blending palm

[evergreen]

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to candlemaking and, so far, want to focus on beeswax and palm waxes. I have feather palm and crystal palm, as well as beeswax, and a pound or so of soy 125. (I also have two pounds of a Yaley paraffin blend for pillars.)

The extent of my candlemaking (plus online research and exposure to a couple of books) is this: I've made a pound of feather palm votives that came out great. I did learn not to make the little top edge over the lip of the votive mold because of the brittle nature of the palm wax. I've also made a few sets of beeswax votives and a ball candle. (My first two candles were beeswax and soy blend votives (it's what I had on hand) but I had trouble with the wicks since they were for paraffin.) I currently have a palm pillar kit from Candlewic and a bunch of supplies I've picked up...including Eco-2 and CSN-9 wicks from CS for votives.

I was wondering if all palm wax has the fracture effect? I was interested in a pillar veggie blend wax through Candlewic but it costs more than the pure palm waxes. If I blend palm and beeswax, will it have any mottling/fracturing qualities? If I blend a little beeswax with palm will the resulting blend be less brittle and still have some crystal effects? Can you use palm oil to blend into palm wax to increase the fragrance load or make a mottling blend the way some people use coconut oil?

[soy327]

I can see so far nobody has been able to answer your question, sorry. I have blended a tiny amt of beeswax with soy and it did good, but beeswax is pricey. I personally wouldn't blend beeswax with anything other than soy if your intent on doing that.

What kind of palm oil are you talking about, that might be a new thing to try, but how are you thinking of blending it? And what kind?

Soy

[Stella1952]

Since you ARE relatively new to candle making, I suggest that you learn the properties of your waxes thoroughly before you begin blending. For example, while a characteristic of palm wax IS its hardness, adding beeswax to soy wax can make the soy more brittle and prone to fracturing. Adding a small amount of palm wax can make container soy wax more manageable. Adding palm stearic to soy pillar wax can reduce the tendency for the pillar blend to crack. Adding oils in different forms can have different effects than adding waxes to one another. Adding a high melt point wax to a low melt point wax doesn't mean you will come out with a wax with a melt point in the middle of those two. There's a lot of oleochemistry involved, so what seems like a logical choice often isn't because of how the different oils react to one another. There is so much to learn about each individual kind of wax that I think, to avoid confusion and frustration, it's best to concentrate on learning the properties of the different waxes separately BEFORE you start trying to blend them.

[ariel]

any chance you can mix coconut oil with palm kernel oil to make candles?  lots of leftover palm kernel oil.

[TallTayl]

You can mix any oils to make a candle. it may not be a great candle, but it will be a candle. 
 

The strategy is coming up with a blend that will meet your melt point targets and will be stable in different temp ranges.

 

Balance the wick temp with ROC so it doesn’t just turn to liquid when lit a short time. 
 

play with different oils and additives to see what works and what doesn’t. I’ve gone through hundreds of tests like this one and learned A LOT about components and additives. 

[NightLight]

I have done lots of experiments and it’s a great learning process. In the end you will be a better candle maker or bath and body creator understanding the properties of your materials. And trust me when a supplier runs out of something you will be enabled to make substitutions without having a freak out.