Technical Question about USA additive

[awnl]

What exactly is USA additive made of ? What does the property do beside perhaps enhance the ht/ ct throw, and create a smooth top for all natural soy \soy wax. Are there any other additive achieving the same results?

While in BJ Wholesale I saw 35# of liquid soy oil . Main and only ingredient listed was soybean. The price was $22.00. Could this be used as an additive for soy with the same the results as USA ,or even better? I know it's intended for cooking , but so is Crisco , and food grade paraffin wax. So any thoughts on this subject. Thanks

[topofmurrayhill]

What exactly is USA additive made of ? What does the property do beside perhaps enhance the ht/ ct throw, and create a smooth top for all natural soy \soy wax. Are there any other additive achieving the same results?

While in BJ Wholesale I saw 35# of liquid soy oil . Main and only ingredient listed was soybean. The price was $22.00. Could this be used as an additive for soy with the same the results as USA ,or even better? I know it's intended for cooking , but so is Crisco , and food grade paraffin wax. So any thoughts on this subject. Thanks

 

The soybean oil wouldn't be a substitute. Soy wax is already soybean oil. It has been solidified to a certain degree in order to be used as vegetable shortening or candlemaking material. Trying to change its composition in that way is barking up the wrong tree for a number of reasons.

 

The issue with soy wax is how it solidifies when you cool the candle, and how the solid material changes over time. Certain forms ("crystal polymorphs") that soy wax can harden into are desirable for good appearance and stability (by stability we mean that the wax doesn't change over time and create a frosty look or fudge up your candle in some other way). In order to control the form and stability of the cooled soy wax, sometimes we an additive that acts as a "crystal modifier" to make the wax do what we want. Many different additives have been tried as crystal modifiers for soy candle wax. None is a magic bullet.

 

When we don't care about having an all-veggie candlemaking material, paraffin-related petroleum derivatives are the most effective crystal modifiers. In this case, they are usually more like blending ingredients (along with the soy wax) than like additives.

 

When we prefer to have an all-veggie wax for candles, the most common crystal modifiers are the same ones that are used for fat-based food products. Pick up a can of shortening and you will see "mono and diglycerides" in the ingredients. That is USA. Actually there are many "mono and diglyceride" additives used for this purpose, so we don't really know what we're getting. USA is more than one thing depending on when and where you get it.

[awnl]

Thanks so much TOMH... I knew you'd have all the the right answers. I'll continue my daunting  search to perfect / make soy play nice. It's truly a love hate thing with soy .

[topofmurrayhill]

Good luck. Making fats play nice can be challenging. Big manufacturers have to go through a lot of trouble to do it. For them and for you it's a matter of additive and technique. It's just that they have lot of expensive equipment to give them control over processing the fat in exactly the right way. It's more difficult for a candlemaker because you don't have such exact control and you're making a more complicated product.

 

You're probably not going to discover anything new about blends and additives. Pretty much everything has been tried by now. In terms of using tamed wax, it's already sold by EcoSoya, but it's not great for people who like highly scented candles because it just doesn't work well with fragrances. I would suggest choosing a simple and versatile material like GW 415 and use it with or without the USA additive (there are also GW products that have the USA already added).

 

Then try different ways of making the candle. The key is technique. You would be shocked. You can try 2 different ways of pouring and cooling a soy candle to have it come out looking about perfect. One of them can look the same after a month and the other, made at the same time, can end up looking like a frosted mess. No difference except how pouring technique affects the stability of the product.

[awnl]

Funny you should mention 415, I recently switched and have experimenting with it. Working on finding its happy pouring temperature. With this wax I'm thinking lower is better. Your right, trying different techniques is the key. I can tolerate frosting, lumpy bumpy tops, I just call them a "Primitive LOOK" . What I won't compromise on is scent throw, its got to be strong, without cutting into my profit margins.

Thanks again .