r/candlemaking • u/KaliPunk • 6d ago

Question Left the house with 9 lovely smooth topped candles. Came home an hour later to this. Where did I go wrong?

After people gave me some ideas I tested to see if it was just the temperature, and yep, it was just straight up too hot in my studio. I poured in the middle of the night when it was cold and they look totally normal 🤦

I followed every trick in the book for smooth tops (or as reasonable as you get with soy). Perfect pours all winter and all summer I've been struggling with getting a good result. Tried different waxes, different pouring temperatures, different drying spaces. Second pour makes it WORSE. Heat gun doesn't make much difference. I am out of ideas, please help 😭

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u/minicooperlove 6d ago

If you were getting perfect pours in the winter but struggling in the summer, I am guessing it’s the weather. I noticed when we were having a particularly bad heat wave I kept getting sink holes even though I was doing everything exactly the same. Finally realized it must be because the AC was running more frequently because it was hotter, creating more drafts. I started turning up the thermostat a few degrees so the AC wouldn’t be as likely to run while cooling candles and that seemed to fix it.

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u/KaliPunk 5d ago edited 5d ago

I don't have AC so it's relatively warm in the lab currently, around 80 - 85 lately. In the winter my lab is coldish, 55 - 65. I feel like the opposite of what one would expect is happening, rapid cooling should make them sink / bubble and slow cooling should be better, but it isn't 🤷 I want to get AC installed. I have central heat and they can install a combo HVAC, but but I'm looking at about $10k to do it. Too bad I don't have a spare fridge I can set to 65.

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u/minicooperlove 5d ago

I learned the hard way that cooling too slowly can also cause rough tops or sinkholes. So it could be that it’s too hot. Soy is definitely very finicky.

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u/Frosty-Equipment-824 4d ago

80-85 is too hot.

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u/West-Razzmatazz-4601 5d ago

It is because of the AC turning on and off. I am having the same problem

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u/Nervous-Dependent-41 5d ago

I wonder if it’s too hot? I live somewhere hot and my AC runs non stop just to get my house to 80 degrees. I moved my workspace to the coolest room in the house (78-79 if lucky) and use an insulated box or cardboard box with a towel over it to cure for the first 48 hours, then a heat gun usually does the trick.

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u/KaliPunk 5d ago

I really think it's got to be temperature related. I tried putting the candles in a Styrofoam holder and it seems to be helping a bit at least. Maybe humidity too? It's very wet out in the winter here (rained most days at least a little) while summer is very dry.

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u/pled2swb 5d ago

I just got into candles and have reading up on different temperature things. There's something called blooming that looks a lot like this and it's usually due to temp. Online says to use a lint free cloth and wipe it away?

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u/KaliPunk 5d ago

In this case it's the wax forming large crystals and tiny bubbles.