help with candles (&melts) please

lionprincess00 · Oct 30, 2014

So I made two packs of melts and one candle. I have no clue what I'm doing lol. I'll preface this by saying if you have a go to site for good tutorials on soy beeswax blends, please feel free to share.
I made 11 oz soy and 3 oz beeswax melts and a candle.

The candle cracked side to side, at the center by the wick, all the way through to the bottom.
I am assuming it cooled too fast?

The candle can slip out of the glass container. Why such shrinkage?

The candle wick was from hobby lobby, as was the soy wax. I originally lit it, and it smoked and was a pretty tall flame, so I blew it out and trimmed it a tad. When I lit the candle and let it burn for several hours, it melted in the center only and not to the edges. Is it because the wick is too short now, or does this happen when the wick isn't thick enough?

Where do I go to learn about wicks and proper sizes per containers?

Finally, how long should each melt last if on all day? Also, do you reuse your wax (home hobbyist)?

Thx so much!

Hazel · Oct 30, 2014

I can't answer your questions because I'm just slowly getting back to researching candles. Also, I've never worked with soy beeswax.

However, I've had parasoy melts scent last 12+ hours but I don't know how good that is compared to commercial melts like Scentsy. I don't think you can re-use wax since wax can only hold x amount of fragrance oil. But I could be wrong. Anyway, I save used wax because eventually I hope to make some firestarters with it.

I posted some links recently on another topic about candles so you may have already seen these links. I've found http://www.craftserver.com/ very helpful.

http://www.candlecauldron.com/waxandwicks.html (This helped me because I've been trying to find more info on wicks.)
http://www.candletech.com/candle-making/
http://library.rusticescentuals.com/#
http://www.candlewic.com/education/video-library/candle-wax-videos/page.aspx?id=1850
http://www.candlewic.com/education/education/page.aspx?id=1875

shunt2011 · Oct 30, 2014

I've just recently started researching possibly making wax melts and another place to check out that has a lot of information is Peak Candles. Thanks Hazel for sharing these links too. Off I go to see what I can learn.

lionprincess00 · Oct 30, 2014

Yes, thank you! Great info there!!

And Thx for peaks too shunt

Stacy · Oct 30, 2014

lionprincess00 said:
The candle wick was from hobby lobby, as was the soy wax. I originally lit it, and it smoked and was a pretty tall flame, so I blew it out and trimmed it a tad. When I lit the candle and let it burn for several hours, it melted in the center only and not to the edges. Is it because the wick is too short now, or does this happen when the wick isn't thick enough?

I'm new to the candle world, I haven't poured a candle yet but I am in research mode. If you're using soy wax, you have to burn it for a set time at first and it will always follow that path afterwards.

http://www.ginaswish.com/facts.html said:
Soy wax has a memory. To prevent “tunneling” you must have a full melt pool before distinguishing the flame. A full melt pool means the wax has been heated long enough to reach the edge of the container. This usually occurs in about 1-2 hours. A full melt pool should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep which will allow the fragrance to disperse more completely into the room.

Edit also, for burn time, one method I read was to weight the candle burn it for X number of hours, then weight it again and do the math. For example if your candle weighs 100g (remember to allow for the container), then you burn it for 1 hour and it weighs 90g, your candle consumes 10g per hour and will last for 10 hours.