Candle Additives

When you embark on your new adventure, making your own candles, you will need to know what candle additives are and just what purpose they serve.

It will be very helpful for you to become acquainted with some of the most common candle additives as there will come a time when you will need to know when to use them.

One very important thing to note is that using any kind of additive will almost always effect how your dye works with the candle wax you will be using. When using any additive, you may need to adjust your dye recipe. You will determine how to adjust the dye by trial and error.

Another thing that an additive will have an effect on is the size of the wick you use for your particular candle. Since additives are most often used to increase the wax melting point, you will most likely need to adjust the wick size.

Listed below are some of the most common additives and just what they are used for and when.

• Vybar – Vybar is one of the most used candle additives. This additive acts as a binding agent and it will make your candle wax more opaque. This additive is also used to reduce air bubbling and mottling effects in your candles. A mottling effect is when your candle has a snowflake type pattern on it. To prevent this type of snowflake pattern, use Vybar. It will completely eliminate this problem.

• Stearic Acid – Another popular candle additive is Stearic Acid. This additive helps to increase the scent throw of your candles. It does this because when you add the Stearic Acid to the wax, it will allow you to also add more fragrance oil. The acid also makes your candles very smooth and even.

• Universal Additive – This additive is helpful with releasing the candle from the mold, hardening the wax, increasing the opacity of the wax and also lengthening the candle burn time. There are several different companies that make this universal additive.

• UV Stabilizer – This additive is extremely helpful to a candle-maker. This additive is very important to use if you will be selling your candles outside or under fluorescent lights. The UV Stabilizer additive prevents the candle from fading and it also improves the stability of the color. If candles are exposed to light without this additive, they will fade dramatically. In some instances, the dye and the fragrance oil may not react well and over time, the candle will fade. These problems are corrected with the use of the UV Stabilizer.

• Beeswax and Petrolatum – Beeswax is added to a wax blend to increase the turn time of the candle. Petrolatum is used to soften the wax and to increase the melt pool.

Each of these additives has very specific purposes. As you gain more experience with candle making, you will be able to use these additives to see what works for you and what effect you want to create.

Some people choose not to use any additives at all and some wax blends have the additives already in them. When you decide on a supplier for your wax, your supplier can go over what additives you may or may not need, depending on what type of wax and what type of candle you will be making.