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100% soy wax wildly polymorphic


Ayla

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I have quite a lot of soy wax a friend gave me. Free stuff, I want to make a good use of it. It's 100% soy, no additives. It's quite hard, the flakes are brittle. On the bag, it says "100% hydrogenated soya bean oil". It doesn't say "wax". I have guest sleeping near the place where I stored the bag. I can't check the manufacturer's name immediately. I'll update tomorrow on that. I've pent hours reading past threads on cauliflower tops, and blooming, and frosting. I tested quite a lot. I tested with and without scent, tested with FOs, essential oils too. I didn't use colours yet. I don't wick. I'm making wax melts, for now. It's complicated enough without adding the wicking exercises.

 

All the tests were hit and miss. Nothing seems to work consistently to avoid the caulflower tops. As an exemple, tested twice a lavender essential oil scented melt, 6% scent load, with a formula of 90% soy wax and 10% coconut oil, melt temp and pour temp being equal both times, ended up with generous cauliflower tops for one test and perfectly smooth for the other.

Here's what I tested, and none worked consistently (all tested several time with different MT and PT:

- Soy wax by itself, not scented, and EO scented, and FO scented

- 95% soy wax / 5% crisco (scented and non scented)

- 80% soy wax / 10% crisco (scented and non scented)

- Various percentages of soy/coconut oil (from 5% up to 50% coconut oil)

- Various percentages of soy wax with various percentages of crisco and for each test 1% stearic acid

- Soy/vaseline (I think I used 3 to 5% vaseline, it ended up looking like a nuclear mushroom)

- 98% soy with 2% soy lecithin, to see if it would act as an emulsifier and tame the wax cristals. No cauliflower tops but ugly color and ugly brown residu in the melter

 

My last experience was yesterday, entering the para blend territory now. I did a 25% paraffin from a melted dollar store white candle since I don't have paraffin on hand (ordered some, it's on its way). MT 180F, PT 130F. I've got 3 cauliflower florets as melts. I went ahead and used one in the melter yesterday, to see if it would cool in that shape again in the melter. Nope, it cooled perfectly smooth.

 

I know I need to try the Universal Soy Additive. There no supplier for in Canada as far as I could see. A 1-pound bag costs about 6$ in the US but the shipping!!! OMG!! 25$ to 38$ depending on the supplier. No way. So I researched the stuff to see if I could find some kind of substitution that would be available here and I discovered that actually, USA is simply an emulsifier used in the food industry. It's glycerol monostearate. I'm going to visit a place next week where they might sell me a sample, I hope. If it doesn't work there, apparently it might be available in Indian grocery stores since they use it to make ice-cream.

 

TL/DR: I tested ad-nauseam, read this forum for hours. I would love suggestions, ideas, shared experiences working 100% pure soy wax. Please, please. I'm driving myself nuts.

 

Thank you!!

 

 

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I wrote my original post yesterday evening out of frustration and desperation seeing nothing seemed to work in eliminating the cauliflower effect of my 100% pure soy wax.

I resumed methodical testing early this morning, assembly line fashion with different additives and formulas. I choose melt temp. and pour temp. that seemed to give the best outcomes before and stuck to them for all of today's tests to limit the number of variables as much as possible, and avoid spending the next 3 months testing.

 

First Eureka: One formula, unscented, gave smooth tops upon cooling in the mold. Little to no texture once the melts were used and let to cool in the warmer.

 

Second Eureka: Tested the above working unscented formula with FO @ 6%, EO @ 6% and two more tests for scent loads @ 8%. Same results texture-wise than with 1st Eureka, and bonus, fair to excellent cold and hot throws depending on the FO or EO used (tested by my neighbour, and my son in the basement as both my nose, and my kitchen were scent-saturated).

 

So frustration breeds determination which in turn, this time at least for me, increases the odds of success.

 

Happy dance here. Cautiously happy though. I need to repeat all what I did with this seemingly great soy/additives again a few times just to make sure. I guess I can't believe that's it, I got it right this time. I need to make extra sure.

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Aaahhhh, the joys and tribulations in this artsy fartsy world of candlemaking!   I really can't give you any suggestions as I don't do any blends of waxes for melts and I use 464 wax for jar candles, but I'm sure others will come here and give their input.  I just wanted to root you on with all your testings.  You are keeping terrific notes of all your configurations and are going down the right path.  It's just going to take time that's all.  The only thing I can add here to help you out a bit so others can give you advice is to let us know what pour "temperature" you did when pouring the melts.  That definitely will dictate how your tops (cauliflower) end up.  Some waxes the more you pour cooler or vice versa can produce either smooth or rough tops.

Know what brand wax you used, you need to know that for sure.  You could be using the wrong wax for the application of what you are doing; "melts".  So let us know that information also.    Cure time you can add into the configuration also.  You say the CT and HT were good.  How long did you let these things cure for?  Let us know that also.  Unfortunately this game does for sure breed frustration, but when you start seeing positive results you will feel like you hit the jackpot and you will....just keep doing what your doing.  Sorry to hear that living in Canada has very limited supplies.  I've always wanted to visit Canada,   Sure is a beautiful area up there!   Good luck Ayla and keep us posted!:)

 

Trappeur

Edited by Trappeur
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Thank you so MUCH Trappeur.

 

There are so many variables, I wasn't sure I was approaching the testing in the most efficient way. I suspect, as I go further in what seems like a rabbit hole, I will have some light bulbs go on and will refine things a bit, but so to read your critique. You made my day.

 

Cure time configuration I'll add when I feel I have a good control over the texture of the tops, for sure. I'm suspecting cold and hot throws will be excellent after cure time since they're already quite good without curing, but you never know since there will be the question of scents holding over time, or scents morphing overtime, or scents (God frobid!!) making the wax revert to polymorphism overtime. Whew... Just writting I realise I'm in this testing phase for probably most of 2018.

 

We're in our winter's coldest period here. I noticed, all other things being equal (formula, scent, MT, PT, mold) the only variable between a cauliflower top or a smooth top when the wax cools in the mold is different depending on my kitchen's temperature at the time of pouring (say, if I baked right before testing, kitchen warmer and smooth tops. If I test 1st thing early morning, kitchen cooler, cauliflower tops). Reading threads here I realised ambiant temperatures have an influence. I can't really control that. So I needed a formula and a procedure that gave good results at a wide range of ambiant temperature.

 

For this wax, it's a hotter PT that worked consistently, poured in my 18ºC (64ºF) basement, in my 21ºC (70ºF) kitchen, and in my 24ºC (75ºF) over-heated bathroom.

 

My optimal pouring temperature is 70ºC (158ºF).

 

My optimal melting temperature, because of this very hard, very brittle soy wax I have, is 82ºC (180ºF). I didn't try to lower it with the addition of the paraffin since I'm using melted dollar store candle for that as opposed to properly tested and labelled paraffin from reputable supplier.

 

Needless to say, I also tested using the melts in three different warmers in all 3 different rooms and their different ambiant temperatures (one brass with tealight, one ceramic with tealight, one electrical ceramic with light bulb). My MT and PT held up even in the more challenging electric ceramic warmer.

 

Molds I pour in are metal, because they make the wax more prone to polymorphism. If it works in metal molds, chances are really high it will work in other materials like plastic or silicone.

 

The formula is 50/50 soy/paraffin. I tried at 60/40 and got frosting right out of the mold and bumping, craters upon cooling after use in the melters.

 

Now I need to test with proper paraffin and eventually with glycerol monostearate (USA).

 

I need paraffin suggestions. I ordered a sample of 1242. Please let me know if you think an other one would work better. The supplier I use here in Canada is Canwax. Here's their paraffin offering.

 

Thank you!

https://www.canwax.com/Paraffin-Wax_c_175.html

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Add in a couple data points:

humidity

rate of cooling - both in the pot and in the mold. These rates play a big part in my final candles.

 

soy wax forms crystals as it cools. Large crystals we see as grains. Small we see as shiny. Those crystals continue to for through the life of the wax, which is why we often see frosting or growing of the wax over time. 

 

I have glyceryl monostearate (GMS) in my chemistry arsenal, and universal soy additives from a couple of places in my candle ingredient collection. They all look quite different. The GMS may, or may not be derived from soy. The USA that I have specifies from soy. 

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Wow, thanks TallTayl. I had no idea humidity plays a role too. I guess I'll have to test further during our almost tropical summer here. July is so humid it'll be excellent for this. I will also need to find a bigger box to store all the labelled results of my tests and check them out at the 6 and 12 months old mark. When I first watched youtube videos on how to make melts or votives, I thought "well, easy enough!" Hahahahaha!!! How naive of me!

 

Thank you for the info re: USA. I wonder though, you have glycerOl or glycerYl monostearate? Not sure how different they are but I think they're different. Or is it automatic spell check that made it glycerYl in your post?

 

In any case, your remark convinced me to just bite the bullet on the high shipping fees and order USA so I can compare with subustitutes here. Thanks for that.

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