I am very new in the soy candle business and have been experimenting with different scents and wicks. I poured a 9 oz candle into a jar that was widest at 3.25. The scent was very strong prior to burning the candle. I used a #14 wick in the jar and the melt pool was to the sides in about 4 hours. When it burns though, there is no scent. If it's not burning and I smell the candle it is strong. Would the wrong wick still affect the scent throw if it is burning correctly?

I wish to share some information regarding supplies that I use or have used.

Here are capsule reviews of our experiences and ratings for Candlewic, Bitter Creek, King House Candle Supply, Ewe R Wooly, Intercontinental Fragrances, Paramold, and Wicks Unlimited. Counterpoints and amplification are welcome.

After years of hearing from many of my colleagues that they had received cease and desist letters from Yankee Candle's lawyers, I felt rather discounted by the candle giant for omitting me. But today, that all changed.

Does anyone have any tips on getting powdered dye to completely dissolve in the soy wax? Have always used liquid dyes in the past. Found there to be more color options with the powders, however, am having trouble getting it to dissolve. Any suggestions?

Blue Ridge Mercantile

Does anyone out there have good experience making pillars? Having some problems with their burn. Have been trying to use the votive wax without much luck. Any info. would be greatly appreciated.

Blue Ridge Mercantile

hello everyone. i'm very new to this and have started a little tiny business out of my kitchen :) i'm doing container candles w/essential oils. my question is...when adding stearic acid(hoping that this will make the cracking go away), how do you figure out the percentage to use? i've read that 3-5% is suggested...if i'm using 2 cups (16 oz) of phytowax to make an 8 oz. container candle, then i should use .8 oz of stearic, right? how the heck does that translate to something i can measure if i don't have a scale...i know there's probably a table somewhere that converts this but it eludes me.

I have been using Phytowax container with no additives. (other than fragrance and liq dye) Making many samples, trying different fragrances and all of them look great, burn great, and making great progress. And then....when the orders start rolling in and the products need to be finished quickly.....they are all showing up with cracks! I have tried different boxes (lots) warming up jars (even warmer) pouring at all different temp and still getting cracks! The cracks are appearing along the side of the containers and across the top of the finished product! I began using veg stearic about 3-5% (still playing with the %) and seems to be alittle better.

On 10/21/2003 Soyawax Mike responded to Northwoods Candle's question about making pillars with news that he..
"has a new and very easy to use process for all Chandlers to make pillars. I'm in the final testing week. Details will be announced on this website in one week."

Now on 12/25/2003 Soyawax responds to a query about the pillar recipe with...

Okay gang.. basic question here (probably). I'm experiencing votives sticking in my metal votive molds. I'm using P/V1, dye and fragrance. Doesn't apply to any particular dye/fragrance combination, and on any given pour, not all votives are affected. When I do get them out there is a patch of wax usually stuck to the side, not necessarily all the way around the mold, and a resulting missing patch in the votive (real ugly.. have to touch up with heat gun).

One of the toughest things to do in lighter colored candles is get a uniform look from batch to batch when using a very small amount of dye. Colors such as Ivory which for my application requires a tiny amount of dye so small I had no way of getting exactly the same amount in every batch.
My solution for ivory was to melt two dye blocks of brown into 2 lbs of wax. I then poured this mixture into tart molds.