Candle Crafting ~ To Soy, Or Not To Soy???

Before we start pouring our candles, we've got to decide which product we're going to use! The buzzword over the past five years has been 'Soy'...but, let's talk about that for a bit! It's one of the fastest growing trends in the candle making industry, true enough...but is it really all that?

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• Soy is derived from a vegetable source, it's from a naturally grown and renewable crop

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• Essentially, the beans are harvested, cleaned, cracked and hulled, then rolled into flakes. Now, just who came up with this???

• In 1992, a group of students at Purdue University were given a challenge to come up with a suitable substitute for Beeswax, the other 'eco friendly' candle product, which was extremely expensive. (It still is!) The winner was Soy! Things kinda chugged along, as things do, when coming into market production...marketing had to be done to promote this new and wondrous product...this is what circulated in 2014 -2015, and these are still the prime talking points for Soy.

• Wow! Almost scary, huh? Kind of like Reefer Madness, but candles! Well, like any good propaganda, it's not necessarily all 100 percent factual! I'll give it the 'all natural' and 'non toxic' and the 'derived from vegetables'...those are a given. I'll even concede the lower burn temperature...it's not a determining factor, though, when most people buy their candles. On the rest...c'mon, now!

**Soy will soot, like any candle will soot. The soot is the residual of the fragrance oil and colorant. If there is no fragrance added, and no colorant, soy will, then, not soot. Keeping your wicks trimmed to 1/2 inch will keep your sooting problems in check, no matter what candle you're burning.

• Soy will burn completely. This may not be a desirable thing! You know how you're pretty much used to having that last 1/2 inch of candle at the bottom of your container candles? Do you really stress about it? Did you know it's there for a reason? If you burn container candles completely to the bottom, you seriously risk overheating the glass, causing it to shatter with all the ensuing fire hazard that would accompany it!

• From experience, soy is a persnickety thing! It is extremely temperature sensitive and must be coddled. For the casual chandler, this may not be an issue. If you're just making candles for yourself and a few family members, you can afford the waiting time while things cool down for the next steps. When you're in seasonal production, there isn't time to coddle the process; things need to move along smoothly, and in a timely fashion! This is, so far, why we don't see 100% soy candles at your local Walmart! It's definitely not factory friendly!

• Soy is not compatible with all fragrance oils. I use a supplier who consistently tests and retests products and product interactions, posting those results, along with client advice for all of their fragrances. Look for that kind of supplier. Candle suppliers do not take back merchandise! If in doubt, purchase a sample 1 oz. size for trial runs.

• Soy will expand and/or contract in response to temperature fluctuations. It will have a mottled appearance in your glass container candles. Imperfections in the surface of the candles may require a second pour to smooth out, or the use of a blow drier. The mottling is kind of pretty, and is just part of the natural soy expressing itself. Some customers are okay with it; others, not so much...it's a matter of personal preference...

• Soy candles will melt in hot temperatures and will shrink in cold temperatures. Keep at a minimum of 60F.

So, what do I use? I'm currently using a Soy Blend product that's 35% soy and 65% blend of other vegetable waxes and a food grade paraffin that's specially designed as a single pour wax for glass container candles. It's designed to hold 12% fragrance, which is top of the scale. For my clientele, the fragrance is where it's at. In an hour, your whole home is fragranced!

From the standpoint of a candle maker, the choice depends on our goals. And, possibly, your budget. Let's look at the cost differentials.

Beeswax is currently $8.99 per pound. It's not available in large quantities from my primary supplier, Natures Garden.
Soy Wax comes in flakes, and is available in 50# packages at only $65.
Joy Wax comes in slabs, and is available in 55 - 60# for $95.

This is where your goals kick in...is time your friend, or is time your money?

With Soy wax, you heat your wax chips to 200 degrees F, to melt. I did this part in my turkey roaster. Process individual candle portions in a pyrex measuring cup...I keep two cup and four cup handy for candles. Or, you can use 'Pour Pots', which are aluminum pots with handles...these are it

You can mix your colorant in at this point. Most fragrances cannot be put in at this point, or they'll evaporate away. You've got to let it cool. Each fragrance has what is called its 'Flash Point', which is the temperature at which the fragrance is released and you begin to smell it strongly. In soy candles, most fragrances are added at 160. Add fragrances, stir vigorously for at least a full minute...then you wait, again. The soy needs to cool down to 110 degrees before your pour the candles! If you pour too hot, you'll have problems with tunneling, which will require a second pour to correct. It takes a few hours for the wax to cool down naturally, in each of these steps. You cannot rush it. Go meditate or pull some weeds...write a Blog...something. Your soy candles will require a curing time of three days before you set them out for sale. I tried a few ways to 'expidite' the process over the 18 months that I used strictly soy. I really wanted it to work out. I tried lots of things...multiple smaller pour pots so I could process more than one fragrance at a time....using smaller pots so there wouldn't be so much mass to have to cool down before the next step...it was just not a romance meant to be! Especially for processing fundraisers!

With Joy Wax, I put the slab in my big melt pot (it's an electric turkey roaster), set it to 175 when I first get up. It takes a couple of hours for the slab to melt, giving me time to do any of the bakery orders that may have come in, or any dinner orders for later pick up. When the slab is melted, I turn the temperature back to 165. It's a quick fix to add the fragrance, stir for a minute, and pour immediately. Then the candles just have to sit quietly until they've set up. When they've set up for a couple of hours, they're ready to sell. No cure time necessary! Boom! For me, the cost differential is no issue. In the time it takes to do a half dozen soy candles, I can put out triple that amount of Joy candles, using a single pour pitcher, just cleaning it out in between fragrances! It's kind of like enjoying full fat Alfredo sauce over your Zoodles!

I've never used Beeswax. My supplier does have a tutorial on processing beeswax candles, though, so I'll post their link if you're interested in looking into Beeswax as a candle product. It surely looks interesting, and from what I'm seeing, is primarily used for our primitive candles, unscented, for lighting purposes only.

There is aother newer product available, Palm Wax, which is from sustainable sources, eco-friendly. I've not tried it. It has a beautiful, almost iced, appearance as it cures, from the pictures I've seen. It requires a melt temperature of 210 degrees, with immediate addition of your fragrance and pouring at 200 degrees, to achieve the mottled effect. I don't know how well this would work with the fragrances with the lower flash points, though; would the fragrance dwindle to slight? And, it runs as much as Joy wax does.

So, overall, it's a personal call on the wax selection. We'll talk more, later, about our step by step processing, things I've learned along the way, and such! Pyrex measures vs aluminum pour pots; additives vs. no additives and more. For now, I'm off to work on the Valentines Fragrance line, and get some of those seeds planted!

My advice, my friends, is this: Start out small, make yourself happy and follow your muses!
So, until later, Steem on!

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