Translucent wax

[sugarysweet95]

Hi, I would like to experiment with different sorts of embeds in a pillar candle, but all the paraffin wax i get comes out quite opaque. I was wanderin if there's any additive or special type of wax (which u can get in the uk) which u can use for pillars to make them look more translucent

Thanks

[Fern]

If you can find stearic acid, palm stearic or vybar in the UK, it will make your wax more opaque.

[Henryk]

What wax are you using now? I'm wondering if its a pre-blended paraffin for candles, if so, it has additives already in it (say vybar) and that is why its opaque. You want to use a straight paraffin - some of which are more "transparent" than others. For instance IGI 1218 is slightly more transparent than IGI 1343, but the 1218 has a bit of a high melt point. Don't worry about it if you can't get IGI waxes where you are at - what you want to get is a paraffin without any additives already in it.

To PRESERVE the transparency while getting rid of any snowflakes, mottling, fingernailing, etc. you can use an an additive like "clear crystals" or "translucent crystals" - the latter is my personal favorite and is also sold as "paraflint". If you can't get any of those then I would just pour a paraffin of the above type without any additives - it should be more transparent than what you have now.

HTH

Henryk

I'm not sure what is sold in the UK, but this is the type you want: http://www.candleicious.co.uk/store/store.php?crn=200&rn=297&action=show_detail (notice it says "not preblended"). I notice they also sell micro (Microcrystaline Wax) - I'm not sure what type it is as there are many types. When I used micro it didn't keep it as clear as the paraflint, but didin't opacify it that much either (not like vybar) while still getting rid of most of the mottling in the wax so if you can't find the other stuff, you may want to try a bit of micro. (I was testing things at that time with IGI 1218 wax).

Here's a link I found the stuff from http://www.candlemaking.org.uk/ .

[Fern]

Damn...I am not paying attention at all today. That's the second question that I didn't read properly. No more advice or suggestions coming out of me tonight...at least not until I get my brain back.

[Henryk]

We've all done that so don't worry about it!

[sugarysweet95]

Hi

Yeah i've tried non blended and blended wax and though non-blended is not as opaque, its not as translucent as i want. Is this paraflint an additive you add to the paraffin mix b4 u pour, like stearin, or more like an overdip? Also where do you get yours from?

Thanks

[Henryk]

Nothing is going to MAKE a given paraffin transparent or MORE transparent - you have to start with a transparent one to begin with - and most without additives are more or less transparent. To get rid of any of the "artifacts" that you may wind up with that is why you would add your additive.

You can get these additives at many places. One I'm using right now is www.candlechem.com - paraflint there is called translucent crystals. You can also get another product from them which works similar - called clear crystals. You can also get micro waxes - all of these AFAIK will retain transparency but not as much as the crystals I mentioned - what you don't want to use is stearic, any vybars, or the polys like AC-6A or 400 or C-15.

The meltpoint on the crystals are pretty high - a bit over 200F - so what I do is just melt them first with a little paraffin - then add that to my paraffin which is also at the high temp - then stir until you are sure its blended well (its best to do this BEFORE you add dye), then lower to the pour temp.

HTH