Jars, wax, wicks and FO

[Lezlee Ellison]

Hi! I am just starting to get my feet wet in candle making. We have a general store and I would like to sell my candles some day. We live in the mountains, so i was considering some kind of sage, wood, wildflower floral scents in 8 - 10 oz containers. I would appreciate any and all thoughts on what waxes, wicks, fragrance oils and containers would work best and all the melt points there of. I know some of your recipes belong only to you and I don’t want to steal anyones ideas, but any and all help would be appreciated. We see a lot of tourists during the summer and have always been interested in starting our own candleline. I know it will take a LOT  of testing, disasters and failures to even come close, but we would like to start experimenting to get there. Thanks for your help!

[TallTayl]

Welcome to CraftServer! 
what a fun project. As for what wax, etc, this is such a tough decision. Equal numbers of people prefer soy to paraffin to beeswax to coconut. Nobody will agree. 😊  Every wax has its own strengths and struggles. Learning curves are about the same.

 

if you have a supplier reasonably close by you will save on freight costs. When I started out I picked too many waxes and got confused and frustrated. once I slowed down, settled on one wax that I could get at more than one supplier, and learned it inside out in one container I saw real progress.  
 

your wick choice will depend on your wax choice. 
 

fragrance retailers are a dime a dozen.  You’ll likely try out many before you find the perfect scents for your goals. As with wax, nobody agrees about who the “best” fragrance suppliers are.  All have duds and winners. 
hit up the suppliers by state list to see who is near you 😊. That will give you a start.

[TallTayl]

Less vague suggestion:

 

for container candles, I found with nearly all waxes that a container taller than wide works best.  Short wide containers are the most difficult to wick.  3” wide x 3-4” tall jars are a sweet spot for the majority of waxes I have worked with.

 

jars narrower than 2.5” or wider than 3.5” are the most frustrating to wick. 
 

resist the urge to wick for fast full melt pool.  There’s a lot of questionable advice out there about wicking. Safety first! 

[AudraT]

One thing I learned several months after I started candle making was you do not necessarily want to reach a full melt pool on the first burn. If you have a small amount of unmelted wax around the rim of the jar after 2 hours (or whatever the recommended melt pool burn time is), this is generally ok. This wax will melt down with future burns.
With my particular wax choice and jar size, a 1/8 inch thickness of unmelted wax seems to be the sweet spot for me. I've seen other articles say 1/4 inch is fine but I think my candles would tunnel at that amount. 1/4 inch might still be good though for other wax types though so I wouldn't rule that out.
I've been making candles for less than a year so if anybody with more experience would like to chime in, be my guest 🙂