Testing Q

[identity344@yahoo.com]

hello I'm new, and I just made my first pillar candle. How do you test each candle before you give them away or decide to start selling them?

[topofmurrayhill]

You spend at least months making candles and learning everything you can about candlemaking before you know vaguely enough to consider selling them. Testing varies from candle type to candle type. With pillars you would be considering how it comes out aesthetically, how cleanly it burns, the size of the flame, the size of the melt pool and how well it burns down over repeated 3-4 hour tests, how well it throws scent, and the total burn time of the candle. It varies, but most people like pillars to consume themselves rather than burning down the middle, not sweat fragrance oil, not distort out of shape, and not accumulate carbon deposits at the tip of the wick.

[RobinInOR]

And for jars, you test how well the scent throws, how the flame looks, is it too big or too small, does the wick get a mushroom, does the jar or tin get too hot, what happens to the burn in the middle of the jar, can you burn it all the way down to the bottom without any problems....

And your results will be different for every wax/wick/scent combination you have.