Soy Candle Making Tips
Making a candle is easy, right?
Melt Wax
Add Frangrance & Color
Wick a Jar & Pour
Making a GREAT candle… Not so easy.
Each element of candle making must carefully consider the type of wax, the desired purpose, and how you take the right steps, in the right order to guarantee success.
Wax
Use a high-quality wax. There are a lot of wax options in the world. For a clean, long-lasting, and fragrant burn, you can’t beat soy wax. Some soy waxes work better than others. We recommend Freedom Wax from American Soy Organics for beginners.
Temperature
Different waxes have different needs. Be sure to follow the directions on the type of wax you are using to give you great candles from the start. Once comfortable with your formulation and process, start making small changes that allow you to improve your efficiencies and maximize your profits.
Scent
Most manufacturing-grade candle fragrances will work in quality waxes. It’s always best to test your fragrances first since some fragrances don’t work as well in soy wax. The scent is typically the most expensive ingredient in candles. Reducing your fragrance-load will reduce cost, and decrease the potency of your candle while increasing the load will help establish you as an elite candle brand. Most nationally-recognized candle brands use from 6-12% fragrance in their formulations. HERE is a link to an easy fragrance calculation tool.
Stir
Like any good recipe, you’ll want to make sure your ingredients are properly blended. Blending fragrance requires energy. That energy can come from hotter wax, more aggressive stirration, or a combination of both. Watch your fragrances’ flashpoints carefully! Adding a low flashpoint fragrance to a hot wax will cause some of your fragrance to evaporate and you’ll have a less-potent candle. Also be cautious of aerating your wax, which can happen if you stir too aggressively. This can cause oxidation, pesky bubbles, sink-holes, and uneven burning candles.
Formula
Be sure to use a wax formula best suited to your desired result. Softer waxes like our Freedom Wax, 7030, Millennium, and Container Wax are best suited for containers. A hard wax, like M100, is great for tarts and melts. Since it will hold its own shape so well, M100 is also a great choice for votives and pillars.
Wicking
The one thing that makes or breaks your candle is the wick. Get it right, and you’ll be rolling into the future as a candle-making God. Get it wrong, and your days are numbered. As a general rule, when making soy candles, you’ll want to stick with a natural cotton wick. We recommend ECO series wicks, Stabios, RRDs, and HTP series. These wicks seem to handle natural waxes well. Be sure to keep a nice variety on hand for testing each fragrance in multiple wicks.
Batch Wisely
Be sure to make more than you need, and wait before burning. A little extra wax at the end of the batch will help ensure your sanity if you happen to run low, or have a few misbehaving jars that need a skim-coat. Allow each batch a full 24 hours to fully crystallize before initiating your test burn.
