Friday 8 August 2008

Get Candle Making

Making the decision to try your hand at making candles is easy. Understand where to go from here is somewhat 'more difficult. They are great as part of homemade gift basket ideas. While many of the big, national craft stores that sell candle supplies, their offerings are not of best quality, and their selections tend to be extremely limited. To get your supplies, you should visit one of the many Internet sites devoted to the craft of candle making.

The first and most common form of wax is natural soy wax. As the name suggests, soy wax is made from soya beans, and is an all-natural vegetable wax. Soy wax, because of its size, burns cleaner and cooler than paraffin wax. It contains fewer carcinogens and toxins of paraffin wax, but also tends to be somewhat 'more expensive.

One of the advantages of low melting point of paraffin waxes is that the soft wax helps preserve the scent of the candle until it is burned. Scented candles are really beautiful. This feature makes it more low-melting paraffin waxes ideal for container candles. In addition to their wonderful ability to keep the scent, these low-melting wax are extremely malleable and almost never requires the use of additives.

When making container candles, you want to make sure that the beam is large enough to melt the wax of the candle completely across the top. You also want to avoid 'tunneling', that is when the wick burns a hole down the center of the candle, leaving a gallery of wax around the sides of a container. You also want to ensure that the beam is not too large, which may cause the candle to burn faster than it should, causing excessive smoke or soot as well.

While there may be drawbacks to the use of paraffin, there are also many advantages. Overall, paraffin tends to keep the smell better, longer and easier to natural waxes. Typically, the scent throw (or power of scent emitted) from paraffin candles is stronger and bigger can fill the space more effectively. It is also usually easier for a manufacturer of candles for the fragrance to hold wax, avoiding the fragrance 'filter' questions. Overall, the paraffin waxes tend to be less finicky of natural waxes, and require fewer additives and adjustments.

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