Tests

[colouredcandles]

Hi,
I have taken a picture of my first what i think as a successful burn test with my first soy candle. Unfortunately i cant post as im a newbie, so if someone was able to tell me what size of side wall i should have left after a 3 hour burn on a 3" round mould using wax,wick, colour and FO.
I think its a good burn but the one thing different is that i cant hug the candle so there is a big outside shell, which i like but it will cause problems later when trying to light the candle, unless of course i purchase a candle lighter. Am a correct when i say you cant hug soy candles, if yes why is this?
From the very start the one thing that i didn't like was being left with a pile of wax after your candle had burnt out. Is this the case with soy?
Any advice welcome
Thanks
Mandy x

[candles by lisa]

Hi Mandy, the general rule of thumb is you burn a candle for 1 hour for each inch of it's diameter so for your 3 inch candle and 3 hour burn the burn pool should have pretty much reached the edges of the candle if not your wick is too small. With the correct sized wick the outer shell should sort of turn in on itself and melt down with the candle (I can't really think of a way to explain it!!).

You can't hug soy as it is far more brittle. If you have a thin shell in soy and you hug it likliehood is your finger will go through the thin shell and end up with wax all over the place (and how do I know that you may ask ;)!!). A parasoy blend would be different as the parrafin wax would give the walls a bit more pliability.

HTH.

Cheers.

Lisa

:D

[Bathtime Temptations]

thats good advice thanks
my pillar candles havent been very sucessful so i will try a par-soy blend and soo how that works out

[colouredcandles]

Hi Lisa, Thanks for your reply.
I pretty much thought thats what the case would be. As i said before my pet hate is being left with alot of wax when my candle has burnt out. But if this is the nature of the wax im just going to have to get used to it. Is a parasoy blend a wax i would purchase or can i make my own with the soy wax and paraffin that I have already? Well with all the advice that i have been given so far it looks like my first soy candle has worked pretty well, the only problem that i have is that the scent throw is very poor, as advised by ruby i need to use more FO. So hopefully with all this in mind my next candle should work pretty well. Fingers crossed. Thanks again for all your help.
Mandy

[candles by lisa]

Hi Mandy,

You can make your own parasoy blend no problem again trial and error I'm afraid as to how much you need to stop the brittleness.

As for scent throw you do need more FO for soy and not all scents throw very well.

HTH and good luck.

Cheers.

Lisa

:D