Blog - Learn How To Make Soy Candles at Home

Light Up Your Evening-DIY Floating Candles Centerpiece

September 10, 2014 by SoyCandleMakingTime 2 Comments

There’s something about candles floating on the water that gives off a peaceful and even romantic feeling. The flickering flames reflecting on the water, gently floating. Pair that with a creative bowl and maybe some decorative rocks or shells or whatever else you can think of, and you have yourself a lovely centerpiece!

So, I tried making these floating candles the other day for the first time, and they turned out really well. One thing though, I used a Votive/Pillar soy wax for these and they didn’t burn very long. The votive/pillar blend is a harder wax so the tealight wicks that I used were not hot enough to melt the wax far enough across, so the little candles basically tunneled.

I thought I would try doing half votive wax and half 100% soy wax so they would still come out of the molds easily but hopefully burn longer. That did the trick! I think you could probably even do 75% soy container wax and 25% votive/pillar soy wax and that might help them to burn even a bit longer.

Lets get to making some floating candles shall we?

Supplies:

8oz of votive/pillar soy wax or even better, 4oz 100% soy container wax and 4oz votive/pillar blend soy wax
Several tealight wicks
Metal tart molds and/or some other type of molds that are wider at the top where you’ll be lighting the wick so they float nicely. You can find some candy molds at stores like Michaels crafts or Hobby Lobby or look on Amazon for “floating candle molds” or “candy molds” (Make sure the molds are at least 1/2″ deep) For fall, you might try looking for Fall Candy Molds (the Amazon links are affiliate links so I do make a small commission if you visit those links and place an order)
Metal pour pot or metal bowl for melting the wax
Metal cooking pot with some water in it
Digital scale (any kitchen scale will do, but digital is best)
Rubber spatula that can withstand higher heat
Candy thermometer
1/2 oz of fragrance oil of your choice
dye (optional)

Need to know where to buy supplies? Click Here

Instructions:

Whether you are using only votive/pillar wax or part votive/pillar and part 100% soy container wax you want to set your pour pot on the digital scale, zero out (or tare) the scale and measure out your wax, pouring it into the pour pot or metal bowl.

Next set the pour pot into the cooking pot that has about an inch or more of water in it, or set your metal bowl on top of a pot with water (double boiler style). Make sure your candy thermometer is in the wax and melt on medium-low heat until the wax reaches about 180 or so degrees. Don’t let it get above 200 degrees F. or it can cause discoloration of the wax and may cause the candles to burn incorrectly.

Make sure your molds are set out on some wax paper and set one tealight wick in each mold. The amount of candles you’ll get will depend on what size your molds are, so just get several molds ready and see how far the wax goes.

Once the wax is at 180 degrees or so, take it off of the burner and set back onto the scale. Zero out the scale again and then add your 1/2 oz of fragrance oil and dye (if you are using dye) and stir slowly but well.

Stirring slowly ensures air bubbles do not get incorporated into the wax.

Now if you are using plastic candy molds like I did for most of my floating candles, it would be best to let the wax cool to 160 degrees before pouring, otherwise if you are using the metal tart molds you can go ahead and pour as soon as you’re done stirring the fragrance oil and dye into the wax.

You’ll probably need to readjust the wicks since they tend to move around as you pour, so just do that once you’ve finished pouring into all your molds.

Allow the floating candles to cool completely and cure for at least 24 hours before burning. For better scent throw when burning you may want to allow to cool for 48 hours or longer.

Pouring the wax….

Allow the floating candles to cool completely…..

This is the metal tart mold, the longest burning out of these candles…..

These are actually molds to make hollow mini candy cupcakes. The mold on the right would actually sit on top of the mold on the left to make a cavity in the cupcakes. I thought they would both make good floating candles 🙂 The cupcake tops on the left worked out really well, but the bottoms wouldn’t float (those are the 3 empty ones on the top half of the plastic mold ont he left). The shallower 3 cavities on the bottom right (I only have 2 filled) worked well too, but of course didn’t burn as long (maybe 1.5-2 hours) as the ones on the left.

These are actually candy lollipop molds so I had to fill in where the lollipop stick would go. I did that with hot glue. You definitely have to be sure not to overfill these with the soy wax or they will not look as nice.

These are also candy lollipop molds so I had to fill in where the stick goes with hot glue on these as well. These are pretty neat because they are ocean creatures. It would be nice if the detailed part was on the top, but it just won’t float that way! oh well, they still look nice in the bowl.

When the candles are completely cooled, you can pop them out of the molds easily!

Ready to test!

Your floating candles are nice and cured and you’ve popped them out of the molds. Now you can use a nice shallow larger bowl like I did and either fill part way with water or most of the way, or add some rocks or shells in the bottom. Use your imagination! Then carefully set one or a few floating candles into the water making sure the water doesn’t spill over onto the top of the candle. If it does, just take it out and dry it off and try again. I found that my candles all floated very well except for the mini cupcake shaped one, which didn’t have enough flare at the top so it just sank.

Light your newly made floating soy candles, turn the lights down low and enjoy the ambient glow!

Burn Times

The first batch I made with only votive/pillar soy wax, my little candles didn’t burn very long and they tunneled, which is why I decided to try a blend of soy waxes. The next batch burned nearly twice as long and didn’t tunnel near as much. My metal tart mold candle burned for about 3.5 hours the last time (I believe it was 2 hours in the first batch). Some of my smaller/ shallower flower floating candles (flower lolipop molds) that only burned for an hour the first batch, went up to 1.5-2 hours for the second batch.

So using the softer container wax definitely helped. Like I said above, you could try adding more of the container wax than the votive/pillar wax too and it would probably work fine and give an even longer burn time.

Have you made floating candles (whether soy or regular)?

What do you use for your candle molds? Leave a comment below!

Start a Candle Making Business-What First??

August 29, 2014 by SoyCandleMakingTime 24 Comments

Start Your Candle Making Business Right

CLICK HERE to get The Soy Candle Making Book Now!

I’ve written a few articles about starting a candle making business. However, I haven’t done one that actually goes through step by step what you need to do to get your candle making business started, from scratch, right from the beginning. In this post I am going to go through the first stages of starting your home candle business. Hopefully by the end of this post, you will have enough info to get your business going.

When I first started my soy candle making business, I just kind of jumped right in. I hadn’t done much testing of my candles. I just bought a kit off of eBay and I liked it, and within a month, I had my website up.

Now, it is good to have the attitude like I did and just go for it once you’re ready, but I would definitely do a few things differently if I were to start all over.

So let’s just jump right in to each step starting with step 1

Buy Supplies And Start Making Candles!

If you haven’t already tried making some soy candles, then you really need to buy some supplies and try making a few first to see how you like it. You definitely don’t want to spend the time planning your candle making business if you don’t even know if you’ll enjoy making the candles in the first place!

I would recommend going with a kit since it is usually more cost effective and you’ll get everything you need to start making your soy candles. I bought my first kit off of eBay and it turned out great but if the seller doesn’t specify on the listing what type/brand of soy wax, wicks and fragrance oil, then you should ask. Then, if it works really well for you, you will know what type of supplies you might want to look for when you start buying from a supplier.

I already mentioned eBay, but here are some links to suppliers that sell candle making kits:
http://www.candlesoylutions.com/closeup.asp?searchWord=kit&pid=340&offset=0
http://www.candlesoylutions.com/closeup.asp?searchWord=kit&pid=1165&offset=0
http://www.peakcandle.com/products/soy-container-candle-starter-kit__k1004.aspx
http://www.candlesandsupplies.net/Soy-Container-Candle-Making-Kit

You can use the recipes on my site, but remember that the container candle recipes are specifically for 100% soy container wax. There are other soy container waxes such as Ecosoya Xcel or Golden Brands 464 wax that may not work as well with pouring at 100 degrees F. So if you try one of those waxes, you should use their specific instructions for melting and pouring the wax first. I will eventually add information on this site about best heating and pouring temps for specific waxes once I have tested them all.

So, once you have made a few candles for yourself and done some testing to find the right recipe for your candles, go ahead and make some for friends and family and ask that they give you honest feedback about how they smell and burn. If that goes well, then move on to the next phase, otherwise fine tune your candles to fix any issues such as smoking, soot, wick mushrooming, weak fragrance throw, too much frost, etc. (don’t expect to get 100% soy candles frost free 100% of the time. You may just have to hit them up with the blow dryer or heat gun occasionally if you get some that don’t look quite as pretty! But don’t obsess about it if it isn’t that bad). See my FAQ section for answers to many of the issues above.

Ready to move on?

Inventory or Made to Order?

When I ran my soy candle making business, I usually made them to order. In fact, I kind of prided myself in doing that…..that is, until I started getting more and more orders. The thing is, is it really that important to make your candles totally fresh? Well, not really. Many times letting them sit longer can actually make for a stronger smelling candle. However, with soy wax, if you let them sit too long, they will eventually start to frost and the color possibly start to fade.

On a positive note to making your candles to order, you don’t have excess candles sitting around that aren’t selling. If you keep an inventory of candles, you could use those extra candles for promotions from time to time.

And of course, if you plan on doing home parties and craft fairs you will want to make a good amount of candles ahead of time.

If I were to start selling candles again, I would go the inventory route. I’d make several of each type of candle I want to sell and have a nice shelf for them to sit on, ready to be packed and shipped at a moments notice. I would set aside a day or two a week (give or take) just to make some inventory. Depending on how much I’m selling, that way I don’t have to worry about making candles every single time someone orders!

What Kind of Candles Should I Sell?

Next, you need to ask yourself what kind of candles do you want to start out with? Do you want to do container candles? If so, what type of containers? (Mason jars, regular canning jars, teacups, metal tins, coffee mugs, wine glasses, other decorative glasses, Libby jars/bowls/etc……….). Below is a list of soy candle ideas for you that you could use to start your product line:

Mason Jar candles are popular for rustic themes
Libbey glass containers. They have all sorts of styles. Can be great for more of a modern style
Status Jars
Apothacary jars
Metal tins
Teacups
Coffee mugs
Wine glasses
Votives
Tealights
Melts/tarts. You can do all sorts of shapes with these if you find some molds of the right size such as ice cube trays or jello molds, etc….. You can also do the standard tarts or use the the clamshell tart molds (similar to Scentsy bricks)
Sliceable Soy Wax Loaves – Find this recipe in my book (customer slices off pieces to use in their tart melter)
Candle loaves or pies (using pie tins or loaf tins you can get at the Dollar Tree and use multiple wicks)
Pillar candles (must use a soy pillar blend wax)

It would be best for your candle making business to start off small. So if you know you want to do more than just container candles, then start with container candles and votives or containers, votives and melts. If you are wanting to specialize in more decorative, unique candles, then I would focus on only those at first until you get a good system down. For example, Chunk Candles take quite a bit more time than just regular container candles. The same goes for Swirl candles, layered candles and if you’re using whipped wax toppings (all 3 of those recipes are in my soy candle making book)

Once you figure out what you want to specialize in first, you need to decide on what fragrances you want to start out with.

What Candle Fragrances Should I Start With?

Now candles are a very “seasonal” product, so you need to consider that when choosing your first few fragrances if you want to start out well. I would choose a couple tried and true “classics” such as good old Vanilla. Below is a list of some “classic” candle scents that do well year round:

Vanilla
Clean Cotton or similar scent
Coconut type scents
Apple Pie
Melon
Ocean type scents
Lavender

Those are some classic ones you see in stores pretty much year round. You will also want to find some for whatever season you are in.

For example, right now as I’m writing this, it is nearing the end of Summer. School is starting and people are beginning to think about Fall and Winter and all the holidays that fall into that. (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.) So right now, I would want to start getting some of those types of fragrances into my lineup.

How Do I Know Which Fragrances Will Sell in My Area?

You can get a good idea of what’s popular at certain times of the year by going to stores in your area. Just take a look at what fragrance of candles they have on their shelves! Especially stores like Walmart or Fred Meyer, larger chains like that. You KNOW that they put a lot of thought and research into what people want and what sells. It would also be a good idea to do some research on the Yankee Candle website as well as Scentsy.

That doesn’t mean you have to sell exactly those types of fragrances. However, it might be a good idea to include a few of them or similar ones, especially at first. Maybe put your own spin on a popular fragrance this time of year such as Pumpkin Pie. I made some Pumpkin Nog candles one year and they did fairly well. Here’s what I did, I just mixed Pumpkin Pie fragrance oil with Eggnog fragrance oil and Whala! 🙂

So anyway, you just want to have as many fragrances as you can handle at first. Don’t try to be the one that has them all, like I did! You end up having someone order a fragrance that hardly ever sells. Then if you’re out of that fragrance oil, you have to order some from your supplier just for one customer!! That doesn’t work well with your profit margin. So, just don’t do it lol

Play it smart and get really good at marketing the few candles that you start with before gradually adding more.

How Many Fragrances Should I Start With?

So, now your going to ask “But how many fragrances should I start with?”. Well, that really depends, but if I were to give a number, I would say start with around 6 fragrances give or take a few. Use a couple classic fragrances, some seasonal and maybe one or two more unique fragrances.

The key to success in any business is to figure out what makes YOU and your product stand out from the rest and really work with that. Do a little research and take a look at different soy candle web stores. Think about what makes you different. It doesn’t have to be the candles themselves, except maybe the quality of them. When I had my candle making business growing, I really wasn’t selling any “special” kind of candles. Others were selling mason jar candles too, and probably a lot of the same scents. Now this was online. Offline, I had hardly any competition in my city/state. I had people in the area and friends and family as pretty regular customers.

You should also look at what the competition seems to be doing right and what seems to be working for them. Find some reviews from people, or comments people are making. For example,look on the companies’ Twitter page or Facebook page. Then you can get some excellent insight into what people like and don’t like. You can also find out what you can do to fulfill those needs and what not to do by learning from any negative feedback that company might have.

So before my next post on starting your candle making business, I want you to think about how you can stand out, and get started on the steps above if you haven’t already.

Starting a Candle Making Business- What Next?

Why You Need to Start Building Your Email List and How to Do It

August 26, 2014 by SoyCandleMakingTime Leave a Comment

Do you have a website for your candle business? Maybe you don’t have a website yet, but you have a Facebook page, or you sell your candles on Etsy, or maybe you only do offline sales.

You NEED to Have an Email List!

An email list is so important to building your business and building relationships with your customers. If you have people voluntarily signing up for updates and specials and promotions, you have a gold mine! Besides the fact that if your website goes down you still have your mailing list and you can communicate with your customers, letting them know what’s going on so they aren’t in the dark.

Your email list is so important and you really NEED to start one as soon as possible if you don’t have one going already.

When I was selling candles, I didn’t have a way for site visitors to sign up to a mailing list. Ooooh how I wish I did! When I started this site, I didn’t start my mailing list right away until I read about starting a list from a blogger that I follow (SmartPassiveIncome.com). He showed me the importance of having a way for people to sign up on your website. I had thought about it before, but I just never implemented it. Well, I started my list in March 2013 (just last year) and I now have a list of nearly 1000 subscribers! These are people that voluntarily want to hear about what I have to offer.

Now, I don’t normally “sell” to my list, but I did send a couple emails out recently with my book launch and guess what? I sold quite a few books and most of my buyers were from my mailing list! With a website where you are selling your candles, like many of you probably have or intend to have, your customers will be signing up with the expectation of receiving sales type emails, and as long as you aren’t bombarding them, you should get a very good response to your newsletters, specials, etc….

How Do You Start an Email List?

So, this part is pretty simple. You just need to sign up with someplace like Mailchimp (that’s who I use) which is free until you hit 2000 subscribers. And then there’s Aweber (affiliate link) which is highly recommended by many, but they do not have a free version. I am probably going to switch to Aweber soon and try them out because I have heard so many great things about them.

As far as I’ve seen, those are probably the top email marking sites. I really like the free version of Mailchimp although they definitely have some useful tools in the paid version that I would like to try out. I think Aweber may be more flexible in creating custom sign up forms though. I’ll do a review when I try them out.

So after you sign up, you’ll just follow their instructions to put a form on your website. You can see my newsletter sign up form over on the top right side of this page. That area works really well for me, as well as including a form at the bottom of my posts and even sometimes in the middle of content like on my home page and about page.

I will talk more in detail about the placement and style of your email list sign up form in another post, but this should get you on your way. I’ll also talk about how to include a mailing list sign up form on your Facebook page in another post as well.

So get that form up on your site if you don’t have one or make a way to collect your customers email addresses offline if you don’t have a website, or better yet, do both!

I hope you found this helpful and feel free to post a comment below if you have any questions or thoughts.

Do you have a mailing list for your candle business? If so, what are your thoughts? How is it doing for your business? Leave a comment below!

Review: Soy Wax GW 464-Golden Brands

June 19, 2014 by SoyCandleMakingTime 62 Comments

CLICK HERE to get The Soy Candle Making Book Now

UPDATE: I bought some more 464 wax from Candle Science this time to try again. There was a huge difference! Click the link to see how it went: Golden Brands 464 Pour Temp Test-1

I’ve heard great things about Golden Brands 464 soy wax. It is supposed to give beautiful tops in container candles. Here is what the Golden Brands website says about their 464 and 444 blends:

“Golden Wax has two blended waxes that contain a soy-based additive and are both natural and kosher. This soy-based additive enables the soy to be poured at a hotter temperature reducing frosting and increasing FO load. These waxes blend well with paraffin, slack wax, and microcrystalline waxes.”

It says of the 464 specifically “Has a lower melt point which helps with the burn and gives better glass adhesion”

So, in testing this wax, I expect to see beautiful smooth tops when cooled, and very minimal or no “wet” spots around the jar (where the wax has pulled away from the jar in spots). No frosting, craters, etc….. I also expect an even better hot throw than the 100% soy wax I normally use.

Most of the reviews I’ve read have been extremely positive. Some of the reviews said they had problems with lumpy tops and sink holes until they tried pouring at 160-170 degrees, and then they came out perfectly.

The instructions for the GW 464 wax say to:

Heat soy wax to 185 F (so fragrance oil fully dissolves)-
Add fragrance oil and color
Remove from heat and stir gently for 2 minutes
Allow soy wax to cool to desired pour temperature (suggested temp is 130-140 degrees)
Stir gently one last time and pour candle

I noticed when melting the 464 wax that it has a thicker, creamier appearance than the other waxes I’ve used.

First Test Candles

So let’s get right into the results of my testing. This first picture below shows the cracks and sink hole I got. This is only 2 of the test candles. For my first round of testing, I made 4 8oz candles with the Golden Brands 464 wax and Melon Fig Apricot fragrance oil (Candle Cocoon) and 2 drops of dye for each lb of wax (1 drop in each 8oz candle)

One candle using Eco-14 wick poured at about 135 degrees .5oz (1/2oz)fragrance oil
One candle using CD-16 wick poured at about 135 degrees .5oz (1/2oz)fragrance oil
One candle using CD-16 wick poured at 170 degrees .25oz (1/4oz)fragrance oil
One candle using CD-18 wick poured at 100 degrees. .25oz (1/4oz) fragrance oil

You can see the sink holes below, and that is what happened to all of the total of 9 candles I made with this wax. The only one that got smallest sink hole was the one I poured at 100 degrees. Other than that, the ones I poured at higher temperatures looked the nicest as far as smooth shiny appearance and no frosting or wet spots. The lower the temperature, the rougher looking the top was.

Oh the Bubbles!

The two pictures below are of the first 4 test candles as I was burning them. I had a horrible time with air bubbles in these! (you can see the bubbles all around the edge of the melted wax) I’ve never had a problem with my soy wax getting air bubbles, but this wax seems to be very susceptible to it. I think because it has a thicker consistency when it’s melted.

The bubbles caused the wicks to burn very inconsistently with popping and crackling and the candles, especially the ones with more fragrance oil in them, did not end up burning to the edge like I would expect with my normal CD 16 and 18 wicks. These wicks work great in these jars with other soy waxes I’ve tried and especially my normal 100% soy wax from American Soy Organics (formerly Enchanted Lites Soy wax)

The picture below is of the test candles that I used .5oz of fragrance oil in each candle. The candle on the left had a hard time staying lit after a couple burn sessions and the wicks on almost all 4 of them seemed to get really thick which was weird.

More Testing!

Here are the next 3 test candles I made. I used:

Eco 14 wick in all of them
.5oz Melon Fig Apricot in the green one, poured at 90 degrees
.5oz PearBerry and no dye in one, poured at 130 degrees
.5oz Pumpkin Pie and no dye in one, poured at 110 degrees

This time I made sure to stir and pour these Very, Very slowly to minimize air bubbles. They all still got sink holes, but they did not have near as many air bubbles and ended up burning a lot better, though there was still some crackling and popping mostly with the green candle which I used the Melon Fig Apricot oil again.

The other two candles I tried Pumpkin Pie in one, and PearBerry in the other with no dye in those two.

My theory is that the Melon Fig Apricot is a heavier fragrance oil so it may have a harder time burning, especially with this particular wax and the added dye.

The picture below is toward the end of the two candles on the right (middle candle and green candle). The one on the far left I started testing later than the other two so it is not finished burning yet. As you can see, the one in the middle is done (total burn time about 49 hours). It burned mostly to the edge, but still left more wax on the sides of the jar than my other soy wax candles do. The green candle actually burned longer than the middle one (about 55 hours) and it also surprised me that it actually melted more wax off the sides too. I thought since that one had more air bubbles, it might not burn as well as the other two, but I think it actually did better.

With my observation of this soy wax, if you can get it to work well for you, is that it probably needs a little hotter wick than some other soy waxes.

The candle below is a candle I had made using the same Melon, Fig, Apricot oil as the other green candles, and the same amount of dye. Notice there are no air bubbles and it is burning nicely. The difference? This candle was made using the Millenium Blend soy wax from American Soy Organics (previously Enchanted Lites). I just thought I would show this so you can see that it is definitely the GW(Golden Brands) 464 wax that is the problem and not the dye or fragrance oil.

One Last Test…..

And these are the last two candles I made using the Golden Brands 464 wax. Here’s what I used:

.5oz Oatmeal Milk and Honey fragrance oil in each candle
CD-16 wick in each candle
No dye in either candle
Poured one on the left at 140 degrees
Poured candle on the right at 125 degrees

Both candles still got sink holes. I also stirred and poured these Very, very slowly and they both did much better without many bubbles, although they still have some. They seem to be burning pretty well and fairly cleanly too.

So What Do I Think???

Well, my experience with this soy wax has not been a good one. I’ve heard others rave about this wax, yet I’ve also heard of some others having issues with it. I followed advice and poured at higher temperatures, but it seems no matter what temperature I poured the wax into the jars at, they all got sink holes. Now that is a pretty easy fix if you just want to leave some wax in the pour pot so you can pour a little on to top them off and fix the holes, but I also had that horrible air bubble issue. Even though it was much better after I started stirring and pouring much slower, I still don’t like the fact that they still had some air bubbles which caused the candles to crack and pop a bit. And I don’t like the fact that I have to tip toe around trying to get this wax to work well when I have used other soy waxes that are much less complicated.

Now, I don’t know, maybe I got a bad batch, and I’ll probably try ordering some of this wax from Candlescience next time, but I’ve never gotten a “bad batch” of my regular soy wax which works pretty consistently for me.

On the positive side, if it weren’t for the sink hole and air bubbles, this wax cools to a beautiful, smooth, shiny appearance when poured at higher temps.

Have you tried or do you use Golden Brands 464 wax? I would love to hear your experience with it and any tips you might have! Just leave a comment below!

Woodwick Candles Testing with Natures Garden Woodwicks

February 22, 2014 by SoyCandleMakingTime 12 Comments

Some of you may have already seen the process of my woodwick candles` test on my facebook page. Sometimes it is easier for me to post my pictures and notes to the facebook page and then compile it into one post for the website here afterwards.

I have been fascinated with wood candle wicks since I first found out about them a couple years ago, but I had never ordered any to try until now. I had heard good things about them and how people love the crackling sound that they make. They have a rustic feel that I personally enjoy.

There are different kinds of wood wicks, so I decided to try my first ones from Natures Garden Candle and Soap Making Supplies. I bought the Medium and Large wood wicks to test out in my 8oz square mason jars. This way I could test both in case the medium wick didn’t burn hot enough to get a good melt pool and fragrance throw.

How I Test My Candles

First, if I’m testing two different wicks in the same size jar, I make sure to make the candles exactly the same, except for the wick. So for these wood wick candles, this is what I used:

8oz square mason jars
1/2oz in each of Christmas Cabin fragrance oil from Natures Garden Candle & Soap Supplies
8oz of Enchanted Lites 100% soy container wax from Candlesoylutions.com
No dye or coloring

Then I like to test each one separately so I can be sure of the fragrance throw. I try to burn in blocks of 4-5 hours and then after each burn, take down some notes about the flame, melt pool, fragrance throw, any abnormalities.

So here is the first candle using the Medium woodwick:

I love the look of these woodwicks and that they stay up nice and straight, unlike regular wicks. I just used a wick sticker to stick the metal wick stand to the bottom of the jar and then you just slide the woodwick right in.

I will warn you that these woodwicks are hard to trim with just scissors so you should get an actual wick trimmer(Amazon.com link) for these. A wick trimmer works great!

So here is the medium wood wick shortly after lighting it for the first time.

You can see that I have my paper with my first notes on it. I love that it smells like wood burning (of course) when first lit. I did neglect to put the type and amount of fragrance oil and dye, if any and type and size of jar. I usually include that and you should too so you can keep your notes and look back at them later if need be.

I entered my start time, which was 3pm and then after burning for around 4-5 hours I record the time when I extinguish the candle. I then let the candle cool completely so the wax is hardened before lighting it up again for another burn session and do it this way until the candle is burned out.

I like to take notes during each burn session if there are any significant things to note, like if the wick mushroomed, if there was any smoking, if the melt pool was good or not so good, fragrance throw, etc…….

The first picture above is probably a couple minutes after lighting. I like the charred look on these woodwicks and I think they go really well with the rustic looking square Mason jars.

The second picture was taken about an hour into the first burn. The flame is a bit lower than I would like and I’m wondering if it will end up going out. But I do like that the melt pool is almost to the edge. At this point I was thinking I may need to go up to a large wood wick, but it was still too early to tell for sure.

And, I had thought that maybe I could get away with not trimming these woodwicks, but apparently they burn much nicer if you trim them. The flame was higher on the 3rd burn session when I finally decided to trim the wick.

So, in the pictures above, the first picture is the medium wood wick candle after the first 5 hours of burn time. It did end up burning all the way to the edge. The melt pool didn’t get to 1/4″ all the way around, but that’s ok because it’ll burn hotter as it gets deeper in the jar. A cool thing I noticed is that when I blew it out, there wasn’t near as much smoke and smell as a regular wick. We’ll see how the next burns do, but so far this looks very promising.

The second and third picture above are the medium wick right at the end of the final burn session for a total burn time of 60hrs 30min. .
I took these pictures at 11pm and it had been burning for 12 hours straight that day! I had forgot about it and didn’t think it would burn that long because it was so close to the metal wick holder earlier in the day, but it kept burning and burning. So anyway, as you can see, the medium wick kind of petered out on burning all the way to the edge toward the bottom of the jar and left quite a bit of wax on the sides. It did burn down a lot farther than I thought it would, so that was good. I thought that the metal wick holder might be a bit tall and keep it from burning down far enough. I think the Large wood wick is probably right for this size jar though.

So, speaking of the large woodwick candle………

So next I tested the large woodwick candle. I started this one part way into my test of the medium woodwick and rotated burning them. When one was done with a burn session, then I’d light up the other one.

Here is the large wood wick at the beginning of the first test burn:

One thing I noticed different with the large woodwick is that I could hear the crackling sound more, which I’ve heard is one of the things people like about the woodwicks. There were also a few sparks the first time I lit it, but it didn’t spark any more after that first time.

Above is the large wood wick after almost 3 hours on the first burn. Seems to be burning too hot already. Flame is a bit high and I thought that it might be too large for this size container.

And this is the large wick on the second burn session at 4 hours. I went ahead and put it out because it was burning too hot at this time, so I didn’t burn it the full 5 hours. But, on the next burn sessions, it actually burned really nicely as it got deeper into the jar.

Ok, and here is the final results for the Large woodwick candle. You can see that it burned more of the wax off the sides of the jar than the medium wood wick. It also ended up burning longer as well! About 63.5 hours is what the final accumulated burn time was. So the large woodwick wins for these 8oz square mason jars!

But how much more do woodwicks cost?

Well, these particular wicks are $.44 each if you buy the pack of 10. You do get a bit of a discount for buying more than 30 packs of 10. As comparison, regular fiber wicks are around $.07-$.09 a piece if you buy the 100 pack, depending on where you buy them from. So the woodwicks are more expensive, but if you are selling your soy candles, you can definitely up the price since it would be more of a specialty candle.

I hope being able to see these wicks tested helps you in picking the right wicks for your soy candles, and also helps you see how to start testing your candles. I will be buying more woodwicks from other companies to test, as well as regular wicks.

Again, these woodwicks are from Natures Garden Candle and Soap Making Supplies.