which soy? pillar or container?

[Wick'n'Wax]

Hi,

can someone just clarify for me which soy I should use for embeds? would it be pillar soy or container? I'm using ecosoya.

Also, bit of a daft question, I recently bought some ecosoya and was 'gifted' 1 1/2kg of soy, but they couldn't remember whether it was pillar or container. Is there any way of checking?

thanks xx

[NattyCat]

feel the wax. if it is hard, crunchy and brittle it's pillar. If it's soft, sticky and squeezable, it's container. The pillar feels like a handful of cornflakes.

[Wick'n'Wax]

aah, thanks.

well I'm edging towards container, but not 100%

theres big lumps in the top of the bag, then flakes/slivers, going down to dust almost at the bottom.

If I squeeze the dust its almost like it wants to stick together like crumble mix, but the flakes/slivers are brittle and crack.

[NattyCat]

do you have any left of the stuff I sent you to compare?

the flakes on container tend to be larger - and there is in no way any crack or snap. The pillar flakes tend to be smaller and grabbing a handful and squeezing will give a definate crunch - container doesn't do that at all.

The last test would be to pour a votive candle and let it set fully. If it comes out easy - it's pillar, if you have to scoop it out with a teaspoon, it's container.

[Wick'n'Wax]

aah, good thinking batman

yep, I can compare it to some I had from you nat I'll also try a votive and see what happens.

btw, from that then, having to scoop the wax out IF its container, I take it that embeds should be from pillar soy?

[NattyCat]

aah' date=' good thinking batman

yep, I can compare it to some I had from you nat I'll also try a votive and see what happens.

btw, from that then, having to scoop the wax out IF its container, I take it that embeds should be from pillar soy?[/quote']

i would say so - but personally if I was embedding shapes i would probably use paraffin - is it a chunk pillar or have you got a mould to make shapes? If you don't mind mixing paraffin and soy you might find it easier to use paraffin as it has a higher melt point than soy.

If it's a chunk pillar then soy chunks should be OK but make sure you pour the overpour cooler but no so cool that you get jumplines and bubbles.

[Wick'n'Wax]

well I was thinking of a wide mouth jar with layers in, and embeds, i.e. strawberry bottom, whipped wax and some strawberry embeds etc.

that sort of thing, a bottom, some whipped and embeds

[Wick'n'Wax]

sorry this has taken so long.

Right, I compared the wax last night to pillar and container I already had and was 99% certain it was container. If you squeeze it, it feels sticky-ish. As opposed to pillar that crunches.

So I thought to make certain, I'll make a votive, I did.

and......... it came out of the votive mould fine, so I'm definately confused.

Only thing I'm wondering is, I popped the mould into fridge for 10mins to get it out quicker to check, could that have made container soy come out of the mould?

Just don't know what to use this for now.

It looks as if it may have been used before, there are large lumps in the bag, that are rounded. As if someone has cut up pillar candles, so I'm totally lost.

Anyone any further advice?

thanks

[NattyCat]

if the bag was free then you've probably got a bag of scraps made up of container and pillar. That wax would probably only be good for tarts and melts.

[Wick'n'Wax]

hi nat, thanks for your reply.

I had a look through the bag and theres one piece that has a 1cm rim around the top, which could have been from a mould.

Thats a brill idea. Will use it for melts. What about embeds?

Can I just ask, is it right I'm able to go upto 9% fo with melts?