Anyone make unscented rustics?

[Alohagirl]

Are you also going to experiment with extra stearic in place of oil? All things being aesthetically equal, I'd sooner burn the stearic than the oil. It strikes me as more of a known quantity and less likely to contribute soot. You could use the type that's vegetable derived.

Here's the one I made with Dee's method, 5 TBSP stearic pp and no oil. I was thrilled to see it didn't just work, but it's an aesthetically-pleasing type of rustic. Frosty, but still shiny, with a semi-translucent background rather than opaque or cloudy from using oil.

BTW, I use vegetable stearic because I think the regular animal stearic smells bad, plus I don't like the thought of where it comes from. (I'm a recovering vegetarian.)

[topofmurrayhill]

Here's the one I made with Dee's method, 5 TBSP stearic pp and no oil. I was thrilled to see it didn't just work, but it's an aesthetically-pleasing type of frost.

BTW, I use vegetable stearic because I think the regular animal stearic smells bad, plus I don't like the thought of where it comes from. (I'm a recovering vegetarian.)

I'm with you on the vegetable stearic. Not that I find the smell of regular stearic terribly bad but it sure is strong. It smells in the pot and in the finished product. I have the veggie variety now but unfortunately still a lot of regular stearic that I'm gradually using up in test candles.

Actually I saw your gallery post but forgot that you tried already. Came out nice!

[Donita]

Thanks everyone for the "Sunday School Class" I got this morning. It is really giving me something to think about. What are we as candlemakers supposed to do? This is how I make a living. I'm way too old to learn how to be stripper (very organic)....I do make a lot of EO candles for my store and on those days I don't feel so ill. There have been articles in magazines and programs on TV warning the public about chemicals in their homes and how to avoid them.......No one is paying attention.....I see more and more ads for how to smell up your house and BODY......personally, I love to walk in my garden and rub my hands on the rosemary bush or basil plants and spread that oil on me. Don't ask me how much I love lemon, lime and oranges.....I am a walking salad LOL.......last night I posted that the EPA said that "probably" parrafins made in the US aren't dangerous but might make you feel ill. Well......the 4045 that Candlewic used to carry was made off shore. They told me that the 4045H is made here. So wax that is imported from other countries aren't manufactured by the same laws that we have in the US. And all of this may be true IF the US companies are following the law and if you read "Toxin".....you know how the FDA really cares about what goes on behind closed doors in the food industry. Food grade wax is used to extend the life of fruits and vegetables. We eat a lot of that too. I had some wax several years ago that when I heated it, it smelled just like gasoline. I called the company and "she" told me that maybe a case came in contact with a truck that had some kind of gas droplets that got on the box. Hah! The stuff made me sick.....it was not refined properly and she wouldn't admit it. A well known company and wax. I don't buy wax from them anymore because I also found out that it came from China. My best friend applied for the job of the head of the EPA.....she didn't get the position, but I sure wish she did. I know of her ethics and she would have tried her very best to do what was right for the good of all. Everything always comes down to economics.......that is important.....but so is the quality of life. I don't think the two will ever come together. No synergy there. I have been feeling extra sleepy lately and I have also been doing all of these mottle experiments, getting FO's all over me. Usually I make unscented canes and 1/2 the amount of FO's in scented chunkies. Think that's where I am headed. I'll let others play with the mottles. Too bad because they are so pretty and customers like them. I fell in love with them many years ago when I learned about Illume. She started her business at home and it turned into a leader in the candle industry. She was my hero. At that time I was only making unscented canes but had to move into another direction because the public wants scented candles. Oh what to do? Have to take a shower, a customer is coming over.....she picks out colors rather than scents to go with her pottery. Donita

And a little PS to people who might want to avoid animal products that are hidden unless you read labels.....marshmellows are made with gelatin...from cow bones unless you buy the expensive kosher ones with the vegetable stuff.

[Alohagirl]

Thanks for that info, Donita. I didn't know about the potential difference in waxes made outside the U.S. I'll make that a criteria from now on when choosing wax.

I do know about the subterfuge in soywax production. A couple years ago I read an investors report on a company that turns soybeans into soywax. I was shocked at how they used chemical solvents to extract the oil and chemical processes to turn it into wax. Then they have the nerve to label their product 100% natural.

And a little PS to people who might want to avoid animal products that are hidden unless you read labels.....marshmellows are made with gelatin...from cow bones unless you buy the expensive kosher ones with the vegetable stuff.

Yep, you really have to do your homework if you care about what you're eating. Manufacturers often use harmless-sounding names to disguise objectionable ingredients. "Confectioners glaze" is listed on lots of candy labels, and most people assume this is just a type of sugar. It's actually made from the secretions of a Beetle!! And tons of people are now avoiding nutrasweet/aspartame because they've become aware of the health danger. So manufacturers sometimes disguise it under other names like "acesulfame K". And people feel safe using "Splenda" because it's advertised as being made from real sugar. Yeah, it starts out as cane sugar, then three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule are replaced by three chlorine atoms. CHLORINE??!!

I just don't understand why this kind of stuff is tolerated by the American people. A person's health is his/her most valuable possession. If you're sick or dying, nothing else really matters does it? :undecided

[topofmurrayhill]

I do know about the subterfuge in soywax production. A couple years ago I read an investors report on a company that turns soybeans into soywax. I was shocked at how they used chemical solvents to extract the oil and chemical processes to turn it into wax. Then they have the nerve to label their product 100% natural.

My impression was that using solvent to extract the oil is pretty normal procedure. Afterwards the solvent is removed. Turning the oil into wax is certainly a chemical process, no way around that. Sadly, soybean plants don't contain wax.

Solvents are also used in paraffin refining, to get oil out of the wax.

Oddly, paraffin is in a way more natural than soy wax, in that the paraffin occurs naturally (mother earth already manufactured it for us from plants that lived millions of years ago) and it simply has to be separated from the other substances it's mixed with. Soy wax has to be created and contains substances that don't occur in nature.

However there are solvents involved in facilitating both refining processes so hopefully they are removed completely.

[Donita]

......and my sister and some friends think that I am a snob because I shop at Wholefoods. I just figure that I have a better chance there even grabbing things off of the shelf and not reading labels. They don't carry things with trans fats now. Everything there is not healthy, but at least I have choice in some healthy foods. All eight of our dogs eat human grade food. My vet said it helped to save the lives of two of my poms. Donita

[Alohagirl]

Donita, my sister and friends think I'm nuts to pay extra for organics and avoid chemicals in my family's food. (After all, everyone KNOWS the U.S. has the best food quality in the world, and the FDA would NEVER allow harmful ingredients to be used!) Yeah, right.

And BTW, I lost my beloved Rottweiler to bone cancer when she was still quite young. Her vet believed it was caused by the rancid fats used in dog food, even the "high quality" brand I was buying.

[Donita]

So why do I choose a profession that includes so many chemicals? Sorry about your dog.......I know that my Vet sells Science Diet, but she agreed with me.....the Vet that acutally owns the place doesn't like me beacuse I told him what I was feeding my dogs. They also eat their share of wax too. LOL.....ask me how I know............. My son has a Rotty and he is getting old and he still won't buy what I recommend.....kids.....they just don't learn. Donita

[Alohagirl]

My impression was that using solvent to extract the oil is pretty normal procedure. Afterwards the solvent is removed.

I've read that as much as 99% of solvents can be removed, but not all of it. (Same goes for solvents used to decaffeinate coffee beans--you're going to be drinking at least a little chemical solvent in each cup.) yikes.

But if anyone following this thread is interested in a natural wax that is not refined with solvents, palm wax supposedly is produced using an extraction method similar to the one used in making essential oils. Personally, I would never switch to palm wax because I don't like how the pillars look after the first burn, and the wax is too opaque to glow when lit, so why bother?

[topofmurrayhill]

I've read that as much as 99% of solvents can be removed, but not all of it.

Somehow that doesn't sound plausible, or at least not plausible that so much should be in the final product. Maybe the implication is that 99% is removed in the desolventization process and the rest evaporates on its own. I think these solvents are very volatile, so who knows maybe 0% ends up in the final product.

[Alohagirl]

who knows maybe 0% ends up in the final product.

I hope that's true, now that you've pointed out that paraffin manufacturing also requires solvent extraction!

[topofmurrayhill]

I hope that's true, now that you've pointed out that paraffin manufacturing also requires solvent extraction!

I did a little poking around and I don't think solvent extraction of soy oil is a realistic worry. The hexane solvent they use is nasty stuff but it's very volatile and quickly evaporates into the air. The main concern for exposure is breathing it, but that's generally for people who work in places where it's used or around products containing it like gasoline and glues and solvents. I really don't think there's any in the wax.

[Donita]

It is really stupid that I do drink decaf coffee....half and half organic....but guess it's still not good for me. Too much caf and I am off the walls. I can't make the kinds of candles that I do with waxes other than paraffin. I only had one palm wax candle that I liked. I dyed it gold, scented with Strawberry Jam, did it in a octagon mold, and it burned beautifully. Glowed and left a lace like shell all of the way down. Never could get it to do it again, but I know that the Strawberry Jam FO had something to do with it. I was talking with a friend this morning and she bough one of those window fans and she said that in 5 minutes it can clear the air. I have a little A/C unit in the "office" part of my studio.....I am going to put it on low and use it during the winter. I have a fireplace with a heat insert and it gets really hot in the studio. There is one vent from the heat pump as the studio is an add on and they only put in one vent. Wax heated to high temps is supposed to be bad......but we do heat to high temps for various reasons. We can melt the wax, but to blend additives or FO's etc...."cook" out trapped water and gasses, we do heat to over 200. Yikes. When I first started making candles I was only doing canes.....I still felt that I was "over fumed"....I really want to learn more. Donita

[Lyschel]

Oh, and sadly not all Kosher gelatin is safe I just picked up a bag of mini marshes for my coco and it had FISH gelatin. Man was I shocked!

As for the paraffin wax. You have to be careful to get the stuff that was extracted in the US. The China and Mexican waxes are the worst! They don't have any of the regulations that the US has for their waxes.

Lyschel

www.candlecocoon.com