odd things happening with blue dye blocks

[cybersix]

Hi all,

I'm using dye blocks for my candles. many of the blocks I have are quite old (bought already used) and they are from candle supply central.

With the blue ones (any shade of blue) I have them changing shade each time I reheat the wax. anytime is a different shade.

With other colors everything is fine, with the blue is a tragedy. Time to get rid of them or it's a characteristic of blue colors?

TIA!

[SatinDucky]

Are you using these in palm wax by chance? I've had some strange colors morph when reheating it much. Granted I've not played with the palm much, but even in my small experience, I've had the morphing. Usually green/blue/purple. The one I remember most was a pale green votive. It had a purple stripe for the top after I reheated the wax for the repour...lol

[cybersix]

Are you using these in palm wax by chance? I've had some strange colors morph when reheating it much. Granted I've not played with the palm much, but even in my small experience, I've had the morphing. Usually green/blue/purple. The one I remember most was a pale green votive. It had a purple stripe for the top after I reheated the wax for the repour...lol

yep it is in palm.... I didn't think of palm since blue it's the only color changing but I may test with paraffin.

maybe the high heat required for palm does this?

[Stella1952]

Blue & green pigments are notoriously difficult in MANY media, not just candles. Fading, color hue changing, etc. is common. In palm wax, the effect may be from the heat of the wax or the color may appear to change because the crystallization pattern of the palm wax has changed.

Dunno how you'd get a purple stripe from pale green...

[cybersix]

Once I poured 5 blue pillars, not all at the same time but using always the same blue dyed wax from the pot. The first was blue, and ended with the fifth being a light violet.

This doesn't happen with green, only with blue.

So I thought it was the blue to have problems. I have different shades of blue blocks but almost all of them do this.

It's not the different crystalization in my case.

So, can't we use the same wax again to repour?

[Stella1952]

If the dye blocks are the culprit, then try using another kind of colorant. With liquid dyes, I haven't experienced anything like the extreme differences in colors y'all are reporting from your color blocks. It may be that the blocks are not blending thoroughly with the wax... If one thing doesn't work, try another.

[cybersix]

If the dye blocks are the culprit, then try using another kind of colorant. With liquid dyes, I haven't experienced anything like the extreme differences in colors y'all are reporting from your color blocks. It may be that the blocks are not blending thoroughly with the wax... If one thing doesn't work, try another.

Hi Stella, I just wanted to try to understand if it's the nature of the beast or if my blocks are too old. So I know what I should buy next.

yah know it takes me weeks to have my supplies from there, and weeks after weeks after weeks mean months just to have a good blue dye!

So I always try to have an idea before buying.

[SatinDucky]

Dunno how you'd get a purple stripe from pale green...

Actually, I still have that little votive. I don't still have the original picture of it though and after 3 years the thin purple layer has faded to gray and it just looks like the green faded on top.

I've tried searching for the old threads on this and couldn't find any. I'm pretty sure it was the old board and the search didn't work there either. It really seems like the other people had problems mostly with blue. I'm the only one I remember it happening to the green.

Frustrates me to no end that I can't find any of the other references to this :lipsrseal

[Stella1952]

It really seems like the other people had problems mostly with blue. I'm the only one I remember it happening to the green.

Blue + yellow = green, which is why some of the flakey properties of blue are passed on to green. Just guessing here, but it almost sounds like the pigments separated somehow and reformed into a third, unintended shade... Strange...