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What causes frost to stick to the mold...


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I think it has something to do with the temp. of the mold when you pour. I find the colder the temp the more frosting remains on the candle after unmolding. If I cool my molds in between pours i find that more of the frosting stays on the candle. On the flip side I find that when I rush the cooling process after all layers have been poured, more frosting remains in the molds. I don't care either way, I personally favor splotchy frosting. I think there are so many variables that decide how much stays on the candle.

Room temp. Mold temp. Wax temp when poured etc. Hope this makes sense to you....and if it does, someone will come on with a whole different theory and post completly different outcomes! ;)

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Thanks for the replies. I asked because this weekend I made a whole bunch of rustics, and 4 out of 5 slid out easily but left all the frost in the mold. On the good ones, the frost was smooth and uniformly distributed all over the pillar. (A nice look, but not exactly what I was going for.)

Here's the thing that has me tearing my hair out: There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why some worked and some didn't. They were all made in seamless aluminum molds. Of all the good ones, one was poured at 140 degrees, another poured at 155 degrees; one was slow cooled on the counter, another placed in the fridge to cool fast. One had 3 TBSP stearic, one had no stearic. All (including the bad ones) had the same amount of the same FO.

I had taken notes on each candle and duplicated the methods exactly. Every one of the duplicates left all frost in the mold!! :angry2:

All opinions would be welcome.

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The first few times I made rustics, all the frost stayed inside the mold.

Just speaking for me, if I make sure I spray the inside of the molds with PAM, and don't wipe it out, then the frost stays on the candle, not the mold. (I also have to make sure the molds are completely clean before I spray the PAM -it seems to make a huge difference on where the frost is going to end up!)

Also, I've found that adding 2-3 tablespoons of stearic per lb of wax gives me more frost.

When I do layers, I don't usually slosh wax around. I pour just like I would if I were trying to make very neat layers, pouring slowly and trying not to get it anywhere else on the inside of the mold.

Oh, one last thing that works for me. I absolutely can't rush pulling them out of the molds. Even if they feel cold, even if I'm itching to pull them out, I wait until the next morning. Then all the frost comes off on the candle. Everytime I get itchy fingers and pull them out at night, I lose the frost :(

DanaE

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