Clear Crystals

[Elysian]

Hi, I just purchased some clear crystals from candlechem, followed the instructions to a T and received some odd results.

 

Basically 1tsp per pound paraffin wax. Heated the crystals separately, added a little wax to melt together and added to my larger pot of wax. Poured pillar at my straight paraffin wax normal temperature (85C or 185F).

 

I did this with a candle with 6% FO initially and had large white patches which I thought may be clusters of the FO since I didn't add any other additive other than the crystals, and figured that the FO may be too heavy. I have tried reducing the FO, but not working.

 

So I tried a candle with absolutely nothing other than the straight paraffin wax and clear crystals - no white patches as with the FO, but I am getting a lot of tiny bubbles and tiny white spots all over the candle and some white patches here and there.

 

Would anyone have any experience on this or any advice to lend, much appreciated!

[TallTayl]

I have to admit I have not idea what clear crystals even are. 

[Elysian]

They retain the translucency of the paraffin wax hardening it at the same time, which I guess replaces stearic which whilst producing the same hardening effect and higher MP of the wax, causes the wax to be opaque. The latter is not great when making hurricane lanterns for instance - whilst it does work, translucency would be even better  

[Scented]

Oh boy let me try to remember what I was using this for. It has been awhile. 

When you're melting separately and adding wax to it are you allowing it to remelt so to speak as your stir to combine wax and additive? 

If so, are you also making sure you do when you combine small batch to large batch? 

If so, have  you tried backing down on the LC or adding another pound of wax to what you have? What I'd be tempted to do is to back down on the amount of additive. Try it at a 2:1 ratio maybe ... 2 lbs wax to 1 tsp additive type of thing. 

How's your pouring going? Are you pouring steady into your mold? What type of mold? And you might (because of fluctuating freezing in 30 states brrrr) have to run the blunt end of say a chop stick along the bottom of your mold or tap, tap, tap to release the bubbles. 

IF you look very closely, you'll see the air bubbles because they are shiny. At least that's how they've exposed themselves to me. 

[Elysian]

Hello Scented. Nice to know one other person has used this  

 

Well, I melt the crystals with a bit of wax separately, with a melted pot of wax waiting. Then I pour the melted crystals+wax into the heating pot of wax - so yes I do believe that I am mixing it all up quite well actually.

 

Today, I doubled up on the wax - which means that I have actually reduced the FO to 3% and crystals to 1/2tsp per pound. Guess what - the FO was leaking right through the wick hole when I removed the seal after the candle had dried. Urghs.

 

I am using metal molds, and I am actually in a part of the world where the temp is really (erm...enviably?) good at the moment at 82F! 

 

You are right though - I did see a little more bubbles than usual, but yeah I did tap them away too.

 

Conclusively, at this point, it really doesn't seem that the crystals work with FO, or maybe it's just me who's getting something wrong here...hmmm. Without FO, I still have to figure that one out on halving it as you said. It's just that I have this pot of FO-ed wax in a beautiful pink that I just can't bear to waste 

[Scented]

82 would be very enviable at the moment lol!

The crystals work with FO. This I know.

So when I used this, I was putting the crystals in and melting them down before adding wax. Once melted then I would add about twice the amount of melted (untainted meaning not fragranced) wax. It would cloud briefly and I would stir till mixed and clear again and then add to my pot of remaining wax and mix till the light cloudy wisps disappeared. Then I added scent.  My temps were at the 200 degree range for mixing ... not talking the scent. That was added at a cooler rate. 

If you have scent leaking out the wick hole, my guess is there should have been a visible sludge in the bottom of your pour pot that found its way into your mold. I don't think your scent mixed. I wish I  had pictures to show you what that looks like but I don't. 

 

Metal molds require a mold release of some type to my knowledge for a better release, though water baths will help some. Some of those bubbles could be from the actual mold release so I would suggest either spraying it into the mold and using a cloth to evenly apply it or apply it to a towel and wipe it into the mold. 

 

When you double wax you also account for the addition of scent, but this appears to be a good thing that you didn't because it leaked out. 

 

Next question to you then is this ... where did you buy the clear crystals from and have you talked to them about the problems you are having? 

 

 

[Elysian]

Ha! "It would cloud briefly and I would stir till mixed and clear again and then add to my pot of remaining wax and mix till the light cloudy wisps disappeared." This is a very interesting statement. 

 

I do exactly as you did in the melting and mixing. However.... my cloudiness does not go away - both at the initial stages of crystals with wax (no FO) and when added to the larger pot of melted wax. I did wonder about that... even though the translucency does indeed come through when the wax has hardened.

 

I got the crystals from CandleChem. No I haven't written to ask. I tried asking some questions before I made the purchase but never got a reply even after a chaser. Being so far away from the US, and that being the only plausible source for me in international shipping, I decided to just bite the bullet and make my order (that, I got a reply LOL) since shipping takes time and I really wanted to try this for some of the stuff that I am making.

 

Ok, I thought that so long as the crystals melted into a liquid, that is fine - seems that the temperature is important! I am going to try to get it up to 200F in the liquid state.

 

Thanks so much, you have been a real treasure!

[Scented]

Good luck! See if that helps. I'll do what I can to fish out the TC that I  have and see if the directions remained intact. I used to love to work with this stuff, but haven't messed with it for years and after tomorrow I hope to be able to work with wax and stuff again.

 

[Elysian]

Hmmm, I tried heating the formula up to 200F and did a re-pour, and I am still getting the blooming as in pix below. The below is a flat piece like a round pendant.

 

 

I made a bowl as below, with the same formula and the bloom is not as obvious although that may be due to the lighter colour as I can see the patches still. This is a real head-scratcher...if you do recall any other directions that I am missing, would be awesome if you can shed some light on this. I am still getting a more than usual film of FO on the bowl when it comes out of the mold even though this is about only 3%FO. The odd thing is that the scent from the bowl is pretty strong - which is unusual for 3%... 

 

 

[Scented]

The bloom is the wax reacting to the amount of  fragrance which has me wondering if you're using any other additive or just the crystals? If so, what? And your paraffin is a straight paraffin in that it has no additives in it right? 

 

I heated up to 200, but did not pour at 200, more like back down to 185-190  range. I just needed things in the pot to look clear before color went in etc. 

 

[Elysian]

No, no other additives other than the clear crystals with straight paraffin, dye and FO. Seriously absolutely nothing else.

 

I did actually get the melted combi looking clear by the time I poured. So yeah, this is pretty weird right. I was beginning to doubt myself even wondering if I had made a mistake in the amount of FO  However, even if I did, it should have been corrected by the subsequent amounts of wax that I topped up to get the crystal and FO proportion down. At max, the FO for the current batch can no way be above 5%, even if I had made a mistake right at the beginning. Garggh 🤔

 

Anyway, I will be testing again and

will let you know if I ever succeed with this one 😬

[Scented]

OK I'm just going to pop some thoughts in here, maybe some links. 

Translucent and clear crystals should be the same thing. Seeing an old post about this does bring back that TC's were at times, iffy, to me. I was working with an unknown wax at tthe time that wasn't going to ever go translucent. I the above thread look for comments from Henry. 

One supplier wants you to melt this between 215 and 220 ... so you do have to be careful at the high temps, because it gets close to dangerous for regular wax. However  you are melting the additive and then slowly adding the wax, stir and add to the larger parts of wax. 

In addition ... I think I was wrong about the scent part. I think you can probably get enough scent to work in this at maybe 2 % or lower that will only give you the pick up and smell but not a good release upon burn.

To tackle this whole thing ... if you want ... consider your wax and what its properties are. I know you're using a straight paraffin. What do you want to achieve here? A clear, see-through candle ... I cannot get you there, but there are wax manufacturers who can help in that arena. I would bet that candlewic.com can help you out there. Chandlechem can too ... but I'm also at a point where I think you're going to have to contact the supplier and say hey this is what I'm doing and this is what I'm getting and this is what I want. 

One fairly reliable source suggested adding just a bit (can't tell you the bit) of microcrystalline 180 to the wax because it will help to harden the candle but not at the expense of reducing its translucency. I have no experience with that but candlewic.com will and it carries the wax. There are threads from long ago days of this forum where translucent and additives of this nature are discussed. The above is such a link. 

This is not what my translucent crystals look like ... and I say TC instead of CC. Maybe there's a difference in what these are based on manufacturer or someone enhanced something or wanted to call it something different (the stuff as been around since I've been making in the 1990s.) What I have is actually  not powdery but clear in form and it's pretty much a plastic looking substance. 

Half of my head says do what  you're doing with the CC and drop in a couple of pieces of Universal Additive (but I hate this additive) however it isn't supposed to cost at minimal use on your translucency. It will help to get rid of that mottle and it may even give you a new problem (fingernailing for me is why I don't like the stuff). 

I'm still looking for some other things to try to help you because I know how frustrating this can all be or already must be. 

Sorry! 

I think I would go back to square one and make it without scent and then gradually add a little bit of scent (keeping track) till it gives you the mottling (snowflake) look you had in the pictures above. 

 

Consider trying some of this paraflint if you can get it. 

Edited January 8, 2018 by Scented