Spotted Pillar Candle

[Quentin]

Has anyone seen this before. Right out of the pillar mold about 24 hours after pour. As you can see, it has almost perfectly round off-white spots. What are some of the possible reasons?

Thanks,

Q

[Flicker]

It's an element of mottle.

 

What paraffin wax specifically are you using and what if any additives?

[debratant]

I agree with Flicker, this looks like it is mottling.  If you are using straight paraffin with no additives, this can happen.

It is often desired for some, me included, though I take steps to increase the mottling effect so that is is in a pattern

of sorts.

[Pam W]

Yep, I'd have to agree that is mottling.  When I used 1343 wax, I got a lot of this then I switched to 1274 wax and never had that problem again.  (Now you may be able to stop this by added more FO but in MHO, why waste money on excessive FOs when you can get the same results using a different wax and save money in the long run.

[Quentin]

I added stearic acid for only the second time. The first time was with 12 ozs leftover paraffin from other candles and 2% stearic acid, just as an experiment.  The one in the picture was a 60% Michaels Pillar paraffin/40% Country Lane "general purpose" wax and 2% stearic acid to 12 ozs of the wax mixture and a 6% fragrance load. The fragrance I used was Lush and Lily essential oil. Color was 1/4 of Candle Science color block. Wick was # 24 EricX Flat that I had primed and stretched with wax ahead of time.

 

I'm through with "experimenting" now.  I'm not going to use those waxes again.  One other point is that I'm pretty sure my digital scale is not accurate. It is old, the directions are long gone and I can find no way to calibrate it. I'm in the market for a new scale now. Any recommendations?

Q