Recently I shared our first time journey on candle making. But today I'm gonna be sharing some issues working on soy wax.
Soy wax are softer than parrafin. Aside from that it has many issues than parrafin to work and it must be discover by yourself as a lesson. When we did our first candle using soy and we do also had parasoy wax which we include 30% parrafin and 70% soy. We wanted to know the difference using 100% soy and parasoy. The first 2 test was okay. I'm gonna list down what is it and I will try to explain why it occurs and what would be a solution for it.
Soy wax are prone to these following issues:
1.Sinkhole
What is Sinkhole?
It is a hole usually found in the middle part or just beside the candle wick. Tiny air bubbles that occur when we stirr it also causes sinkhole.
Why it happen?
A melted wax after pouring into a vessel eventually the first part to solidify was the sides and the bottom part of the vessel. What would happen is the middle part or the wick portion of your candle's vessel was the last part to become solid. You may see a sinkhole even when your candle is not yet fully solidify.
How to troubleshoot?
A heatgun and a stick will work. Heat your wax again atleast a minute but remember do not put the heat gun very close to the candle to prevent from discoloration of your wood wick if your using those kind of wick and also to prevent spilling. While your heat gun is working, get a stick and simply look for the sinkhole, poke inside the hole and the bubble will come out.
2.Not So Smooth Top
Many candle experts says that soy wax are hard to work and didn't give you a very smooth top finish. Since soy wax was a natural soy wax it softer and cannot give you a perfectly smooth top unlike to parrafin wax are more solid. I prepared myself for it ahead of time but didn't expect it is harder than it was.
How to troubleshoot?
A heat gun will work on this by heating the top until it is melted. Some candle makers tend to melt the wax until it is a full melt pool like an inch deep so it may reaches a deeper wax and after it solidifies again it has a smoother tops. However, doing it for several times may lead to lose your cold throw.
What is a cold throw?
A cold throw is the initial fragrance/scent that you smell to a candle once you open the lid of the vessel or even just a first encounter. It is like a love at first sight scenario when it comes to a buyer of candle.
What is a hot throw?
A hot throw is the fragrance/scent that you smell while lighting the candle. When the candle is heated the fragrance are release eventually. Choosing and blending top, middle and base notes will help also to achieve a better hot throw.
3.Sweating
It is like an oil residue either coming from the fragrance oil or at soy wax. Looks actually a sweat that appears on top of your candle but when you touched it is an oil.
Not accurate temperature and over loading of fragrance oil can be the reason behind sweating. Soy wax are very sensitive on temperature and fragrance oil. Adding to many volume of fragrance oil upon manufacturers suggested may lead to sweating so make sure that you list all those important details.
How to troubleshoot?
Determining and finding the right mixing temperature for your fragrance oil is necessary. You must know the manufacturer of your wax and consider their recommended temperature about melting, fragrance oil and pouring temperature.
Anyways, I'd also seek for some advice on my fellow candle makers about their experience on how to get rid of sweating. They suggested me to know the right temperature on combining the fragrance oil and the wax and they even say that if all else didn't work. I can easily use a tissue paper and slighly dump the sweating
4.Discoloration
After lighting up your soy candle, some discoloration may appear especially when you are using wood wick. Candle experts says that discoloration are a normal thing on soy wax. However, the fragrance oil has vanillin ingredients which can cause discoloration after being heated.
I haven't tried to light a candle using cotton wick and saw discoloration. Because some experts says that your wood wick may have artificial color added to the wood and overtime it is a residue that leads to discoloration of your wax. You might test it for yourself and see what will happen if your using cotton wick.
How to troubleshoot?
You can color your wax with dye colorant like Ivory. That shade is closer to the color of soy wax when discoloration occurs. I don't know if other dye colorant will look like if it happens, so the only suggestion I'm gonna give is the Ivory color.
5.Wet Spot
It happens when your wax started to cool and become solid and shrinking may appears. The wax will pop on the side of your vessel that usually has tiny air bubble trapped after the wax cool down and solidify.
These are the trouble that were facing and up to know we are still on process dealing and learning from it. They say that experience is the best teacher and definitely it is true. We can learn from other experience but seeing it with your own eye and experiencing the struggles has a personal impact in everything. I hope I can give someone an idea how and what to expect on candle making using soy wax for the first time.
Thanks and stay tune for more. . .