Melting tealights...HELP!!!

[dublon]

Rustic Essentials Premium Liquid Colorants ....

Has anyone ever tried these in soy...CB Advanced to be precise??

they say on their site that they are for gel, or parrafin, but they make no mention for soy.

The reason I'm asking is that I've had a small problem with mushrooming with two different Fo's Spiced Pumpkin and Christmas Romance.. both from Village and Craft in Canada. I used their small 10ml sample bottle in ½ pound of CB advanced. Along with these I tried the orange, black and hunter green liquid dyes.

These were poured in tealights using the 18-342T wicks.. I have never had a problem with mushrooming, and I've poured over 2000 and tested hundreds of these little buggars... until now.. with these two FO's with liquid dye. They mushroomed so much that they melted the plastic on the tealights!!!

It didn't happen here, but a friend of mine was testing them for me..

She gave one back to me, and the wick was split...the mushroom! I figured that she didn't trim the wick properly, so I did a test here... not trimming the wick. Low and behold.. a huge mushroom..so much so that it was almost bending over to the side of the tealight!!

Now I know you have to trim tealights... which is probably why I never have mushrooming, but not everyone will..even if you tell them too..

My question is: What made them mushroom in the first place? Could it be the dye?? Or would it most likely be the FO??? Or... do I have a bad batch of wicks...

I know I'm stupid.. trying two new things at the same time... but this really driving me crazy besides scaring the heck of out me!!!

Any help will really be appreciated!!!

[realmarcha]

Sounds to me like your wick is too hot for the fragrances you are using. I would not think the liquid dye is the culprit. Any time I am using the liquid dyes, I usually have to cut back on the amount of dye cause it is hindering the burn. Also, some fragrances will promote wick mushrooming more than others, so this could be your culprit too. First, I would try wicking down a size, or two, and see what happens. If this doesn't work, I would cut back on my fragrance load a bit. HTH

[Vicky_CO]

Another thing if you are not having a problem when you burn them you might want to think about trimming them before you package. All of my candles are ready to light when the customer gets the candle.

[dublon]

Another thing if you are not having a problem when you burn them you might want to think about trimming them before you package. All of my candles are ready to light when the customer gets the candle.

Thank you sooooo much for the responses!! It eases my mind just a little!!

I have nooooooooooo problem at all burning these tealights!!..Of course I trim them properly... not even a slight mushroom... when I trim it!!

So other than trying to play around with the fragrance load abit for those two "problematic" FO's.. I will definately start trimming wicks before packaging!!

I've already got about 100 6 packs made up, of tested and true ones.... I'm going sit down and trim them all.... with nice sharp sissors... just to be on the safe side!! I do not want another one of these mishaps!!! It scared the hell :lipsrseal out of me!!

The tealights are only going to friends and family, but still!!! I would like to eventually make a little business out of this and expand.. one day!!

Thanks again!!!

Footnote to this: If anyone has come up with a miracle way of getting through to people's thick skulls.. to trim their god darn wicks.... please let me know about it!!