Palm vs Soy Surprise

[renew]

Since beginning to pour candles a year or so ago, I've used soy wax - and now the all-natural soy blend - and have recently poured palm wax into containers. When testing them side by side, the Palm candle burned brightly (too bright) for about a half-hour or so, and then began to fizzle out. It did not go out completely, but the flame was almost extinguished. The soy (GW444) candle, however, burned great (2 hours).

My question is . . . is Palm wax really good for using in containers? When I bought it, my understanding was that it was for container candles. If I use a hotter wick (I double wicked in an 8 oz. apothecary jar HTP126), the flame would be much too high.

Thanks for your help.

Henri

[AngelaVA]

From what I've read, palm wax is difficult to wick and is prone to air pockets inside the container. Try doing a search on here and the archives for more info. Sorry I'm not more help

[topofmurrayhill]

I'm not a palm person but I know nothing comes easy. I've seen it's possible make functional palm containers but this wax is a special animal and it would be expected that you'd need to experiment and learn to make it work. One thing that occurs to me is that this wax is very acidic and a perfect candidate for using wicks with the special chemical treatment for stearic candles. That would be LX sizes 24+, RRD and CDN.

[Kaybee23]

It could have fizzled out if it had encountered an air pocket. Palm candles are very prone to them. Best way to treat palm is pour it hot, when a crust starts to form on the top, poke air holes. Keep the air holes open while it is cooling. Then either heatgun the top, or save a little of the same wax and heat it back up and refill the airholes, and that should fill in any gaps. The flames on the palm candles get large very quickly, so you should keep them trimmed short, but not too short to where you won't get a good burn off of it. I am thinking though that double HTP126's are a little large for an 8 oz. container. I would back down on those a size or 2. Palm is a pretty wax in a container when it is done well, but I could never get it to throw as well as the soy.

[celicagtca]

I'm not a palm person but I know nothing comes easy. I've seen it's possible make functional palm containers but this wax is a special animal and it would be expected that you'd need to experiment and learn to make it work. One thing that occurs to me is that this wax is very acidic and a perfect candidate for using wicks with the special chemical treatment for stearic candles. That would be LX sizes 24+, RRD and CDN.

Top is correct in regard to special wicking for palm candles. All of the above wicks work well with the palm containers, but you will have to test and judge for yourself in terms of satisfactory burn rate, melt pool, fragrance throw etc. Palm wax differs from Soy in so many ways. Just because they are both natural does not mean they have the same properties and require the same wicking. Palm wax is a tedius wax to work with, but in my opinion, once you get them properly wicked, you'll have an outstanding finished product

[renew]

Thanks so much for your input - I'll keep trying with the Palm wax - it does look so pretty in the jars - so that gives me incentive to try and try again. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again, Henri

[Jeana]

I don't do palm containers but I do pillars. The only wicks I have used that don't start to go out are RRDs and Ps. P series wicks have more choices in the smaller wicks than RRDs.

Some of the other ones start out really nice like ECO, CD, and HTP but after one or two hours the flame goes down to nothing, as you have experience.

[Candlenose Lady]

I've been testing palm for a couple months and have had great results. Once you get it, they are AWESOME!! Very clean burning. I do have some flames get large in the beginning, but they still get a very clean burn. The main difference I have seen is the fact that it fills a room much faster than any candle I have ever tried.