Teach Soap

Hello,

I've been making container candles for a few years now and made my first votives over the week-end. The first one I made was a beeswax one (I bought it at a local honey store where they make their own honey and sell beeswax in blocks, it's pretty clean) and put it in a votive holder and it burned all the way to ends except for one part where some of the edge remained. I used an LX 16 wick.

The second one I made was a soy wax one with sunkissed currant scent, red wax colour and used Enchanted Lites pillar wax combines with some palm wax. I used an LX 14 wick for this. This was burned almost to the end but not quite.

My votive holder is a 1.75 X 2". How is a votive supposed to burn? Should there be some of the edge left or should it burn all the way across the diameter of the candle like a container one does? Also there are so many votive holders with some being wider than others. The one I used was just a bit bigger than the candle.

Just wondering if I should up the beeswax wick to LX18 and the soy to LX 16.

How you want your votive to burn is personal preference. I personally like my votives to burn all the way out and down so that all the wax is used up. That way, I feel like I'm getting my value and money's worth.

If the candles are burning all the way out and all the way straight down, I would not be too concerned with a very small bit in the bottom. Unless the candle self-extinguishes (because it literally runs out of fuel), it typically will stop just short of the bottom if you blow it out just a bit above the bottom and then try to light it again later.

I wouldn't change your wick on the beeswax candle. Next time, try to burn in 2 hour increments and see if that makes all the edges go away. Sometimes, edges are left because the candle didn't burn long enough to make it to the edge of the wax pool. Ditto on your soy wax blend.

I hope this helps =)

_________________
Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Soap Queen,

Thanks, I tried an LX 18 on the beeswax votive and it burned better but was too hot so I tried an HTP 73 which seems to be working much better. I'll also go back and try the LX 16 again and burn longer to see if that helps. I have so many different votive holders and it really makes a difference whether the votive holder is narrow or wider.