GrosgrainGirl Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 I'm using a 7% EO scent load for 2/3rds beeswax/1/3 palm oil candles with a #6 wick.... The flame is too big, flickers, and soots, however it only just gets a full wax pool after 3.75 hours (3 inch diameter) with a pool depth of 1/3 inch. Should I be going up or down, or increasing the palm wax ratio? What am I doing wrong! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chefmom Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Testing, and lots of it is the only way you will know the needs of your candles, especially when you are making your own blends with non traditional waxes. There is info out there on beeswax, and on palm, but none that I know of when they are mixed together. I make beeswax blended with soy pillars and have done a lot of testing to get them the way I want them. Are you making a pillar candle or a container candle? Either way you will not achieve a full melt pool across on the first burning. If your flame is big and sooty then it's not burning with a complete combustion and something in the blend is off. Are you using palm oil? Or palm wax? A #6 wick is very big and if you are using a container it's going to be really hot once it burns into the center and bottom. Essential oils are sometimes used in fragrance blends for candles, but in their natural state they are not for burning. Sometimes it is best to stick with what each item does best and not fight against it. Essential oils work fabulous in steam distillation, either an electric unit or a simple oil diffuser with water and burning tea light (my personal favorite). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrosgrainGirl Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Thank you Chefmom! They're a 230 gram container candle. And you're right, I'm using palm oil, not wax - to bring down the melt point and decrease shrinkage from the sides of the container. Do you think the EOs could be throwing off the combustion? Or should I be changing the oil/beeswax ratio? Is there a reason people don't mix palm and beeswax together? So, would you say EOs are an uphill battle, and not worth it in the end? Where do you find your FOs? I'm trying to be as wholesome and organic as possible, and I was nervous about using the synthetic fragrances? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chefmom Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Essential oils can be the culprit to the sooting of your wick. I have never burned palm oil...I really don't have a clue how it burns on its own. If you really want to break things down I would pour one container with just beeswax, and another with just palm oil and see what they do side by side before mixing them. I have read recently about people mixing 50/50 beeswax and coconut oil to make container candles, with the coconut oil supposed to make the candle pour smoother and burn better as a container. Essential oils are expensive...some are bloody expensive. I would never add a very expensive addition to anything unless it proved to me a worthy expense. Meaning I've tested without, and with and can make the justification for the expense. While on the surface, using beeswax and essential oils looks like a more high end and natural way of making a fragranced candle you might be shooting yourself in the foot unless you can make it worth the added expense. Essential oils are going to change once diluted in wax, and their properties are going to change once they are burned. If you are going for an aromatherapy kind of thing, the best way is to keep the essential oils as close to their natural state. Fragrance oils are synthetic, and for candles they are designed to be burned in wax or heated and the fragrance released through heat alone. I have found that people who do not want synthetic fragrances are willing to accept they won't be able to burn the heavily fragranced candles that fill your house with fragrance. I make a whole line of fragrance free candles for people who love candles, but not fragrance for that reason. I personally buy fragrances for soap and candles and what ever supplier I'm buying from, mostly to consolidate shipping. If you read through the fragrance forum here you can read about all the various experiences with fragrances, throw, shipping, service and of course tons and tons of personal opinions on each one. Lots more than I can type out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calex Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 (edited) We make candles with beeswax and coconut oil and also use #6 for our larger containers. The flame gets rather large, but is constant. I've had all kinds of issues trying to add EOs (we don't use fragrance oils), and at this point we decided to perfect our non-EO candles and then I'll try playing with EOs again later. There are all sorts of online blogs and such talking about using EOs in beeswax candles, making it seem like a rather easy thing to do, but in our experience this is certainly not so. Either there is no scent, or the candles doesn't burn correctly, or both... I'm sure it can be done, but we haven't perfected it yet, that's for sure. We've also made candles with beeswax and palm oil - just a few to experiment with. They burned quite well, though perhaps too well, as the flame was large. Haven't tried PO & BW & EOs yet though. Edited September 26, 2016 by Calex 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calex Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 This post inspired me to make some candles with EOs again. I made 3 4oz tins with our usual beeswax/coconut oil mix. Used 1t of coffee, 1t of ylang ylang, and 1.5 t of lavendin. Haven't burned the yy yet, but the other two are tunneling and emitting very little scent. I believe the coffee eo is simply too thick and sitting on the bottom - I'm going to try layering my next coffee attempt and going to try 2t for my next lavendin. I'm also going to try a larger wick for all of them next time... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrosgrainGirl Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 Updates: Trying a 56% beeswax/37%oil mix with a #5 wick, and it's burning very smoothly but with a large two inch flame. There is a wax film left on the sides of the container, but i think I'm ok with that. The wick is mushrooming the SLIGHTEST bit, but the scent throw is great and the melt pool is perfect, so I'm going to consider this a win! Thanks for all your help guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrosgrainGirl Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 I should say that this candle is pretty heavy on the base notes, I think that's helping with substantial throw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 Have you tried ECO wicks in your beeswax blends? A 2" flame in a 4oz candle sounds pretty big! I use #5 in 3" beeswax only pillars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calex Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 7 hours ago, GrosgrainGirl said: Updates: Trying a 56% beeswax/37%oil mix with a #5 wick, and it's burning very smoothly but with a large two inch flame. There is a wax film left on the sides of the container, but i think I'm ok with that. The wick is mushrooming the SLIGHTEST bit, but the scent throw is great and the melt pool is perfect, so I'm going to consider this a win! Thanks for all your help guys Are you using essential oils? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonstar Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 On 9/26/2016 at 0:45 PM, Chefmom said: Essential oils can be the culprit to the sooting of your wick. I have never burned palm oil...I really don't have a clue how it burns on its own. If you really want to break things down I would pour one container with just beeswax, and another with just palm oil and see what they do side by side before mixing them. I have read recently about people mixing 50/50 beeswax and coconut oil to make container candles, with the coconut oil supposed to make the candle pour smoother and burn better as a container. Essential oils are expensive...some are bloody expensive. I would never add a very expensive addition to anything unless it proved to me a worthy expense. Meaning I've tested without, and with and can make the justification for the expense. While on the surface, using beeswax and essential oils looks like a more high end and natural way of making a fragranced candle you might be shooting yourself in the foot unless you can make it worth the added expense. Essential oils are going to change once diluted in wax, and their properties are going to change once they are burned. If you are going for an aromatherapy kind of thing, the best way is to keep the essential oils as close to their natural state. Fragrance oils are synthetic, and for candles they are designed to be burned in wax or heated and the fragrance released through heat alone. I have found that people who do not want synthetic fragrances are willing to accept they won't be able to burn the heavily fragranced candles that fill your house with fragrance. I make a whole line of fragrance free candles for people who love candles, but not fragrance for that reason. I personally buy fragrances for soap and candles and what ever supplier I'm buying from, mostly to consolidate shipping. If you read through the fragrance forum here you can read about all the various experiences with fragrances, throw, shipping, service and of course tons and tons of personal opinions on each one. Lots more than I can type out. I've also read about blending beeswax with coconut oil but don't recall at what ratios . One of the reasons, if I remember correctly is that the candle doesn't burn so hot . I wonder what a good wick for a beeswax/ coconut oil combo would be ? I periodically get beeswax candles in a jar from a particular etsy seller there's no mention of any CO honestly, they are some of the best candles I've ever burned the scents are fantastic & you can smell it shortly after lighting the candle . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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