Not understanding vybar or stearic acid...ARGHH

[HookieBear]

I told someone I was adding vybar and stearic acid in to my soy containers and she about freaked on my asking why. I thought I was suppose to add these for a better burn

[SparkysCandles]

I use vybar in my containers. I used to use steaaric in my containers but wanted to see how they burned without it. I liked the results and haven't used it in my soy candles since.

[Chefmom]

It depends on why you are adding them. Vybar is designed as an additive for paraffin to increase the waxes ability to hold fragrance oils. and stearic is it's own thing. It has many uses for candles to soaps, food additives and a whole long list.

If you come with me into the before time, long long ago.............

Back when tallow (fat from animals) was rendered, filtered and then molded into candles, it was a smelly, smokey thing. But that is what they had until whale oil came along. Whale oil burned bright and clean without the "burned dinner" smell or the black soot in your house. But we all know about how whale oil is harvested, and it was a finite resource. So, somewhere along the way a chemist discovered a process that produced stearic acid FROM tallow. When this substance was melted and shaped into candles they were hard, burned cleanly and with a very bright white light and little smoke and no smell. So naturally they were superior and stearic took over until liquid and then solid paraffin took over.

The crazy thing about candles is we only figured out what worked with wax and wick about 40 or 50 years before electricity wiped out the industry.

Anyway, stearic is now an additive and it hardens the wax and increases the ability to stand up in pillars and tapers. It also makes the translucent qualities of paraffin become more opaque, or more white, without color. It also helps paraffin shrink a little more so that it releases from the mold better. You can make 100% stearic candles, but they would be very brittle, kind of like palm wax is very brittle when it's shaped into a pillar.

So, it really isn't needed in container candles, especially soy container candles. If you use too much vybar you can actually lock up your fragrance and it won't come out of the wax and float through the air, so you burn your candles, but smell nothing.

Soy wax is already formulated by the manufacturer, a lot like the paraffin blended slabs that are ready to use. You can add this and that, but in the end it's what do you need to improve things. That's one reason I use mostly paraffin, there is a lot more information out there about the additives and paraffin than there is about soy waxes.

I do know there is a "universal soy additive", I've seen it from suppliers. I have found very little info about what it actually is, or what it does, so I'm no help there.

I do enjoy playing around with different blends, then burning them side by side to see what the different formulations do to the actual burn. But that's the mad scientist in me, I did the same thing in my baking life. Give me a recipe and I'll turn it into 10 other things by the end of the month. Some successful, some not.

[SparkysCandles]

I agree. I was using soy from one supplier and could not get a throw so i started using vybar. I only use it with that soy. I have noticed if I don't add any additives to my CB3, its burns smoother and softer. A smaller wick works so much better than a larger. You might want to try using no additives, if you are using soy, and see how that works. When I first started someone taught me that if you gradually build your candle you will find your groove and maybe less (additives) s more,

[Ivy]

Chefmom, really nice explination on the vybar/steric acid use, thank you...I had no clue what the steric acid was used for... I knew vybar was for fragrance retention but, from what I gather there are different kinds of vybar? How do you know which one to use? And I would imagine knowing whether you need it or not would come from knowing your type of wax and being experienced in knowing good HT, CT

I love learning new stuff..........whatta rush! lol

[Chefmom]

Vybar comes in three different formulations. One is for low melt wax(260), one is for higher melt wax(103) and the third is for wax that mottles(343). You see, vybar stops paraffin from mottling. That's when you get the little white moldy looking snowflakes in the raw paraffin. Many people make candles and they want the mottled effect, so you can use this third kind to increase the fragrance but yet still mottle.

If you look at the page with the additives at Candlewic.com they explain the three and give amounts etc. Most suppliers only carry the 103 and 260 but candlewic also carries the 343 as well.

Yea, there is a LOT to learn about making candles, they are actually a very complicated thing. Art and Science!

[Ivy]

Gotcha, I cut and pasted everything you said for future reference ( I now have a tablet of c/p lol)..And candlemaking is definitely way more complicated then the average person will ever know, but very facinating..

[FredaCandleShop]

All, I'm new to candle making and am addicted to it. Your information (conversation) has been very helpful.

[lmc]

Universal Soy Additive helps with the texture of the wax and aids in attaining smoother tops...hth

[EricofAZ]

Sometimes, as I recall, vybar can reduce spotting or wet spots in container candles made in paraffin.

Probably no need to add vybar with IGI waxes. Many blends come with that already added.

Stearic does whiten and harden paraffin.

[Chefmom]

Probably no need to add vybar with IGI waxes. Many blends come with that already added.

Yes, if you read all the different descriptions, most of the slabs of paraffin are blended, a few are straight with no additives.

I believe it was Stella (I read a LOT of the old posts) that always directed newbies to burning their soy candles with no additives before they began playing with additives to improve the blend without knowing how the base wax works in the first place.

My first tests were all over the place, I had the same jar, and two different waxes at first, but I went a little nuts with different fragrances and wicks with no real vision past a "good scent throw". After quite a bit of frustration I settled down and really read my notes, and then did specific searches on google and then on here on different waxes/wicks etc. THEN I came up with a solid system for testing and actually seeing different results. I was surprised that many wicks worked, but a few worked BETTER than others.

My husband is used to my "sit and watch" ways of doing things. However my daughter had her new boyfriend over, and they sat down with me at the dining room table where I had twelve 3-inch pillars burning. She asked a random question and I answered it, but then I did go off on a tangent and start talking about the different formulations and wicking combos etc. She is a candle tester for me (a hard core, follow no rules tester!!!!) and so she understood a little of what I was talking about. However, her boyfriend just sat there and listened.

Later she politely told me that he thought I was "eccentric", I KNEW darn well that word did not come from his mouth and she confessed that he said I was a bit weird, she was being nice by adding the "eccentric". Aaahhh kids.

[chuck_35550]

I get the same treatment. Everybody gets that glazed eye look the minute I begin expounding about soap and candles. Oh well, somebody has to do it.

[EricofAZ]

One thing I can point out about the additives is the combination of scent throw and hardness. A Piller for example can be made with piller wax that probably has a MP around 135 degrees or so. The IGI's that do this have additives and they hold 6-8 percent FO. A little stearic makes the wax harder and whiter. The flip side would be to buy a harder wax. You'll probably notice that they don't hold as much FO. Around 3 percent. (and they tend to be less in the way of pre blended additives) So in that case, adding a bit of vybar to get the FO load back up to 6 or 7 percent is a worth while thing. So low MP pre blended with a little stearic or high MP non blended with a little Vybar are two good combinations.

For a while I was actually adding some unblended wax to the Harmony because I thought the Harmony had too much pre blended stuff in it. I was trying to dilute it a bit. I thought the burn and throw were a little better when diluted.

I agree with Stella completely, get the feel for the basic wax types first before blending or using additives. This holds true for Paraffin as well as soy.