Firstly, what are wet spots?

“Wet spots” aren’t actually wet. It’s just the name we call the area on a candle where the wax has pulled away from the jar, creating a kind of bubble. This can happen in a small spot, or to a large area of the jar (as pictured).

There are a couple of things you can do to try and prevent this happening:

1. Warm your glassware up prior to pouring. Placing them on a low heat in the oven works well. They don’t need to be hot – you should still be able to hold them with your hands, just take the chill out of the glass.
2. Make sure your work room isn’t too cold. Soy wax can be finicky with temperature. The ideal ambient room temperature is 20 – 22°C.
3. Raise your pour temperature. Wet spots can occur when the wax cools to fast. Try increasing the wax temperature so the candle can cool slower.
4. Try cooling your candles on a wire baking rack. This will ensure even air flow around the sides and bottom of the candle.

Unfortunately once you get a wet spot there really isn’t a lot you can do to fix it. Take a look at any candle, even in high end stores, and you’ll very likely see this occurrence. It’s completely common, and doesn’t affect how your candle burns in any way.

If all else fails you can try one of our coloured glass jars or tins!

Getting a better scent throw is one of the most commonly asked questions, there are a couple of tricks you can follow to try and maximise the fragrance strength in your candle:

1. Add the fragrance at the optimal temperature of 80-85°C and make sure you stir well for 1-2 minutes so it binds properly to the wax.
2. Use the correct wick size.
3. How big is the room the candle is burning in? Often people complain they can barely smell their candle, while forgetting they have a travel sized tin burning in a large living room. The bigger the room, the bigger the candle needs to be. It doesn’t matter if you use the maximum amount of fragrance oil in a candle – it still won’t smell very strong if it’s in a large/open area.
4. Let your candle cure. 1 – 2 weeks is the optimal time for curing.
5. Don’t over-fragrance. Make sure you’re not using more than the maximum fragrance load for your particular wax. Despite what many people may thing, adding more fragrance won’t necessarily make your candle smell stronger.

Lumpy or cracked tops are usually caused by various temperature issues. When the candle cools too quickly it can suck down the wax on top causing pitting or cracking.

Try these tips to help prevent imperfect tops:

1. Increase pour temperature by 2-3°C
2. Ensure your glassware is warm. Hot wax hitting a cold jar isn’t ideal.
3. Use a wire cooling rack so your candles can cool evenly on all sides.
4. Don’t stir the wax too vigorously before pouring. You don’t want to introduce too much air. Once you pour your candle give the side of the candle a light tap, this will force any air bubbles to the surface before the candle sets.

If your tops still aren’t smooth after following these tips, you can do a double pour to cover the surface of the candle (about 5mm should be sufficient) or you can use a heat gun to gently melt the top of the candle.

Frosting looks like tiny white snow flakes on the surface of a candle. It’s usually much more noticeable on coloured candles because of the contrasting colours.

It’s a completely natural by-product of using natural wax. That’s how you know you’re using high quality soy wax. This is a purely aesthetic issue and won’t affect how your candle burns at all.

Just like the other issues you can face when making candles, there are a few things you can do to try and lessen the extent of frosting.

1. Ensure your glassware has been heated. This will also help with wet spots and cracked or lumpy tops.
2. Try pouring at a lower temperature. Start out 2 – 3°C lower than you normally would. For most other troubleshooting issues we raise the pouring temperature, so if you’re having multiple problems you may need to choose a middle ground in pouring temperature to ensure you get the best results.
3. Try adding some universal additive. Use 0.5% of UA to wax by weight. This can also help with lumpy tops and fragrance retention.
4. Don’t make coloured candles. While frosting still happens to un-coloured candles, it isn’t nearly as noticeable. Instead opt for one of our pretty coloured jars. This will hide any frosting on the sides of the candle and you won’t see wet spots either!

This is called “tunneling” and it usually happens when your wick is too small.

Your candle should create a full melt pool within 2-4 hours of being lit. Depending on how narrow the tunnel is (how much wax is left around the sides) you may need to go up several wick sizes.

We have a handy wick guide and we also give wick recommendations for all our jars, however things like fragrance, fragrance load and dyes can affect wick sizing. That’s why you should always conduct a test burn.

Memory Burn

There is also something called “memory burn”. This is the first time your candle is lit and burned. This first burn creates the initial melt pool. If you blow your candle out too soon during the first burn and your candle hasn’t had a chance to melt all the way to the edges, the next time you light the candle it will keep burning down that same diameter hole, wasting wax.

For example: if you have a candle 100mm in diameter, but only let it burn for one hour, so it only created a melt pool of 50mm. Next time you light the candle it will keep burning down that 50mm hole.

Note this only applies to the first burn – once you create that initial melt pool you can burn your candle for shorter periods in the future.

This is why it’s important to give your customers good candle care instructions. They may think your candle is faulty because it is tunneling, but 9 times out of 10 it’s due to poor memory burn.

Mushrooming refers to the blob shaped form that can happen at the top of the candle wick after burning. It’s a buildup of carbon that can happen when the wick size is too large for the candle.

Some wicks, such as the CDN series are more prone to mushrooming than our ECO series.

If mushrooming is occurring along with blackening on the inside of the jar (soot buildup) then that is a pretty good indication that the wick is too large for the jar. Try going down one wick size and re-test.

You should also ensure you include instructions in your candle care to trim the wick after each use.

Use a wick sticker to adhere the wick to the bottom of the jar, then use a wick holder to keep the wick upright and centered.