with an egg and some honey.  Well, silly me....not thinking.....I added just a little castor oil and WOW, when I shampooed my hair to wash out the egg/oil and then went back the tub was COATED with slick crap.  I had only used a little, about 1 1/2 teaspoon of castor and it coated my entire bathtub.

I have made that same mix on several different occasions without the castor and it never left my tub slick like that.

Way cool !!  Thanks.  What a great idea. 

However, I am way too frugal to just keep the pan of wax.  I would take photos, lots of notes and then melt the wax down and reuse it....just because. 

What a great use for some of my dead cake pans that end up holding garden plants!! 

That is the nature of pillar paraffins.  If you include additives in the formula to lessen shrinkage, then you get sticky paraffin that doesn't want to come out of the mold, and softer paraffin that doesn't hold up as a pillar.

Pillar paraffin needs two, sometimes three re-pours.  It's the nature of the beast.

I always thought that Candle Science was very reasonable, and very quick.  Until Peaks set up around Harrisburg, PA CandleScience was the quickest supplier to go from order to me receiving my package.

Also, when it comes to shipping, I never order just one little thing.  I piggy back everything I need and usually a few things I want to try with the heavier items.  I would never pay shipping on just a few little things, that is when shipping is very expensive.

Yup, that honey has to be really well melted before adding to the base. I do the same thing and stir the dickens out of it. clay can do the same thing if you don't sb the hound out of it. I line my molds with the small bubble wrap (I'm sure everybody does) and the overall effect is a great seller but it is so labor intensive. I'd like to hear someone else give a shout out for an easier method.

Steve

I've been reading a lot about making silicone texture mats with liquid silicone (for my pottery class actually).

You could make a bubble wrap silicone mat and cut it to fit inside your mold, then just pop it in, and it should peel off nice and easy from the finished soap loaf.  Reusable too!

WOW, I am way too frugal to toss wax.  Ever. 

A failed scent throw in a container, but the scented wax might work in the wax warmer, so I will try that first.  Once the wax has given its all then it can still be burned and is turned into a household use only tealight.  I use unscented tea lights a LOT for my tealight warmer and at dinner etc.  In Halloween pumpkins that are lit up all night every night for a week. I use a LOT of tealights that week.

I melt my wax out of my jars on the stove in simmering water and pour it into a big silicone loaf that can be re-used etc.

If the wick works but it isn't throwing, then it can be put in the emergency candle box.  If/when the electrics go out I like to put the container candles around the house so people don't have to carry them around.

Then....after all that there is always fire starters.  Fill some silicone cupcake cups with dryer lint or sawdust from my husband's wood shop and pour the unwanted wax over.  Great to have on hand during the season of outside patio fires and my husband's wood shop has a wood burner heater in it.  Win win.

There is always a use, I NEVER toss.

I always start my testing of a new wax in the same way.  I choose the container that I want, the wax, and then I pull from my >>very<< large selection of testing wicks.  I take 2-4 pounds of the test wax and pour about 20 half full containers of about 5 different kinds of wicks, three or four sizes of each kind.

So for a test of say a basic tumbler I would choose the wax and then pull three or four sizes of LX, HTP, ECO, CD, maybe CSN and maybe cotton cored depending on the wax.  I don't usually use zincs.

So each container gets marked as to the wick so I don't get them mixed up as I pour.  Then, I pour straight uncolored and no fragrance wax and fill the containers half full.

After a couple of days I put them ALL on my dining room table and light up.  I burn three to four hours and I give a good look and take notes every 30 minutes.  What I'm looking for is what wick is working the best in JUST the wax/container combo.  Also I want to know what that wick is doing in the bottom of the container without having to burn over and over from the top to the middle just to find it works in the beginning and not in the end.

Once I have the winners, sometimes one or two in each kind of wick I make NOTES of everything and then choose some fragrances and colors.  THEN I choose the winning wick, lets say the winner was an ECO 4.  I will pour three or four containers with the color and fragrance with and ECO 2, 4 and 6, let that cure etc and then test again.  Once fragrance is added I can no longer burn all three at once or the fragrance will be overwhelming.  Plus I won't be able to tell what wick is throwing the fragrance the best.

Then, the test begins.  In a day I will burn the first candle and take notes.  I burn 3-4 hours and then wait an hour, go outside to breathe, walk the dogs etc and then burn the second, repeat and then the third.  My notes will talk about the wicks and what they are doing and where the fragrance is going in my house etc.  I then burn to the end and take notes all the way.

In the beginning my testing was all over the place, but I'm very scientific about it now.  You can never take too many notes.

I always advise people to do the mass burn if you can of plain wax and wicks.  seeing them all in the same place at the same time will teach you a LOT about wicks and how each one of them works on their own.  Once you learn the wicks and the wax, when you are having issues with fragranced candles in the future you can more easily narrow down your issues when they arise.

My preference to make and burn for myself is the 3x 4 1/2

I use these molds all the time for hot process soap.  The mold just pops out after 24 hours.

With cold process I have read a LOT about soap sticking to the mold, and so the times I make CP I always line the mold with freezer paper.  You could try loosening the soap very carefully with a butter knife along the edges, like loosening a cake from its pan before turning it out.  You may mess up the sides and ends of the loaf depending on how soft the soap is.

Or try to let it sit a little longer and see if it firms up enough for the soap to shrink and the mold sides come off better.

This has been my experience.  I've been doing a lot of very big containers and with very much success.  I've been wicking a 6" thick crock which is 6"round x6" tall.  It holds a little over 3 pounds of wax.  I use 3 cd7's spaced a little further apart and the burn is just beautiful, crock is not hot and the melt pool has been a consistant 3/8" depth all the way to the bottom.  When I got about 2" from the bottom the depth was just about 1/2".  It takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to get a full melt pool.  The scent is a very strong one for me and I am very very pleased.  I am just loving using big containers....

 

If the premiers don't work for you, I would start off in your container with using the same size as what I did on my 6" ones of 3 cd7's so it is not overwicked.  And space them further apart.  Like I said I don't know what type of container your using but crocks can hold the heat.  I would think that a 7" container could hold 4 wicks, but just don't know until I tested one.  That is a lot of heat with 4 wicks but it is a big container.  Just have to test, test, test.

 

What container are you using RW?  You have a picture?

 

Here is a picture of mine.

 

Hope this helps a bit...

 

Trappeur

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that crock!! 

Very often after I throw a piece in pottery I am a bit at a loss as to what it should become.  Sometimes they just aren't quite the right shape for a good bowl, or just off for a good planter pot.  This is a great idea for those off pieces....make them into candles.... 

My husband works in the HVAC industry and he set me up with cross ventilation for my studio.  I just crack a window a tiny bit at one end and then set my fan up to pull the air through and out.  Some fragrances make me quite ill when I pour and it helps keep the air fresh.

My front yard smells nice on pouring days!

I recently made a beer soap with Yuengling's Black and Tan, which is their dark stout.    I was quite disappointed because the final cured soap is quite pale, not more than a ginger ale beige.  I was hoping for a nice dark brown.

I made a basic soap with a vanilla based scent and THAT one turned nice and deep brown, but the beer soap is quite pale. 

I've never made the container you are talking about, but I do like the Eco in 6006, LX is my go to wick for 6006 though. 

I have always bought my tea light wicks there, and the link for the wicks is still on the pre tabbed wick page, but "no products are found", no tea light wicks!

I wanted to pick up a test slab of the J50 and 4786 and they aren't selling slabs of most all of the waxes, only cases, so unless I want to sink a $100 on a test wax I'm out of luck.

I have two candles that are best with CSN 11, I tried 9 and 12, but the 11 worked best.  It's their wick, but that size isn't listed anymore. 

I have looked around for the TL series wicks and most suppliers carry the vague "small medium and large" TL wicks or only one generic size.  Candlewic carries them, but only one size in stock unless I want to sink more than $100 to get the three sizes I use the most to be custom made.

I can get the waxes from Peaks, but I like to piggy back my fragrances with other items for shipping and so I would pick up things from Candle Science.

So my fragrance order is JUST fragrances and everything else has to come from somewhere else, which ups the overall shipping cost......

....grumble.....

Is it just me, or does anyone else notice that ever since Candle Science launched the new website they dropped a lot of product?

I was sitting down to make an order with my list, and of quite a few items that I usually buy there they no longer seem to carry most of them.

I understand streamlining your inventory, but wow they carry less and less every year

I haven't made beeswax tapers in molds yet, I have only hand dipped them.

Have you tried taking the finished taper that you are not satisfied with and then dipping it into really hot beeswax to give a perfectly even outer finish?  I would try that to at least be able to use the molds you have on hand.

I bought some of these at Michaels with a % off coupon....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EOCZIP2/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p79_d0_i6?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1AY95TGQMZF6566CM79R&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

Totally the best to pour little bits of leftover wax into.  Let it firm up and then it just pops right out.    They are really handy.