Tips Tuesday: Blooming & Changes in Your Candles

Welcome to another addition of Tips Tuesday.  Today we are talking about blooming & the appearance of small changes that can appear in Coconut/Soy candles.

 

We love coconut wax candles for a lot of reasons. They're cleaner, they burn longer, and have a more even burn compared to traditional soy candles. Coconut wax blends also have beautiful scent throw that fills the room up nicely.  They have a beautiful, creamy presence that can take on the slight colour of the fragrance oil/essential oil colours and over time and with varying room or shipping temperatures natural waxes can change slightly in appearance.

For one, wax can sweat out excess oils (mostly common in soy) which is completely normal and often the wax will begin to “bloom” or create a marbled or frosted look in places. Ever notice how the majority of soy/natural wax candle companies have frosted or coloured jars or overly large labels? This is sometimes why; to hide some of these 'imperfections' that occur in natural wax products.. We however, think blooming is beautiful as do many candle connoisseurs because it shows them that they have a natural, clean burning candle! 

               

This ‘blooming’ is simply small amounts of natural wax crystallizing back to its more natural state. To get technical: the hydrogenated process that wax goes through converts some of its fatty acids from unsaturated to saturated and changes the melting point of the oil making it solid at room temperature. When small amounts of this oil begin to "age" and change back to its natural state; blooming or frosting can occur. This can happen in as little as a few days, or not at all.

This NORMAL & COMMON characteristic of natural waxes DOES NOT affect the performance of your candle or the beautiful scent throw we work so hard to create as candlemakers. Blooming happens more so in Soy wax blends, and because our candles are a mix of Coconut and Soy - you may see this characteristic appear in some of our candles over time.

If you aren't a fan of blooming, storing your candle out of direct sunlight and ultra violet light and trying to keep it protected from drastic temperature changes will help reduce the amount of frosting that will appear along the tops and sides of the candles.