3 Things You Should NEVER Use For Making Candles
In the Information Age, finding answers for anything is simple.
However, the growing mountain of content on the internet also creates some difficulties for who to trust when information seems conflicting or wrong.
Candles are no exception.
Do-It-Yourself candle tutorials on Pinterest are hot, except when they’re not. Occasionally, instructions cobbled together by novice candle makers or hobbyist include disturbing details.
Items or ingredients you shouldn’t trust near fire, or potentially dangerous techniques.
Here are three things you should never use for making candles!
Traffic-Jamming Colors
Why Is It A Problem?
Never use pigment-based colors for your candles. Plain and simple.
If you’re not sure what that means, let’s talk about how candle color works. It comes down to the difference between pigments and dyes.
Pigments are typically inorganic and don’t dissolve in a substance (insoluble). Their color comes from individual colored particles dispersed around a substance rather than mixed with it.
Dye is usually an organic compound that dissolves in a substance (soluble). They color through the magic of chemistry with whatever they’re in.
Pigments are like a powder whereas dye behaves more like a fluid. Candle makers incorporate dye to avoid clogging the wick.
Remember how a wick works like a highway for wax to travel to the flame?
Wicks are carefully designed to transport wax blends, and they’re not designed to handle large, undissolved particles.
There’s simply not enough room in the wick!
Pigments don’t dissolve in wax, therefore they act like large rocks in the candle.
Even if they’re coloring the candle beautifully, they’ll completely clog the wick and ruin everything. The “rocks” get stuck in the weave of the wick and don’t allow enough melted wax through to keep the flame lit. All candles built this way eventually die.
Oil-soluble dyes blend perfectly with wax blends, and most every supply company carries either liquid or block dyes appropriate for any commercial candle wax.
They compliment rather than combat, and are the only option for full-blend wax coloring.
Examples of Pigment Colors
Crayons
Oh, this one hurts for a lot of people. Crayons are the absolute worst ingredient for candle making.
Why?
Because even though they are awesome tools on their own right, responsible for giving the world Tickle Me Pink (thank you, Crayola), they are pigment-based colors.
And even though they are made from “paraffin wax”, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s candle ready.
Many paraffin waxes on the market are blended with specific additives to enhance their properties to prepare them for candles.
The wax used for crayons is unlikely the same, however it’s probably still food-grade wax (you know… because kids eat crayons).
If you make a candle from crayons, or add crayons to a wax blend for color, your wick will eventually snuff out. You’ll also witness a separation of the pigment from the wax as it floats down, because it doesn’t dissolve into wax!
The color selection is incredible, and there’s nothing inherently unsafe about including crayons (that we know of), but this ingredient is a no-go in candles if you ever want them to burn or behave the right way.
Mica Powder
There’s actually nothing wrong with mica except for it’s wick-clogging pigments.
However, unlike crayons, mica powder is usable as a decorative outside coloring rather than a blended color.
As in, you can create a candle without any color, harden it, then decorate the outside with mica powder painted on. This doesn’t guarantee a clean burn because the powder can still potentially enter the melt pool and clog the wick, but it does limit the potential problems.
Most candle designs that incorporate mica powder are decorative and aren’t intended for burning.
Titanium Dioxide
Ever wondered why you can’t buy a truly white-colored candle?
Outside of the natural whiteness in paraffin or palm (soy is an off-white, creamy color), white candle dye doesn’t readily exist.
Titanium dioxide is used in millions of coloring applications. TiO2 naturally occurs and is a useful white colorant.
Not only as it’s own color, but as an ingredient in other formulations too.
Unfortunately, as a coloring agent it’s mainly available as a pigment, which effectively destroys normal candles. Most other white dyes on the market for candle making are formulated using titanium dioxide, so beware when searching!
Many candle makers use paraffin wax or some stearic acid to “whiten” their blends, but it’s not the same as coloring with a dye.
Generally, if you want a white candle, you need to use a white wax like paraffin or palm.
Explosion-Ready Containers
It’s common practice for new candle makers to assume they can put their magnificent blend in any container that holds air – this is not the case.
Remember, candles are typically operating at a sustained temperature over 1,500 °F in the flame, which significantly heats the surrounding container.
Putting a candle together in any old container isn’t always a good idea because many materials expand too much as they warm up and could literally burst.
We’ve covered United States Voluntary Industry Standards for candle testing and label requirements in detail, and there’s additional standards for container specifications to handle heat! ASTM 2179 is titled, Heat Strength of Glass Containers Standard and serves as an outline for the specific testing requirements candle containers need to meet.
Does this mean you have to apply ASTM 2179 standards to the testing your private candle lines?
No, not really. According to ASTM,
“The glass manufacturer or glass secondary processor is responsible for the compliance of the product and maintaining documentation of test results during the manufacturing process.”
The point of bringing this up is that not everything that can hold a candle should hold a candle.
Some materials just weren’t made to support that level of heat or thermal fluctuation. Items you should avoid using as candle containers include:
- Plastic of pretty much any kind – melts
- Wood or “natural” containers (like coconut shells) – flammable
- Fine glass that’s clearly not tempered for heat, like a thin-walled wine glass – shatters
- Anything that isn’t watertight. These usually require mod podge to seal before use as a container, assuming it is also heat resistant – leaks
Containers that aren’t sufficient for making candles in are a risk to human health. However cute or trendy it might be, use as a candle container isn’t a given just because it fits.
Arson-Ready Embeds
Just because you saw it on Pinterest doesn’t make it a good idea.
Most crafts allow you creative freedom with materials, colors, and approach. Candles aren’t quite as flexible, at least in some cases.
Consider that every non-melt candle is literally on fire during its operation. This limits the amount of “creativity” that’s possible by modifying how most candles work.
Embeds are notorious.
If you aren’t sure what embeds are, they’re some form of a decorative item added to the candle beyond the typical wax blend.
A candle maker may embed a marble, or a ring, whereas some may embed literal wax melts near the top of the candle.
However far you take this idea, there are clear limitations. Any embeds that aren’t heat resistant cannot be incorporated in any candle under any circumstance.
Neither should anything flammable.
Wax is fine. In fact, wax embeds are the only real acceptable form of embeds in many areas.
While embeds are decorative and present a neat, artistic touch to the candle, they aren’t usually something that makes insurance companies smile. Candle insurance can be tricky enough as is, but modifying the expected behavior of a candle with materials not normally included in candle making can raise a few eyebrows.
There’s two kinds of embeds to avoid forever, fire hazards and “yuckies”.
Fire Hazards
Fire hazards are embed materials that could start on fire, melt to give off dangerous VOCs, or anything not rated for heat that could expand and potentially explode.
Think about a small piece of glass or metal that could injure someone if it spilled out or spit out in any way.
Potpourri, cinnamon, leaves, or paper-based items are all off limits.
Yuckies
Yuckies aren’t a real term, but they refer to embeds people include for their smell or effect but don’t actually do anything.
For instance, putting coffee beans or sugar or anything you think would add to air quality that isn’t normally included in a candle will just burn.
A lot of items like this are disappointing and often smell more like nasty fuel than anything they should smell like.
This is why fragrance oil exists.
Potpourri potentially falls into this category, too. That stuff is pretty much worthless.
Conclusion
Some items are better left for wax melts or decorative candles with no wick (or that are never meant to burn).
Sweet new designs and trendy embeds are fun to look at, but take precaution to build safe candles and be quick to criticize ingredients that impact safety or choke performance.
How To Choose A Wick
What temperature should you add fragrance oil to your candle?
