Tortoise Shell
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I love the fact that both soy and palm wax are eco-friendly, "green" waxes. A simple online search will tell you both waxes are plant based and virtually smoke and soot free. However, a side-by-side comparison of the candle making process with these two waxes is starkly different.
When it comes to eco-friendly wax, most of the candles you see for sale are made from soy. As a consumer, I didn't care much for soy wax candles. To me, they had a strange odor to them. Refining processes have changed somewhat over the years and now odorless soy candle wax is available.
I had been making my own palm wax candles for months, but special attention is needed in order to achieve optimum beauty. To me it was well worth the extra effort to get the beautiful crystal patterns from the various types of palm wax; frosty crystals, billowy feathers, vertical grains, and even a puzzle-like tortoise shell designs.
After months of creating strictly palm wax candles, I decided to give soy a try and purchased some Golden Brands 464 soy wax. My first batch of candles was a disaster. I figured it had to be something I was doing wrong because everyone else loved the wax. I poured the candles in a stout 8 oz Mason jar, the square kind with rounded corners. After the candle hardened, the wax had formed a cloverleaf design with visible air pockets. That was easy enough to cover up with a blast from a hot hair dryer to remelt the wax, but I wanted to know what was causing it.
I thought maybe it had something to do with the candle dye, but a dyeless candle did the same thing. I had to dig deep on the search engines to troubleshoot my problem, but I eventually found it. I was heating the containers like I had done for palm wax. Heated containers and slow cooling are necessary for the crystals to form, however not for soy wax.
If you're accustomed to making palm wax candles and would like to give soy a shot, here are some tips for getting the best results. Take note in the vast handling differences between the two waxes.
Palm Wax
Containers: Warm glass containers on lowest oven setting around 160-170 degrees.
Melting: Heat wax to 200 degrees or crystals won't properly form.
Pour: Pour between 185-195 degrees into warmed containers.
Cooling: Cover with cardboard box until cooled to retain heat for as long as possible.
Soy Wax
Containers: Room temperature.
Melting: Heat wax to 185 degrees.
Pour: Pour at 135 degrees.
Cooling: Uncovered, out in the open.
AJ Farro is a retired programmer and creative consultant for a variety of websites and blogs on many different topics. Are you making candles with eco-friendly waxes? Sell your hand poured candles on your own "green" website. Get professional eco-friendly, cheap green web hosting with cPanel control panel, unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and addon domains from SuperGreen Hosting. Not any good at building websites? Then try drag-and-drop online website creation. Choose from over 2,000 ready made templates and get your domain name for free.
