Trouble with palm wax

[LilFirecracker]

Has anyone ever used the pillar palm wax from Aztec? I had bought 5lbs from there to experiment with because I was also buying sample oils. I originally made some melts with straight palm because I heard quite a few say it throws great in melts. Mine sucked. Of course so did the oils.

 

Just recently I pulled it back out and decided to add some to my ParaCoco blend to see if it would help with texture and release. It killed my scent throw! I still had some, but not as much and didn't last nearly as long without it. I heated to 230, ladled what I needed, added oil right away, stirred for about 3 min like I always do. It did this with the same scents I used in testing before. 

 

Main question is has anyone bought palm from Aztec and had trouble with it? I bought 4633 there also and it was more like 4630. I was thinking of trying palm from Lone Star to see if there's a difference, but the smallest size is 10lbs. I have to order more of my other waxes and that's where I get them from, so I'm not sure if I should try or not. I mean, I had trouble with the melts plus it killed the throw I did have in my blend. So whatcha think? Bad wax or user error? 🤣

[TallTayl]

I’ve not bought wax from that source, but what you describe could have been caused any number of reasons… 

 

Pillar palm has a super high melt point, and a formulation that really binds those crystals tightly. In a melt I imagine you’d need to really stick the spurs to it to get strong HT.
 

Palm is often faulted for weaker CT than most other waxes. When in a candle that is wicked well, though WOWSERS does it beat the pants off of pretty much all others.  
 

palm waxes are also on the acidic side, so fragrances that are prone to note loss in that environment might lose that edge.  
 

if it were me, I’d heat the melt hotter and see if the throw improves dramatically.  If so, I’d probably not use it in my melt blend since most common warmers won’t have that advantage. 

[bfroberts]

I get the feather palm from Aztec sometimes.  It's a great wax. It's the same wax (igi) no matter where you buy it. I haven't seen even a hint of inconsistency in it, and I've been using it on and off for 4-5 yrs.  I make palm pillars, not melts.  You can get a great throw with it at 5-6%, but I do find that some scents (mostly some bakery & vanillas) give me little or no throw without a good cure, 2 weeks or so.

[LilFirecracker]

On 8/8/2022 at 11:19 AM, TallTayl said:

I’ve not bought wax from that source, but what you describe could have been caused any number of reasons… 

 

Pillar palm has a super high melt point, and a formulation that really binds those crystals tightly. In a melt I imagine you’d need to really stick the spurs to it to get strong HT.
 

Palm is often faulted for weaker CT than most other waxes. When in a candle that is wicked well, though WOWSERS does it beat the pants off of pretty much all others.  
 

palm waxes are also on the acidic side, so fragrances that are prone to note loss in that environment might lose that edge.  
 

if it were me, I’d heat the melt hotter and see if the throw improves dramatically.  If so, I’d probably not use it in my melt blend since most common warmers won’t have that advantage. 

Yeah I've decided to ditch the palm. It was only 20% and under that I tried. It gave a great texture and incredible snap to my bars, but it's not worth it enough to fight with it right now. 

[LilFirecracker]

On 8/8/2022 at 1:14 PM, bfroberts said:

I get the feather palm from Aztec sometimes.  It's a great wax. It's the same wax (igi) no matter where you buy it. I haven't seen even a hint of inconsistency in it, and I've been using it on and off for 4-5 yrs.  I make palm pillars, not melts.  You can get a great throw with it at 5-6%, but I do find that some scents (mostly some bakery & vanillas) give me little or no throw without a good cure, 2 weeks or so.

Well it's great to know it's not the wax, it's the user 🤣 I tried it before with straight palm melts with oils that have already been tested, and they didn't throw as well. I even used a warmer that burns super hot to where normally I have to use foil if I want to use it - and it was the same. Back then I'm thinking I didn't heat it high enough. This time I heated to 230, so I don't know. I've decided to get rid of it. I was just trying up to 20% so it wasn't a huge part of the blend anyway. My blend without it throws way better. I was just adding it to give it a different texture and a better snap for my bars. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by LilFirecracker

[TallTayl]

2 hours ago, LilFirecracker said:

Yeah I've decided to ditch the palm. It was only 20% and under that I tried. It gave a great texture and incredible snap to my bars, but it's not worth it enough to fight with it right now. 

You might be well served by as little as 3-5%. 

[LilFirecracker]

On 8/9/2022 at 7:57 PM, TallTayl said:

You might be well served by as little as 3-5%. 

The lower percentages didn't give me the texture I was looking for. It started developing with the higher percentages. I just put one in my bathroom at 2pm and here it is about 6:45pm and it's dying already. This is a scent that normally lasts 48-60 hours. I'm bailing on it and going back to what works lol. 

[AlishaT]

If you do not cure palm wax correctly you will not get what you are supposed to our of it. It needs at least a two week cure. And if you give it three weeks you may find your throws are even better. 

[LilFirecracker]

4 hours ago, AlishaT said:

If you do not cure palm wax correctly you will not get what you are supposed to our of it. It needs at least a two week cure. And if you give it three weeks you may find your throws are even better. 

I've never heard of anyone needing to cure palm for 2 weeks. Regardless, I still have the problem because I can pull melts I made months ago with palm and they're just as crappy as they were a few days after I made them. I made several different scents. Same results. No problems with other waxes.