Starting Over

I used to make candles all the time. Due to the messiness and lack of ventilation, I had to stop making them in my basement. It became a one-batch-a-year thing, around the holidays. This year ended up being no exception.

My wife said I could make candles in the kitchen so long as I don’t make a mess. This isn’t the 1950s and just assume the kitchen is hers; she happens to love to cook and is protective of the kitchen. :-)

I’m appreciative of that, so I set up shop and am doing my best to keep organized. Most of my fragrance oils are still stored in the basement, but I have the essential equipment up here now. Here is the set-up:

My candle making station.

I was later ordering supplies so, as a result, I couldn’t find 16 oz. apothecary jars anywhere, online or locally. One of my online candle shops had some 8 oz. jars available, so I grabbed two dozen of those. I also had to order some wax. I selected IGI 6046, a coconut/paraffin blend. I thought that this was the same wax I purchased last year, which I had a lot of success with. It was an easy wax and no one had any complaints.

Turns out this is NOT the same wax. It’s still an easy wax to use, I just need to handle it differently. I didn’t realize that so my first batch was flawed. There were sinkholes and some people reported that the wick was snuffing out. Turns out the 6046 wax needs to be heated to a higher temperature than I am used to. I realized this when I accidentally forgot that wax was melting while I was yapping online. Amazingly, the wax that burned “too long” ended up not having sinkholes. Imagine that. It came out nice - a bright red candle with a cinnamon fragrance that I made for a friend of mine.

In the meantime, I was finally able to get 16 oz apothecary jars and they arrived today. Yay!

I looked up the spec sheet for the IGI 6046 and now know that I have to heat it up to 185 degrees, then let it cool to 175 degrees before pouring. I am also using a CD-12 wick instead of the LX-14 wick. I poured my first candle using this technique tonight. It’s a yellow-brown Nutmeg & Cedar candle for my friend Joey. I am hoping it comes out okay.

Note: I also heated up the jar ahead of time with a heat gun. It’s cold in the kitchen!

Speaking of Joey’s candle, here it is drying:

See that color?? I don’t like it either. I wanted something more of a light wood color, but not too brown. Oh well. :(

Oh, another problem I had… when I was using the 8 oz jars, I added fragrance as if it was a 16 oz jar. I was just mindlessly going through the motions. I realized this after the fact and had to ask people to dispose of those over-fragranced candles. But I digress again…

I think my next candle tonight is going to be a purple Honey Vanilla candle for my friend Alison.