Feedback, please photo attached

[gmp]

What do you all think of this burn. It is after a three hour burn, using j223 and 8%fo (Pear Spice). Zinc 60 wick. The meltpool is a tad shy of 1/2 inch at the glass edge, it is a bit deeper closer to the wick. In the photo, the soot looks worse than in reality, but yes, there is some soot. Thanks for any feedback.

[topofmurrayhill]

Well you have a deep melt pool and some soot near the top of the jar. Things are only gonna get more interesting as you burn it down, with more heat and less oxygen. I'd guess that there may be too much wick or too much fragrance or both.

[Mei-Mei]

I agree with Top, but I'd like to add that I think the color is very pretty. Not helpful I know, but I wanted to mention it.:embarasse

[gmp]

Well, I'll keep burning and see just how interesting it gets!

Thanks for the feedback.

[Candle Man]

I have to agree with TOP and the deeper it burns the less oxygen it will get and most likely soot more.

[gmp]

Thank you, Candleman.

I burned it again last night and the smoking continued. Darn. I will wick down and see if that helps.

[katinka]

Wicking down should make a difference - also remember that some jars show soot more easily so if you don't get it sorted with the wick/fo changes, you might want to look at another jar?

[GKC]

You might also try lowering the fragrance load to 6%. The burn will probably be cleaner. It is a very pretty color.

[topofmurrayhill]

Unless the FO is very compatible, 8% is really pushing it. Things get pretty sooty when the wax is overloaded. The more difficult fragrances are gonna max out at 5 or 6%.

[gmp]

Unless the FO is very compatible, 8% is really pushing it. Things get pretty sooty when the wax is overloaded. The more difficult fragrances are gonna max out at 5 or 6%.

Thank you for that advice. I agree I probably overdid the fo; I guess it doesn't matter that j223 can hold up to 9% (?). I am now burning the candle again, this time with a zinc 52. I just started it. I also burned an eco 8 earlier, just as an fyi, and that sooted terribly. I replaced the eco 8 with a cd 12, and that seems to be too big, too. As you can see I am all over the map but I will get there eventually. I'm calling it the "scenic route".

Thanks again, I will keep you posted.

Sincerely,

Gina

[topofmurrayhill]

Just make a candle with 6% FO and you'll save yourself a lot of sweat. Some of those wicks MAY be too big, but when you have such a big soot problem at the top of the jar, it's probably the fragrance oil.

No wax automatically holds any particular amount of fragrance oil. If you go by what the manufacturer says is possible and use a random fragrance oil at that level, more likely than not the result won't be good. Misinterpreting those numbers has flooded the world with more crappy candles than anything else. It's not that you can't reach them, ever. It's that nobody appreciates the amount of work involved in testing and selecting fragrance oils to find the ones that are most compatible with the wax.

It's actually much easier to just to find scents that throw well below those levels and the results are better on the average.

[Mei-Mei]

In addition to what Top said you'll find that if you ever want to sell your candles 6% of FO is much, much more economical. I think you'll be surprised at the difference in your wicking if you try pouring at a lower FO percentage. It's really amazing and some of the fragrances throw much better.

[gmp]

Thanks so much for your feedback, it has really, really, helped. I took your advice and lowered the fo% to 6% and retested with a zinc 52. I burned in 2 to 3 hour increments, with one 5 and one 7 hour marathon burn. There was some inital blackening of the glass early on, I wiped it clean and have not cleaned it since then. You can see some blackening continued, but I dont' think it's bad considering I have burned this for a total of 35+ hours. I've mentioned earlier that the blackening in the photo looks worse than it actually is. Any additional feedback on this test would be greatly appreciated! I'm feeling good about this one, I hope it's a winner. (famous last words, huh?) Thank so much.

This photo is after a three hour burn, using j223, 6% pear spice, and 16oz mason jar.

[Candlebuddy]

When I first started making candles I thought more was best. I would pour at around 10% because that is what the wax could hold (or so I was told) and that is what the my supplier recommended. I sure did buy a lot of fo from that supplier ... I was probably her best customer.

Now I've learned that less is best. With quality oils, that throw well in my wax, I can get an awesome scent throw and a cleaner jar using much less.

Keep up the good work gmp.

[gmp]

When I first started making candles I thought more was best. I would pour at around 10% because that is what the wax could hold (or so I was told) and that is what the my supplier recommended. I sure did buy a lot of fo from that supplier ... I was probably her best customer.

Now I've learned that less is best. With quality oils, that throw well in my wax, I can get an awesome scent throw and a cleaner jar using much less.

Keep up the good work gmp.

Thank you! Yes, I am learning the hard way as well that less is more when it comes to fo. (Although with this fo I am disappointed in the hot throw (the candle is about 2 weeks old) at any %). I have been making candles for about six months and I finally have something that is working out. :yay: :yay: