Vybar and scent, whats the deal???

[sugarysweet95]

Hi EveryoneBeen thinking a lot lately about how much FO to use and how much to make my candles smell. Anyway i came to the conclusion (w a lil help from my friends) that i want the candle to not be v strong when its not lit, so u actually have to b near the candle when its not lit to smell it. My reason for this is cause i make generally decorative pillars, which ppl are more likely to have on display and so won't want the room to always smell of the candle! I know when it has, i've got sick of the smell!!!!Anyway, i do, however, want it to be quite strong when it's burning, as that'll be when the customers want to smell the candle. Anyway i therefore am wandering how to get relatively low cold throw but v good hot throw. I know it changes with the type of FO, but generally, how can one achieve this???Anyway i've often read on here that vybar allows more scent to be mixed in with the wax, but that too much vybar can lock the scent. Therefore what i'm wandering is, will this lock the scent just when it's not lit, ie give me what i want of a low cold throw scent, and unlock the scent when u burn it, ie giving me a very good hot throw scent???I just use straight paraffin, i know stearin can also be used to improve the FO capacity of wax, but will that give me the effect im after???Thanks in advance(and a special thanks to raggedy dani for being such a cook candle tech member and sending me lots of wick samples to try!!!!)

(Sorry for the mess of paragraphs, i can't seem to get the text to start a new line!!!!!)

[Ian H]

Hi Sugar. I can't help you with your main question, although I will follow the responses with interest.

For me a double hit of the return key gives the paragraph spacing.

Ian

[Everito Bandito]

You can try hardeners. I think that as a general rule, the harder the wax is, the less cold throw it will have. It should still have a good hot throw, if it has a good fo in it.

[sugarysweet95]

Would a harder like microcrystalline be ok? I use that for my chunks at 1%, but i still quite a strong cold throw w those, should i use more than 1% (about 1 tsp / lb). As for the paragraphs, i've tried several different things, including double enter. It's weird cause when i type it it's all nicely in paragraphs with spaces in between, just not when i post, makes it much harder to read i think!!!!

[jillgunter]

If you use to much Vybar and it locks the scent up, it wont have cold or hot throw.

[Everito Bandito]

Would a harder like microcrystalline be ok? I use that for my chunks at 1%, but i still quite a strong cold throw w those, should i use more than 1% (about 1 tsp / lb). As for the paragraphs, i've tried several different things, including double enter. It's weird cause when i type it it's all nicely in paragraphs with spaces in between, just not when i post, makes it much harder to read i think!!!!

You could try microcrystalline and see. I haven't tried it, because I just haven't had a desire to make a non cold throw candle...:smiley2:

However, I have a friend who had a candle that was basically a half of a ball..it was a big ole sucker - 4 wicks and he burned it down almost through the bottom. Well it finally broke in half at 2 of the corners.

He said that it was scented with ginger peach and I couldn't smell a thing - nothing. So anyway he gave it to me and I brought it home and first weighed the halfs and there was nearly 75 ounces of wax in the 2 halves..lol..I told ya it was a big ole' candle.

So I started cleaning it up, cutting out wick debris, match stick heads and whatnot..it was quite a job. While I was cutting and cleaning it up, I noticed how hard the wax was. Much harder than any of my pillar waxes. It also looked like it had some stearic in it. I still couldn't smell it.

You can hit this wax with something hard and it will almost make a ding sound..it's really hard. Also when it's melted it flows very, very thin like water. I went ahead and made a pillar out of about 1/4 of it and when I melted it down it gave off a really strong ginger peach smell. I was pretty suprised.

I gave him the pillar and in solid form, once again it had no cold throw. He lit it and boom, a strong hot throw. I gathered that the density/extreme hardness of the wax must have a good bit to do with the lack of cold throw.

[sugarysweet95]

Ok, i'll try the microcrystallin wax and see, but what about stearin / vybar? How much is too much?? I would like a bit of cold throw, so can smell it when your near it, but just not so it makes the room smell!!! Thanks everyone!!!