My coconut oil trial

[topofmurrayhill]

Yes, it will go bad if you do not refrigerate after you open it. The shelf life is not near that of corn oil or canola oil.

From my soaping I know this just isn't right. Canola and corn have some of the worst shelf lives. Too high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, unless maybe you get the high-oleic canola.

Fresh 76 or especially 92 degree coconut oil should last for a year or two stored in a cool place. I wouldn't keep melting it. Maybe get it liquid enough just once for a thorough mixing and then cool it down fast. After that if you keep it solid you can just take pieces off of it.

If your CO is going bad quickly, there's something wrong. Either it's the wrong thing or it's real old or hasn't been treated well somewhere along the way.

[CareBear]

I agree completely Top.

I use it for cooking along with my soaping, and for cooking I keep a jar in the kitchen on the counter to scoop out of when I need small amounts. The rest of my 50# buckets I keep out in the garage winter and summer and it's fine and very stable.

No oil is happy being exposed to constant temperature changes - so absolutely don't keep re-melting the same stuff, but a few times won't hurt coconut oil. Big temp shifts are the worst (for example using an oil to cook in, then draining it off to use again and again is BAD).

ETA: From Nature With Love lists its regular & virgin coconut oil shelf life as 2 years. And I've read that once opened corn oil is stable for 4-6 months.

[barncat]

I think we are using 1tsp CO per lb of GB415. Works great and has nice smooth tops.

[Stella1952]

We tried it in C3 and yuck...never again!

Renee, it would be helpful if you'd tell us a little more about what it did or didn't do for you with C3... and also the amount that you used. What were you trying to achieve?

Have you ever tried Coconut Wax? There are a couple distrubuters here in Cali I get mine from. I mix 3/4 soy with 1/4 cc and get wonderful candles and great hot and cold scent throw! Just a little FYI. Nice to meet you all.

SweetMel, nice to meet you. There is a thread here about coconut wax that can be found with the search tool. Coconut wax and using coconut oil in soy-based wax blends are two different things... We'd love to see some of your coconut wax blend candles!

[will1434]

Thanks to this thread we are using 1tsp CO per lb of GB 444... So far much better tops and cohesion! Will keep good notes and update as necessary.

[will1434]

I am new here. As I posted in the general forum I used to do paraffin and soy candles but got tired of the soot with paraffin so went to mostly natural. I say mostly because I read in this thread that you use CO in your wax...... Have you ever tried Coconut Wax? There are a couple distrubuters here in Cali I get mine from. I mix 3/4 soy with 1/4 cc and get wonderful candles and great hot and cold scent throw! Just a little FYI. Nice to meet you all.

Nice to meet you too! I found some from Swan's - is that who you use? Have you tried using their blend straight, instead of mixing it with soy? Please elaborate, I am really interested in this wax and am ordering some right now

[jeani]

I had the same problem adding CO. I bought mine from C&S 76 degree. The tops of my candles had a shiny, harder top to them.

In testing, I pour the wax let it set up then poke holes to put the wicks in. If they don't work I melt the top down evenly, pull out the wicks, let the wax set back up and poke one or two more holes to try a different wick(s). When I poke the new hole(s) the wax sometimes does crack from around the wick hole and I've had a few crack to the side of the glass.

When I pour containers I already have the wicking issue figured out and not poking new holes, I still get the shiny, hard tops.

Without the CO, I don't have that problem. I worked with it quite awhile trying to get rid of the hardness because it does help with the hot & cold throw.

I use gb 444........using less CO or more CO doesn't seem to change the issue. I live in cold WI ....maybe that has something to do with it.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents of experience on the CO thing...HTH

[Brenda (OH)]

OK, I just got some, and would like to know how folks melt it since it's like 65' in my house, and it's solid as a rock in it's container... then do you refrigerate it after you're done with it to keep it from going rancid? How many times is it ok to melt it and let it go solid again, without it going bad??

Thanks!!

I don't melt the CO down to measure it, I dig out what I need with my measuring spoon and plop it into the wax in my pour pot. It melts quickly and blends in fine . . .also, I don't refrigerated mine just keep it on a shelf in the work shop. So far so good . . .I do sniff it occasionally to make sure it isn't going bad.

[Sharon in PA]

Thanks for the tips, everyone, I did dig into the container and found that you can scoop it out as Brenda said, and plop it in. Haven't played with it yet, maybe tonight...I wil report back with my findings and opinions...I am anxious to check this out and see how it does for me! I use a 50/50 like Brenda does, BTW...

[Brenda (OH)]

Have fun testing and keep us posted

[Guest Candelishis]

I decided over the weekend to get in on the coconut oil action too. LoL. I use GB464, and have very little problems with frosting or wet spots because my "shop" is very climate controlled. But I thought I'd make a couple testers to see if it makes and difference as far as throw.

Well - I left it solid, and scooped some chunks out with a metal spoon and threw in about 1/2 tbsp per pound of the stuff. After I poured, and the candles set up, they look fantastic. The tops are perfectly smooth and have a nice shine to them! I do have to heat gun my tops on occasion, but these look absolutely perfect. Especially the darker colors - my Creme Brulee is a darker brown, Love Spell is a darker purple, and Black Currant Vanilla is a dark pink-ish red. They all look fantastic with the coconut oil!! Nice and smooth, extra creamy-looking.

I just did them yesterday, so I'm goin to give it 24 hours to cure, then this afternoon I'll light 'em up and see how it goes from there!

I'm excited so far...

[Sharon in PA]

Great!! Keep us posted!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ReneeM]

I'm going to try it again and see how it works now that it's not 120 degrees outside. We used a tsp of co to 1# of C3. We don't add colors to our candles at all. I like the clean look of C3, we rarely get frosting (when we do it was my mistake, not the waxes lol) so what I was hoping to achieve was better hot throw for some of our weaker scents. What it looked like to me was a 50/50 blend. A look I'm not real fond of. Almost a translucent look to it.

Like I said, I'll try it again now that it's not so horribly hot here and see how it works for us this time.

edited to add:

I was really excited about the smooth tops, that was what originally set me on the path of CO, no more re-pours.

[Tea]

Well it is over a month since I first poured my candles, and at the moment I still don't have any wet spots. Weather here has been unbearably hot, and friday we had the flood to beat all floods. Supposed to have been a 1 in 200 year flood, but as they weren't keeping records then, I have no idea how "they" know that.

The coconut oil that I use is a hard block that has to be kept in the fridge. I use it for soaping as well as I can't get the oil here.

Still happy with the results, and was thinking that I may never face the brittle or cracking of the wax as it doesn't get that cold here. Will be interesting to see.

Thanks again for all the help.

Tracey

[Guest Candelishis]

Well. I've burned 2 of the 3 candles with the coconut oil so far. Sunday at home I burned the Creme Brulee. Usually, if a candle has a hot throw that will fill my large living room AND adjoining dining room (they're basically one huge room..just a huge open doorway between them), I consider it a good enough hot throw to sell. Well, I could smell the "new and improved" candle in those two rooms as well as into the kitchen beyond the dining room, and into the office on the other side of the living room. So I was impressed. After curing downstairs for a couple days before that, the candles all looked just as good. No frosting or wet spots noted, though I don't usually have a problem with them.

The Black Currant Vanilla, I'm burning at the office today. It's been almost 4 hours, and same result. Slightly improved HT, and one beautiful lookin candle. I'm impressed thus far!

[ReneeM]

I gave it another try last night. The tops are smooth-ish. It makes the tops of our candles look almost dried out and "old" for lack of a better word. On the bright side, there aren't any holes in the tops either!

I used 1 tsp per # of C3. So far, it's not playing nice with C3.

[Stella1952]

I didn't use quite a teaspoonful per pound, but I am surprised that it isn't working out with your C3 - it works out well for mine. What's your pour temp and how hot are you heating the wax?

[Kigers24]

Have been using 1 tsp. CO in my C3 for about a year now. Never make them without it anymore. Use about a case a month.

Never any problems with it and C3, also have not had any hidden air pockets since using it.

I don't use color and use 1 oz. FO pp wax.

I don't do second pours or poke relief holes ( I pour at around 140 to 150). Use to pour hotter but found this is the temp. that works best for me.

Store my CO at room temperature.

[ReneeM]

Pouring at the slushy / malto meal (LOL) stage, about 120-130. I'll try to cut back a bit on it and try it again. I'm not ready to give up on it by any means, just working out the kinks with it. I think it would be absolutely wonderful if it would give us the smooth pretty tops and worth the 3 seconds of work it takes to do them like this!

We have turkey roasters, so the wax it kept at about 160 - 180 degrees. I pre-melt the CO before adding it to the wax, it doesn't go into the roaster! LOL

[Stella1952]

Renee, perhaps you might try pouring hotter ~ 150° - 165°. Unless the air temperature is pretty warm (like it is here in the summertime), pouring C3 hotter seems to agree with it more. I can't remember if you are using FO or not, but it does help to add that at higher temps.

Many people have reported pouring soy-based waxes at slushy temps, but, with rare exception, this has not worked out for us with C3. Good luck! HTH

[ReneeM]

I'm in Vegas, so yep! It's pretty warm here! When we pour real warm, the wicks seem to want to tunnel. Doesn't seem to matter what scent or what size wick, the only difference seems to be the pour temps. Like you, we have almost no humidity and very seldom have cold temps.