Greywicklane Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Does anyone have any tips for powdered dye? I usually use color blocks in my GW464 but am trying black powder since I can't get a black with blocks. I am lost on how much to use?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 What is the powder? Ive never heard of powder dyes for candlemaking. Are you sure its safe for use in candles? If not, it could clog the wick or worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywicklane Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 38 minutes ago, Candybee said: What is the powder? Ive never heard of powder dyes for candlemaking. Are you sure its safe for use in candles? If not, it could clog the wick or worse. It’s from bitter creek. It’s made for candles, I had never heard of it either but i saw someone talking about it on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Okay... I just looked. Their instructions say to dissolve the powder in stearic and that you can use .1 up to .5%. So if my calculations are correct for the blackest color at .5% you would want to use .08oz PPW. If you have some palm wax you could melt some of that down to use as your stearic or simply buy some, melt it down, then add your powder. I am just going by their instructions, I have never tried this myself but it sounds reasonable to give it a try. Says the powders are super concentrated. If you give it a try please let us know how it goes. I would be interested to know how well the powder performs and how easy/difficult you finding using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Flicker has posted a few times about this recently. She dissolves the dye in her fragrance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flicker Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Yep! I use almost exclusively powders. All dyes begin as powders, they are then added to solvents to make liquids, and or steric acid to make the flakes and paraffin and steric for blocks and chips. I find that adding it to the fragrance before adding to the wax is easiest. It takes some playing to determine what amount makes the color you desire. But I use pinch, dash and smidgen spoons that I purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond years ago to measure. I just add the the dye to the FO, swish around in my pot and add the wax and blend well. I absolutely LOVE powders. Less wick issues, no frosting in soy. They are stronger colors, less prone to fading. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywicklane Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 1 hour ago, Flicker said: Yep! I use almost exclusively powders. All dyes begin as powders, they are then added to solvents to make liquids, and or steric acid to make the flakes and paraffin and steric for blocks and chips. I find that adding it to the fragrance before adding to the wax is easiest. It takes some playing to determine what amount makes the color you desire. But I use pinch, dash and smidgen spoons that I purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond years ago to measure. I just add the the dye to the FO, swish around in my pot and add the wax and blend well. I absolutely LOVE powders. Less wick issues, no frosting in soy. They are stronger colors, less prone to fading. When using the black, did you ever have them come out blue? Also do you ever have any burn problems when using it for black? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flicker Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 On 11/13/2017 at 3:07 PM, Greywicklane said: When using the black, did you ever have them come out blue? Also do you ever have any burn problems when using it for black? Never and never. You use so little that it doesn't clog the wick....even in soy I get a true black and no burn issues unless it's the scent itself causing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xalwayswins Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 I have been trying the black powder dye and am not getting very good results. I used the pinch, dash smidgen spoons fro bittercreek as well. I did 3 test batches of 1lb each. Each time doubling the dye. The only one that got remotely black was using 2 dashes. All 3 were all definitely blue, but the 3rd batch was the closest to black. The 2 dashes is about 0.25% but it certainly clogged the wick. I called bitter creek and they suggested adding some red dye to the mix at half part red to 2 parts black. I have not tried that yet as I am waiting for the red dye to arrive. I feel like .025% is too much though. ESP seeing the instructions call for 0.05%.... Any ideas here??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flicker Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 On 11/12/2017 at 4:14 PM, Candybee said: What is the powder? Ive never heard of powder dyes for candlemaking. Are you sure its safe for use in candles? If not, it could clog the wick or worse. Candy Bee, all dye for candles begins as a powder, and is either mixed into solvents for liquids or wax, polymer etc for chips and flakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flicker Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 3 hours ago, xalwayswins said: I have been trying the black powder dye and am not getting very good results. I used the pinch, dash smidgen spoons fro bittercreek as well. I did 3 test batches of 1lb each. Each time doubling the dye. The only one that got remotely black was using 2 dashes. All 3 were all definitely blue, but the 3rd batch was the closest to black. The 2 dashes is about 0.25% but it certainly clogged the wick. I called bitter creek and they suggested adding some red dye to the mix at half part red to 2 parts black. I have not tried that yet as I am waiting for the red dye to arrive. I feel like .025% is too much though. ESP seeing the instructions call for 0.05%.... Any ideas here??? OMG who suggested that?! NO! Red will not fix this. And why would you even consider adding red. I did their tech support from 1999-2016, you would never add red. What wax are you using? A Soy will take a lot more than a paraffin. Also, are you sure all particles are dissolving? I add my dye to the fragrance, and make sure it's solubilizing well before adding to the wax. You can also add to direct heat and steric acid. You may find you need to wick up when using a black dye, or any dye you need a fair amount of, but I assure you, that that will make a true black, even in soy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xalwayswins Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 HAHA, well Bitter Creek tech support told me to try that! I am using a para soy blend with 464 and harmony blend paraffin. I added the dye to the fragrance first and mixed and mixed and mixed. There was some clumps for sure. I tried for a while to get them all to dissolve but it seemed like it wouldn't dissolve all the way. I mixed the fragrance and dye in a small measuring glass. I also tried mixing them in a regular sized pyrex measuring glass and a wisk. I mixed the wax forever to just make sure I was getting the best blending I could. At this little amount its hard to weigh accurately. This dye gets EVERYWHERE haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xalwayswins Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 So at 0.5% I was able to get a solid black. With that percentage, which you would think seems very low, its still clogging the wick. I backed my fragrance down some and went up a size in eco wicks. Currently gonna try a eco 12 in a 2.9" diameter glass. Which seems HUGE but 8 and 10 have both clogged heavily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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