Container Candles

Cure time with all soy wax candles is a very interesting question that needs to be answered on two levels: 1. the functional level for your processing/packaging cure cycle and then 2. a scientific level for total cure time.

Container candles cure so that they are ready to move off of a production table and even package within a few hours. With containers, the larger the container, the longer the wax cure time. This can range from an hour for a small container to 8 hours for a large apothecary jar. Votive candles cure to the point that they can be extracted from a mold in about 45 minutes. Pillars can be extracted from molds in several hours. The larger the mold, the longer the cure time for mold extraction. Do not rush mold extraction or you can damage your candle and make it more difficult to clean your mold with residue wax adhesion.

After a day you can be confident that the surface and appearance of all soy candles would be stable enough to package and ship.

Robin's question about cure time to carry out burn tests brings us to the scientific level of cure time of the Phytowax/Soyawax products. Lipid vegetable oils such as the all natural components in Phytowax products require 72 hours to settle back into a permanent molecular structure at room temperature after the heating and processing of the wax. For this reason, I would not put a candle out for retail sale and customer burning or carry out burn tests until this full 72 hour cycle of structural change is complete with the component vegetable oils.

Best regards; Mike Richards, The Chandler Guild technical advisor