New to candle making and getting nowhere...please help

[NinaO84]

Hi Everyone and thank you for having me on your forum....
I have only been attempting to make candles for the past month or so, I started off thinking it seemed like a pretty easy process...how wrong was I!!

I have tried Naturewax C3 and EcoSoya CB Xcel waxes as I really want to make environmentally friendly candles. However, I have made several candles, different wick sizes, different pouring temps, added fragrance at different temps etc and I can't get a good hot throw from anything. My most recent experiment was allowing the wax to cool to 37 degrees celcius then adding fragrance at 10% and pouring - these are curing so I haven't tried them yet.

I am wondering if there is a particular soy wax that is best for good hot scent throw and if there are any particular websites in the UK that do fragrance oils that are known to be good in soy wax and provide a good hot scent throw. I am desperate to achieve the candle scent that you can smell throughout the house and so far I am getting nothing at all and it is turning out to be very costly.

If anyone can give me any advice I would really appreciate it.

Many thanks in advance
Nina ;-)

[craftdancer]

Hello Nina and welcome to the forum.

I know nothing about making candles so can't give you any advice, but we do have a number of chandlers here so hopefully someone who knows about these things will be along to help you. Do have patience though, this isn't the busiest forum around although it is the best.

Linda

[NinaO84]

Thank you Linda - thats great x x

[LilianJones]

Hi Everyone and thank you for having me on your forum....
I have only been attempting to make candles for the past month or so, I started off thinking it seemed like a pretty easy process...how wrong was I!!

I have tried Naturewax C3 and EcoSoya CB Xcel waxes as I really want to make environmentally friendly candles. However, I have made several candles, different wick sizes, different pouring temps, added fragrance at different temps etc and I can't get a good hot throw from anything. My most recent experiment was allowing the wax to cool to 37 degrees celcius then adding fragrance at 10% and pouring - these are curing so I haven't tried them yet.

I am wondering if there is a particular soy wax that is best for good hot scent throw and if there are any particular websites in the UK that do fragrance oils that are known to be good in soy wax and provide a good hot scent throw. I am desperate to achieve the candle scent that you can smell throughout the house and so far I am getting nothing at all and it is turning out to be very costly.

If anyone can give me any advice I would really appreciate it.

Many thanks in advance
Nina ;-)

I think the FO %age is about right at 10% but the temperature is too low it needs to be higher when you add the FO and it needs a really good stir.

Hot throw is dependent on wick size, fragrance percentage, temperature, wax type and quality of fragrance....amongst many other things! Funny, candle making is never as simple as everyone thinks!!!! Just wait til you get to labelling them

What are you making them in and with what size wick?

[NinaO84]

Thanks for your reply Lilian, I have used some little 100g tins with the C3 wax and used TB18 wicks in those as the website I used suggested. Then with the same wax I made 2 20cl jars using TB20 wicks again as the website advised. The melt pool seemed decent and the wax and fragrance oil had good reviews and it wasn't the cheapest but you have to be standing on top of the candle to smell it.

Since then I tried the Naturewax in small jars with a 55mm diameter and LX12 wicks and they're pretty much the same. I bought a vanilla fragrance oil and a vanilla concentrated fragrance oil and i tested them both, still not a great scent throw, just a faint whiff when you enter the room after being gone for a while.I had let them cure for a week so I am leaving the others to cure for 2 weeks to see if there is much difference but Im not holding out much hope.

Im stuck as I dont know which wax and oils are the best to buy for compatibility and scent throw and I dont want to keep spending a fortune on wax and oils that have no throw. You're definitely right, it's not that easy....Im loving experimenting, I could do it all day, its just the expense that Im struggling with.

Nina ;-)

[StitchinTime]

I make candles for my own use. I do use soy wax (ecosoy) and I do use stearin (vegetal from coconut, less than 5%) in it to harden and crisp the finish, give a good clear flame and to release cleanly from the moulds. I scent mine with essential oils. I use British woven wicks (Midford's unbleached cotton) and I apply the oil to the wicks before I dip them before I pour the candles. I let the candles cure and I reinforce the scent by putting some of the essential oil onto cotton pads and packing it with the new candles inside the storage jars. The candles are put by and kept cold.
They always have a good scent, a good 'throw', and it means that I don't need to use masses of oil either. It's just all absorbed and held by the wax and (mostly) released when the wax heats up.

Are you using something like Vybar to fix the scent oil into your wax ? If you are then cut down the amount of that to about 1% and try again. The issue with that is that you can bind the scent too firmly to the wax and it won't release it unless it's really hot. Not ideal for a candle with a pool of wax.

Soy is known to be troublesome though about releasing scent. I don't use the scent oils so I don't have the same issues as the folks who have to do the whole 1.5 oz to the pound to get a decent result with soy wax….but then my candles are rather simple

M