Candle Safety Guidelines

Candle Safety Guidelines:
These are some of the common cautions you see on candle labels. Please take a moment to read them over and realize how important it is that you follow these serious cautions to ensure safe use of candles. Product labels are only helpful if you read them and follow the directions!

Never leave a burning candle unattended! Stay in the same room with it!
Never leave a candle burning while you sleep! This is a huge cause of house fires!
Keep candles out of the reach of children and pets! Many candles smell so good, and some of them even look like a food product, so make sure kids don’t mistake them! Watch for wagging tails near a flame.
Trim wicks prior to each use and keep trimmed to 1/4" to prevent smoke and soot damage to your home.
Keep candles away from drafts, vents and flammable objects. This means do not use near or under a fan or near a breezy window or vent, and do not burn candle near curtains or anything else that could easily catch fire.
Extinguish a candle that smokes and trim wick before re-lighting.
Extinguish and discard candle when only ½" of wax remains in bottom of container. if flame is allowed to burn all the way to the bottom and touch the glass it will get too hot and could cause it to shatter!
Use only candle holders that have been manufactured for use with candles and burn only on a stable heat resistant surface.
Keep matches and other debris out of the candle’s melt pool.
Extinguish the flame if it burns too close to the container or holder. If flame leans against the glass it will get too hot and could cause it to shatter!
Do not move a glass container while the wax is still hot and liquid.
Candles are a pleasant accessory for your home, but they need to be taken seriously. Always use common sense,
and remember you are playing with fire!

Microcrystalline Wax Update

Micro wax is one of the most costly additives to use for candles, but it is also the highest quality. Most waxes that are pre-blended at the manufacturer and sold as pre-blended have some amount of micro wax included in the formula.

Micro waxes are denser,tackier and generally have a high melt point than paraffin. The melt point for micro waxes can range from 140 to 200 degress. Most micro waxes are not onlt flexible, but are also very sticky at low temperatures and are great for hand sculpting or adhereing wax to other wax in layers such as cut-n-curl candles. Micro wax is available either in pellet or slab form, depending on the manufacturer.

In pre-blended waxes, Micro Wax is proably the most widely used additive to harden wax, lenghthen the burn time, and remove mottling effect from straight paraffin wax. Using from 1 to 20 percent will improve wax performance and apperance.

Hurricane candles or candles with embeds, need to have the wax as translucent as possible.

5 percent Micro Wax will change the burn time and fragrance loads in your paraffin candles. This will allow for you to increase the scent or fragrance in the candle. 5 percent micro wax will increase the burn time.

Micro Wax by itself makes an excellent adhesive and is generally called sticky wax. Small amounts can be used in the base of candle holders to hold a taper candle straight, or used on the outside of pillar candles to adhere wax appliques or other decorations.

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Blue Goose Closeouts and Specials

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Additives for Soy and Parrafin Candles

Palm Stearic Acid

This triple pressed Stearic Acid is a derivative of Malaysian Palm. This additive will improve a candles burning time, and give an opaque or white appearance. Recommended use for SOY WAX, Vegetable and Paraffin Wax is 2 to 9 Tablespoons per Pound of wax. Natural (SOY WAX) candle makers use this to harden their wax blend for votives and pillar candles. Palm Stearic will help increase the fragrance load in soy and will help you achieve a smooth, even finish to your candles.

UV Light Stabilizer

A small amount of this additive goes a long way in preserving the quality of color in your candles, especially if your candles will be displayed in a sunny window or you plan to do outdoor craft shows. Purple is the worst for fading under UV light, followed by red.
Use about 1/2 teaspoon per one pound of wax.

Universal Wax Additive

Universal Wax Additive (UA) is used to help fragrance oil bind to the wax, aids in the retention of the scent, helps reduce mottling, and helps to reduce bubbles. It adds gloss to candles and helps retain translucency in the more translucent waxes. You can add from 1 teaspoon per pound of wax up to 2 tablespoons per pound of wax to your recipe

Kemamide

Kemamide powder is used as a mold release. Add 1 teaspoon of Kemamide powder per pound of wax to make your candles release from the mold more easily.

If you want a glow-through quality in your candle, add some Paraflint to your wax (use no other additives), 1 teaspoon per pound of wax. Paraffin wax is naturally translucent but it tends to bare snow-spots or mottling. No additive will make paraffin transparent, but Paraflint can clarify it, providing a cleaner glow. Having a relatively high melt point, Paraflint needs to be melted separately from the wax with a higher heat source. Adding 20% makes a good veneer, which will help reduce dripping.
Melt point is approximately 208° F (98 C).

Vybar

Vybar 103: higher melt point Vybar used in molded candles to lock color and scent in wax. Use 1 teaspoon per pound of wax as a hardener, and to make candles opaque.

Vybar 260: lower melt point Vybar used in container and votive candles to lock color and scent in
wax. Use 1 teaspoon per pound of wax as a hardener, and to make candles opaque.

Vybar 343: Used in mottling wax candles. Helps lock in color and fragrance and will make your candle more opaque.

Luster Crystals

A manmade wax polymer. Your colors will comebrighter, your candle will burn longer, and the wax will be opaque. This is great if you are making white candles.

Clear Crystals

The clear crystals areanotherpolymer that hardens the wax like luster crystals but makes the wax more transparentwhen burning. The candle will have a glowing effect.

Microcrystaline Wax

Excellent as an additive for candlemaking. Micro wax 175 will add rigidity to tapers, help wax adhere to the walls of the container candles, and reduce or eliminate mottling in pillars (without adding much opacity). Recommended usage is 2% (2 teaspoons per pound of wax). Micro wax 175 is also available in pre-measured cubes. Due to its high melt point and pliability, pure microcrystalline also makes a good sculpting wax for art projects and lost wax processes. Melt point is approximately 175 F (79 C).
There are many grades of microcrystaline wax that are use for different purpose. This is one example of microcrystaline wax.

Plastic Additives

Plastic additives is mostly used when you're making embedded and hurricane candles in order to achieve a stronger wax and translucent appearance. Plastic additives require heating over direct heat source before adding to thecorrect temperature wax.

Mineral Oil

For a mottled look,you can add approm 2-3 TBSP mineral oil to 1 pound of wax.